Porto Explorer Trips

Our tour guide Georgina was excellent and made sure everything went smoothly. The hotels we stayed were all excellent. Time spent at various places was also generally very good given the length of the tour and the need to stick to a time table.

A wonderful tour with a great mix of sights and activities. Best features were the lovely and knowledgeable guide, Eddi, and very capable driver, Pedro. Accommodation was varied and interesting. Allowance was made for individual interests and levels of stamina. The whole tour felt more spontaneous that preordained. Love that we visited small local producers and craftspeople with no pressure to buy! Also loved the limited numbers on the tour - 17 in this case - and the fact we rarely travelled more than an hour at a time in the bus. The country roads through small villages were the very best of the daily trips. The rest day in a vineyard was very much appreciated too - although there were still activities for those who wished. Cannot recommend highly enough!

The tour was a very enjoyable one. Reasons being that the range of venues we stayed in were very good and the experiences offered gave us a really great understanding of the country and it's people and their culture and history. One thing we really enjoyed was how it lived up to the 'back roads' label bytaking us to places we wouldn't have found (or thought of!!) by ourselves. Examples being the farm visit to see the wine and olive oil process and tasting (such genuine 'down to earth' people) who shared their history and culture and the sheep cheese visit. That was something different and very interesting. Our guide was knowledgeable and the tour was well organised. Our bus driver was lovely too. We saw a lot of the country and gained some idea of places we might return to in future to explore further.

Our guide Sonia was absolutely amazing, nothing was too much trouble, took us to extra places if time permitted. She was so passionate about Portugal and her love of her country definitely rubbed off on us all. It was a fabulous tour with a bit of everything to please

Apologies for the late review of our June Tour in Portugal. First off - a big shout out to our wonderful Tour leader, Lara. A very understanding young lady who could relate SO well to her 60+ age travel group . Her knowledge of our local was amazing; her ability to help people connect; humor and empathy was excellent - I give her 15* out of 10. AND coupled with Milo our driver - whose driving was so smooth, his empathy for those that were a bit slower to hop back on to the bus and his amazing music play list - together they formed an exceptional team. Our accommodation was varied and amazing, from small to larger establishments. The group dinners were allvery enjoyable. And I was very impressed with the additional specialized Tour leaders who were engaged. All in all, I highly recommend Back Roads Tours and have already booked our your for 2026 in Sicily.

We loved our time in Portugal. Georgina our tour leader was great. The hotels we stayed in were fabulous and all quite different. My gluten free needs were well accommodated, all the meals were lovely. We enjoyed all the locations we visited and the experiences we had. Cooking dinner was fun at the beautiful Nature hotel.