A perfectly planned trip

Portugal | Mar 21 - Apr 20, 2026

A grand old hotel in a very good location. Fantastic location near public transport.

Nice location on the river but very crowded area. No air conditioning and the room overlooked an alley with little air flow into the room.

Perfect location inside the old city walls and very comfortable but a bit sterile in design given its location.

A large, historic hotel with amazing views and very comfortable rooms. Our experience was impacted by large numbers of children filling pools, saunas, etc. It tends to be a family hotel with access to the nearby skinheads and mountains.

A beautifully appointed luxury hotel on the banks of the Douro River. Everything was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay!

Very nice hotel. We were upgraded to a junior suite with a large balcony. Very comfortable! Not central in city but we were more interested in exploring the island so it was ideal!

We really enjoyed this Riad, once we got used to the walk through the narrow, twisting alleys to the very unpretentious entrance door. Then, like so many other medina riads, it opens into a hidden world. It is inside the very large medina and we greatly enjoyed being able to wander at will.

What are greatly, family run guest house! The rooms are excellent and the owner is so friendly! The cook is also a family member and the included dinner and breakfast were excellent!

We were a bit disappointed. Descriptions suggest this camp is set amongst the dunes and you ride camels to get there. In fact, the government moved all camps out of the dunes some time ago and now there are more than 100 camps all located on the fringes. We reached camp via a very bumpy 4x4 trip. The "luxury" camp is already starting to show its age and there was no orientation welcome to tell us what to expect. In the event, camels did eventually arrive and we had a pleasant ride into the dunes for sunset! We have previously done a desert experience in Dubai and it was far better organized and set up than this one.

Beautiful hotel on a lake in the mountains. We loved the ski lodge feel and look of this hotel! Amazing use of rough hewed wood and stone throughout. The meals were excellent! Rooms were very large and comfortable

It is hard to rate this hotel! Our first impression was a five star based on the amazing reception courtyard and historic decorations and appointments! However, our allocated room was in a very poor location overlooking a noisy alley. It suffered from some sort of drainage smells for which staff had placed a noisy electric air freshener in the room and the air conditioner malfunctioned. (Our early notes indicated that we would havea pool view room - which this was not). After raising concerns with Marina, there was rapid action to shift us to a pool view room which was vastly superior to our original room. If we had had this room from the start we would have rated this hotel five stars!

Great riad in the middle of the old town area. Thoroughly enjoyed our stay here.

Excellent riad in a great location.

What are great, family run B&B! Lots of history, very comfortable, and located in a quiet little country town. Ideally located for visiting Monsanto. Excellent breakfast.

Our guide was enthusiastic, informative, humorous and happy for questions. He gave us a wonderful feel for the old neighborhoods of Lisbon.

The area really didn't have what we expected, though it was good to see the famous custard tarts being made.

A wonderful experience. Our guide was enthusiastic, entertaining, informative and helpful. The food was pretty good also 👌 😋

A fascinating location, beautiful historic village. We didn't have a guide but enjoyed walking around. We were pleased our driver got us there early.

We really enjoyed the restaurant, the staff, the food and especially the music.

We really wanted to learn more about cork, it's growing and production. This tour was great for achieving this.

Our driver was very friendly, and did provide a bit of an overview of Sintra however suggested one historic property to tour but didn't accompany us... the signage in the property was not good- none in English so we wandered around not understanding what we were looking at and missing some highlights. We spotted other visitors with audio headsets after we were well into the property unfortunately and didn't have time to go back. We were then rushed off and didn't have time to explore further. Cascais and Estoril were time wasted. It would have been better to focus the day on Sintra only.

An excellent day viewing the vinyard landscapes of the famous Douro valley. The olive oil tasting experience was great, both in terms of the tasting itself and the farm host who did an amazing job with his knowledge and humour (9/10). The port tasting was interesting but not as well presented as some (7/10). The river cruise was enjyable but the boats are very crowded (7/10). The overall day was well worth doing (8/10).

We were expecting more from Aveiro based on our reading and our request to include it in our schedule. In the end it was something of a tourist trap. Very crowded and a disapointing network of canals.

This is a beautiful and fascinating city with much to see. We were the only tour participants which was very good. The guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, however, we think the she tried to fit too much in the time available. There is lots of up and down walking and our guide tended to try to move too fast and fit too much commentary into each stop. We greatly enjoyed seeing the city but would have preferred a slower pace with slower commentary. (7/10)

We weren't expecting it, but this turned out to be one of the major highlights of our trip! (12/10) An incredible evening in a superb penthouse unit with our own private chef and his informative, friendly and fun guide/assistant! We thought it would be another cooking class but we were able to sit and watch this very talented professional chef prepare a gourmet multi course meal for us - all the time sipping on readily flowing quality wine! The night was enhanced by the friendliness and humour from our two hosts! Great night and highly recommended! The tour usually includes a visit to the local markets but they closed early for the holidays - The chef went ahead and selected an amazing array of food based on our openess to trying different fppds. Fantastic.

