Walks and Wine Tasting in Spain and Portugal

The trip was excellent. Magdalena, our guide was exceptionally well organised, helpful and friendly. The vehicle we travelled in from Madrid was not roadworthy. The windscreen was cracked but worse than that, it emitted dangerous fumes that made me cough constantly, triggered my asthma and affected my breathing. I am extremely angry we had to travel in such a dangerous vehicle and that it affected my health. The next vehicle with Oscar was excellent, but it took me a number of weeks to recover from the poisonous fumes.

Our Tour leader Magdalena was exceptional! She went above and beyond finding additional wine tastings and local restaurants to try! Her efforts made the trip extra special!

The best tour we have ever been on. Magdalena was a fantastic guide! She was extremely well prepared and organised, knowledgeable and lots of fun. Magdalena went out of her way to find new experiences that she thought the group would enjoy. We walked to places that we would never have found by ourselves and stayed in villages that were off the tourist track. The hotels were clean and comfortable. We are already looking for other walks run by Explore World and preferably led by Magdalena. We have already recommended this tour to many people we have met since we finished the walking tour.

My friend and I have taken several small group (or private) walking tours with a number of different companies. This was our first with Explore. I found the itinerary, walks and wine tasting to be excellent! The hotels were all very good - accommodations were clean, comfortable and roomy with good to excellent amenities. They were all conveniently located but I personally found the Porto (too far from the river area) and especially the Madrid (somewhat dingy neighborhood with few open dining options on a Sunday) hotels to be in somewhat less desirable areas. I was somewhat disappointed with communication and execution both by Explore and our guide. Many tour companies offer a brief bio of the guide and detailed packing guidelines (what to bring) 1 to 2 weeks prior to the tour. This did not happen with Explore. Additionally, there were several miscommunications and some disorganization during the tour. Some examples include incorrect hours for various sites(we arrived at several places during closed hours) and last minute dining arrangements or changes. Our final dinner was a disaster. Arrangements not made far enough in advance, miscommunication on number, so they couldn’t accommodate us. Wandered down the street and found a place with no customers. There were only two people in total working there. Orders were incorrect, took an extremely long time, and the food wasn’t good. . The guide was not on top of who had been served on a couple occasions, and some of us waited almost two hours for our meals. This really wasn’t noticed or addressed by the guide until one of the group raised it. This was the guides first trip doing this tour. She was kind, considerate and worked very hard. There were too many missteps for me to rate the overall tour or guide as excellent, but I would still recommend the tour.

My fellow travelers made this trip a wonderful experience. Some of the hotel accommodations should be reviewed for comfort/sound issues and breakfast options. Also recommend that guides on this excursion should be trained in first aid. We had an incident on a hike and luckily we had a paramedic on this trip with us. This was the first time our trip leader led this particular adventure. She did a great job of adjusting to circumstances and helped to make the trip enjoyable.