Portugal Wine tasting Trips

Our seven day trip, covering Porto, the Douro wine region, the city of Lisbon and beautiful Obidos was a fabulous introduction to this beautiful country. Transportation was with a comfortable small coach, which did not involve unduly long journeys between our numerous destinations. Hotel stays were comfortable and well located in the towns and villages visited. Our group of nine people were superbly led, guided, supported (and educated!) by the wonderful Carla Costa, who played such an important role in our overall enjoyment. One of the very best tours I have ever experienced.

Packed itinerary, great walks in beautiful countryside, good variety of wine/port tasting - particularly enjoyed the smaller, off beat ones (hello Carlos!). Magdalena was a great guide even throwing in some extra activities and found us some great restaurants.

A fast paced tour, with plenty of walking. Our leader Andreas was excellent, always going out of his way to book extra activities for group if needed during free time and giving suggestions. He was passionate about Portugal, enthusiastic, extremely well organised and looked after all needs in the group brilliantly.

Our guide, Carla Costa, was wonderful---such passion for the history and culture of Portugal! She helped bring the cities to life for us all! Wonderful hotels and restaurants, great food, good pace for us all.

Our Tour guide, Carla Costa is an exceptional guide, she had done so much research and her enthusiasm, and intellect were a joy to be a part of, along with her calm prescence and constantly sunny disposition, she left no stone unturned in her quest to give us every possible way to enjoy ourselves and answer every question raised. The trips are extremely well put together, well thought through and work very well when conducted. The itineraries are varied and contain a fabulous mix of interesting and unusual things to see and do.

Hi Explore, I think I counted that was my 21st Explore holiday. The hotel was in a great location near No 48 bus to Monte and 1 and 2 buses to Funchal. Also near the Lido and a supermarket. The only problem I found with the hotel is that you could not turn the air conditioning off at all - it was set so that it came on periodically during the night to refresh the room which woke me up with cold blasts. I had to put the two blankets on my bed. Also, I found the mattress too hard. Apart from that the staff were friendly and helpful. Philip our guide was great, a bit more info about loos when we stopped would have been helpful. I could not always hear him when standing with the group, his voice did not carry and you had to be very close to him to hear what he had to say, probably also something to do with my hearing maybe! I would have loved to have had more time to visit the orchid garden at Boa Vista near to the Botanical gardens but time ran out. It is only open on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday according to the hotel.