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour of this amazing property where there is mixed production of a range of agricultural pursuits, including cork, in a certified organic environment. The wine tasting was excellent and the guide for our individual tour did a great job. Highly recommended.

The Park is beautiful and the waterfalls we visited were wonderful. Our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable, loved the area and it showed. We were extremely fortunate that it was a holiday (easter) so there were not many visitors to the park pn the day, it made the experience special and a treat. We also enjoyed visiting the local village and sharing a meal. The trails are quite steep so it would not be for anyone with mobility limits... The guide and other 4 participants were much younger than us (25+ years) so we did slow them down a bit but we made it to each site! It was great to get out in the forests. The addition of a visit to the historic olive press was fantastic. Note: the guide and others often got a bit in front of us so we missed out on some of the commentary.

Our guide was excellent. He spoke very good english, was very knowledgeable helped us understand the amazing medina area of Marrakech. We loved the history and architecture, were very thankful for his helping us get our bearings around the winding alleyways. He was very easy to ask questions of and happy to discuss the cultural and political environment of Morocco. He also helped us skip some of the long lines of tourists at several of the areas we visited.. We were not focused on shopping so he was able to walk us through and explain some of the different areas and what and where to look for items if we decided to explore on our free day.

The best part of the day was the tour of Ait Benhaddou and the drive through the countryside. The driver was an excellent driver, his offsider the 'guide' didn't really understand what his role was at this point so was unable to answer our questions regarding the countryside we were driving through. We did stop at a viewpoint of the mountains (the required 2 hr stop for the driver). We really enjoyed the tour of Ait Benhaddou as we had a site specific guide who took us through the site and was very knowldgeable. An amazing historic site! On to Ouarzazate for a view of the remaining movie sets still standing from some of the famous movies made there. We opted not to do a tour and did not realise there was the "musee de Cinema' till after, driving straight through the town and heading to Boulmalne Dades. The valley is beautiful.

The drive to Todra Gorge was a letdown.. the gorge while at one point was probably spectacular has been overrun by tourists, stalls selling the same thing over and over and trash and tagging (grafitti). On our arrival at Merzouga our camel ride didn't really proceed as described as we were transferred to camp by vehicle not camel. After a bit of confusion, a guide and several camels arrived at camp and we did get to ride out into the dunes to watch the sunset with a friendly young guide who took us out to the top of a low dune where we got off and sat relaxing to watch the light and shadows travel over the dunes. It worked out well as we were not part of one of the large groups we watched traveling through the dunes towards the many camps scatttered along the edge of the dunes and the camels climbed the dunes for us for sunset! Our guide was helpful and informative and it was a beautiful and relaxing sunset.

We did a short tour of the souks - which most were closed as it was Friday. There were a few craftsmen working and our guide took us to a trader of many items from the many different tribes that live in the surrounding area. We did not see the Tomb of Moulay Ali Cherif, the square or the large garden. We did get a great view of the oasis of Aoufous. Did not stop for photos of the dam or gorges, or tunnel. The oasis and the scenery were quite enjoyable.

We really enjoyed the drive through the landscape and forests. We did not explore Azrou, we did see the monkeys, and visited the dead old tree. Ifrane is a beautiful city, lovely gardens and we quite liked the 'Lion of the Atlas' . Our onboard guide was much more forthcoming about the areas were travelling through which was good. We drove by the University but were told that they do not allow visitors anymore.

Our guide Hamid was excellent. Very friendly, informative and helped make the day engaging in spite of it being a friday and having much of the medina and craft shops closed. We did get to see some of the ceramic work - our guide explained some of the areas where there were no staff working and got us behind the scene to see those craftspersons who were working. Though the tanneries were not working we were able to do a short informative tour on the process. The Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts and Crafts was also closed. Hamid provided us with a very informative and enjoyable day in Fez (plus there were no motorbikes in the narrow alleys?)

Loved the countryside we passed through, amazing agriculture, quaint towns. We also stopped at the Roman ruins and had a guide take us through this amazing remnants of city that has been uncovered. It was a bit like being in Greece... except greener.

Loved the blue and we had a fantastic guide with Hamid. He loves the city and explained the history, pointed out the wall and the remaining towers. He was able to help us find some of the quieter streets and great views then down into the main square. He was really good about helping us understand the 'blue' and yes other colours of the old city. It is a delightful place to wander with the guide and on our own early the next morning. It was kind of interesting - motorcyles are not allow in the streets of the old town... but as it was a Sunday - young locals knew the police were not about so there were some buzzing through the narrow streets... but nothing like Marrakech.

Our team/guide were happy to let us have some extra time in Chefchaouen in the morning before heading to Tangier. We didn't walk to the overlook. Today's drive was a pretty easy trip and they were happy to check out the suggested Cave of Hercules and lookout and lighthouse for the Strait of Gibralter. The cave was a tawdy tourist spot - though with valid history... the lighthouse, viewpoint and museum at the key point of the strait of Gibralter was a great stop. Tangier itself didn't appeal.