“The Taste of Portugal was an excellent tour that started in Lisbon, went as far north as Porto, and included Coimbra, Fatima, Aciero and Nazare. An excellent bus, driver, and tour guide made all of this possible.
There were many personal touches of the tour director that added to the experience. In Fatima, we saw the workshops where religious articles are made.
Hotels were very good, modern, and great buffet breakfasts each morning.”
“You Get What You Pay For
Before the Pandemic I was using a travel company for multiple trips. They were slower in starting up again, so I signed up for a trip with Indus for October of 2022. Now that I was on their mailing list, I received all their travel specials. The Taste of Portugal was a two for one special in June, so I immediately signed up. I would like to say that I really enjoyed this trip but there were too many things that prevented this from happening.
When we arrived in Lisbon we were met by a gentleman holding a sign with our names. He was already with two members of our group. He drove us to our hotel and explained that we were not staying in Lisbon but in a suburb across the river called Almada. The Hotel Mercure was very nice but unfortunately it is located in a residential area. To get to Lisbon we had to take a tram to the boat docks and then a ferry boat to town. While this was not expensive it was time consuming.
When we arrived on Wednesday at the hotel there was a message when our tour of Lisbon would begin the next day. There was no name provided of who our tour manager would be. It would have been nice if the group met with our tour manager that night instead of when we were loading the bus for our Lisbon tour.
Our bus driver was excellent, and our coach was very nice. The city tour was very good. What was confusing were the meeting points for the optional tours. We had signed up for the Electric Bike Tour. When it came time for our tour we were on our own as to where the starting point would be. Fortunately, our guide gave us a digital copy of our invoice, so we were able to use Maps to find the bike shop. Members of our group who signed up for the Sintra tour also had trouble finding their starting point.
On day 4 we stayed one night in Coimbra. The hotel was okay, but it was a hike to find restaurants for dinner. If anyone is interested there is a Pizza Hut about a ten-minute walk providing you make a left turn at the right time. On my exploring walk I missed that turn and got very lost.
Days 5 and 6 were in a small hotel in Porto that required a 20-minute tram ride to get to the center of town. We signed up for the optional Tuk Tuk tour and the Six Bridge Boat Ride. When we arrived at the Tuk Tuk meeting point our guide was waiting for us, and we got on the vehicle and took off. It wasn’t a great tour because six of us were packed together in one cart. The Tuk Tuk dropped us off at the pier for our boat ride. We ran into a problem right away because they didn’t have our names on the reservation list. Fortunately, my wife had gotten our guide’s cell phone number and she had the boat people talk to her. Whatever she said got us on the last boat of the night. The ride was nice but nothing spectacular. It just went up and down the Douro River under the different bridges.
Our last two nights were back at our hotel in Almada. We signed up for an extra day so on our day 8 we went to Sintra. We went to the palace which was extremely crowded. We felt it was not worth the time or money.
This trip would have been more enjoyable if :
Our hotels were near the city centers of Lisbon and Porto.
If our guide had a meeting the first night of the tour
If we had copies of our vouchers for our optional tours
If a dinner event was held at the hotel restaurant on the night of day 7. We met a lot of nice people that I would have enjoyed having a meal with for the last time.”
“Excellent travel company, from the sales agent (Jhonathan), airport to hotel transfers, hotel accommodations, breakfast buffets, travel guide Rei Pacifico, bus driver Nelson, the itinerary and the trip as a whole. We have already recommended it to our family and friends. We are looking forward to our next Indus Travel trip.”
