Late last fall I started looking at trips for...

Portugal | Jul 31 - Aug 12, 2026

Late last fall I started looking at trips for the family and found a National Geographic trip to Portugal that looked interesting. My daughter-in-law (part of the family going on the trip) found KimKim online, and that is how we started communicating with Pedro Luis. We had a few written conversations then spoke on the phone to work out what itinerary options seemed best. The price was higher than the group tour, but it was also definitely much more flexible and that had a lot of appeal for us. So we signed up for a two-part tour: the first part (Lisbon, Algarve, and Cascais) was for the 3-generation family, and the second part (up to Porto for 3 nights) for the 2 retired folks after the younger ones returned to the US for work and school. It all worked out perfectly.

I'm not sure what is the most memorable part of the trip. So many places were interesting and/or fun. The Pena Palace, Joanine Library in Coimbra, the Douro Valley, the various boat tours--all these and more were great.

A few more detailed comments: (1) The itinerary that Pedro worked out was perfect for the family. Everyone enjoyed the trip immensely. (2) It all worked: the expected tickets were all booked, the hotels were all booked, drivers showed up when and where they were scheduled to show up. Everything was very smooth, with no glitches. This is how it is supposed to happen! (3) All of the drivers, boat captains, and tour guides were competent, polite, very informative, gracious, sufficiently flexible, attentive to our needs, and responsive to our requests. For example, on two occasions, we didn't really want a large fancy lunch; we just wanted a sandwich. In each case, the driver knew of a not-so-touristy place that had exactly what we wanted. And oh my, those sandwiches were simply the best! I'm sure they knew of other fancier restaurants if that is what we had asked for, but we didn't want that. (4) All the drivers, boat captains, and tour guides spoke English at a sufficiently high level for effective communication, which was great. Communication was never a problem and we really enjoyed visiting with them all. (5) The hotels were spectacular. Very lovely choices. The staff at all the hotels were all very professional and helpful and again, all spoke English. (6) We had no issues to resolve, but I felt confident that Pedro or one of his colleagues would have been available to help resolve any problems if they had occurred. Pedro regularly kept in touch with us during the trip and provided us contact information in case of any problem.

In summary, let me say that I am generally reluctant to recommend much of anything because other people have different perspectives and so I usually resist "recommending", but we have already recommended KimKim to one family member who plans to travel to Spain in the near future and to one couple who we chatted with in an elevator ride!

Thanks, Pedro, for a great trip. We really enjoyed our time in Portugal.