Portugal

Enjoyed this trip to Portugal. Good mix of easy and moderate riding to work off the fantastic food/beverages.

Portugal was our 11th VBT trip and 12th biking trip. It was the best or at least equal to our other great trips. The guides were the best ever and the hotels , especially the Farm House, were excellent. The biking was challenging at times but very good overall. We highly recommend the trip and very much want to return to Portugal. Great food, great wine and a beautiful country. We felt very safe on the roads and highways as Portugal drivers are very courteous to bikers. Absolutely nothing to complain about and as with all VBT trips, a great value.

Overall, the bikes were great and routes were good…..the hotel accommodations were hit or miss, some good, some bad. Breakfast as well was hit or miss. VBT staff was attentive and friendly.

Loved this trip! The hotels were great, breakfast yummy and the bikes all performed well. Portugal is a beautiful country and the people there were very friendly and welcoming to us.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first VBT experience. The tour route was very well laid out and we cannot not say enough about how impressive our tour leaders, David and Frederico, both of whom are natives of Portugal. Kudos to VBT for the way they planned and conducted our tour!

We loved this trip! Beautiful and varied biking routes; knowledgeable, competent and engaging guides, top-notch hotels, delicious food and interesting cultural activities. I wish I could do it all over again!

Great trip! Manu and Matt made sure everything went well. The rides were beautiful. The winery visit and the olive oil tasting were terrific. The cruise and VBT worked well together to make sure the trip was flawless. Highly recommend

I enjoyed the trip. The rides were well conceived and challenging - except for those several towns with the coblestone streets.

We loved this trip - which was the first for this itinerary. Our guides were wonderful, very knowledgeable, and adapted easily when the weather didn’t cooperate. We hiked gorgeous country, learned a lot, and made friends with great people. The accommodations were outstanding, as was the food. We had looked forward to an Camino adventure for years, and this trip did not disappoint!

Our trip was personal and wonderful from beginning to end!

As has been true with every one of our previous Country Walkers trips, we were so impressed with the skills and knowledge of our guides, Ana and Luis. They made the daily experiences stress free and so much fun. We learned a lot. We enjoyed the interactions with the others on the tour. The teaching from local people was great. I was so impressed that you were able to keep Marialva on the tour despite the big fire two months ago. We included both the pre and post trip extensions in Porto and Lisbon. We enjoyed exploring Porto and scheduled two port wine tastings. In Lisbon, we explored restaurants, museums, and churches. We had an extra day in Lisbon when our flight home was cancelled. (We were glad that we had purchased travel insurance). We got to visit a couple more places and walked around some different neighborhoods. Despite being in November, we had decent weather. The only really rainy morning was while we were on the boat on the Douro river. The rain stopped by the time we got off. I have a few suggestions for improvements: 1) The tour of the olive oil facility was the only disappointment of the week. I wish that there had been more time spent to discuss old and current methods of making olive oil. A short video with still pictures and some vignettes demonstrating olive harvesting would have been a big improvement. 2) Keep the nature preserve walk at Marialva. It was great, as was the knowledgable leader. Getting to know a bit more about "rewilding" and something about wildlife was great. 3) I suggest that the evening meal at Marialva be included in the tour. There weren't many choices for where to eat. Or include a driver and vehicle to a near-by town with some suggestions.

This trip was above and beyond our expectations. Our guides were amazing. Accomodations were great.