Portugal

The trip was a perfect way to visit southern Portugal. The guides were awesome, always there to lend a hand or offer guidance. The bikes were outstanding - brand new fleet. The routes were interesting and scenic with little traffic. The food and wine were great. And above all the opportunity to spend time with old friends and to meet new friends was rewarding. Thanks

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.

We’ve done 7 previous trips with VBT and have been happy with all of them. We would rate this trip the best!

Beautiful, mostly easy riding through farmland, residential neighborhoods, and ocean roads. The route is mostly bike paths and back roads. Some short trafficked areas and some hills, but mostly flat to rolling. Self guided is the way to go with the smartphone app. You go at your own pace. Beautiful scenery, nice people, wonderful hotels, and very inexpensive compared to the USA. A trip that will not be forgotten.

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!

Incredible experience getting out to the villages and learning about the history of the land. The guides were terrific, tending to our needs while riding and along the way. I would suggest that if you are considering a road bike for this tour, think twice and go with the e-bike simply because there is a fair amount of areas where you will ride on cobblestone, which proved to be tricky for even the experienced road bikers in our group.

We love VBT and the best part of this trip was our leader, Manu. He is awesome! All VBT leaders are great, and he is at the top. It was the initial offering of the trip, and some kinks will be addressed, I am sure. Coordinating the boat and the buses (there were A LOT of buses) and biking is complex. We enjoyed the chance to mix with other travelers on the boat. We enjoyed unpacking only once. The Douro is not a river where you can bike alongside, like the Danube--so there is a lot of bus transfer time on twisty steep roads (some complained of car sickness). It is a hilly area--definitely on the "moderate" scale, not the "easy-moderate" scale. Climate always a question-in late April we had both cold (40's) and wet and warm (70s) and sunny. The olive oil mill and winery were good experiences. The archeological site was sketchy.... If you like hills and don't mind the bus, a good trip to some less accessible areas.

We had a great time on the Camino. The routes were beautiful and scenic. Alberto and Pol were fantastic guides and kept us very busy. They were a very amusing tag team and complemented each other well. Our group was very congenial and supportive. The Paradors were all very comfortable and the food was great. A highlight was the pottery demo and luncheon and the sheephearding dogs were fantastic to watch. Santiago de Compostelo was a very exciting place to be and very inspirational seeing all the people arrive after their long journey.

Our trip was personal and wonderful from beginning to end!

The tour exceeded my expectations. Northern Portugal is beautiful and the walks were interesting and scenic. The hotels were all great and very different. Our tour guides were outstanding! They were very knowledgeable and communicated well. Included food and drinks were of high quality. I don’t have anything negative to say about this tour.

We had an absolutely fabulous trip through the Minho & Douro Valley with Helene & Rita as our guides. This was our second Country Walkers tour and our expectations were very high based on our experience with the first trip. This tour far exceeded our expectations. Portugal is a beautiful country and the itinerary for this trip truly showcases just how beautiful it is. We feel as though this was a perfect way to visit Portugal. Our accomodations were amazing. From a Manor House in Calheiros, to a 5 start hotel in the Duoro Valley, to a medieval village among castle ruins in Marialva, all were very unique. They were places that we never would have thought to stay at and they suited the itinerary very well. The hikes that we did were somewhat challenging at times as Portugal is a very hilly country. The itinerary accounts for this and is very well planned out so that it is all in all very manageable. The upside of the hilly terrain is that the views are just spectacular! Last but not least, our guides Helene & Rita were the best. They, along with Oscar our driver, made the trip as seamless as possible. They were so knowledgable about the country and it was clear that they are very proud Portuguese gals who are very enthusiatic about sharing the love for their country. They were always one step ahead of us and would answer any questions you may have had before you could even ask. While we were on the trip, we experienced the power outage which could have been very difficult to handle. Helene & Rita handled it like pros and it didn't effect us at all. If you are thinking about booking this trip, do not hesitate. Book now! It was absolutely one of our best vacations.