Portugal

June 29, 2018

Fun on Tour: The Heart of Portugal in 12 Days

rick steves holding a glass of wine and standing, looking at a table of four smiling people eating dinner — Photo: Bin Lee

For me, a downside of traveling alone is trying to enjoy fine dinners solo. And that’s one of the joys of taking a tour: You have company! And thanks to our “no grumps” policy, when you travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours, you’ll have fun company.

I just wrapped up 12 wonderful days in Portugal — laughing, learning, and exploring with a great group of 25 new friends. Here are a few highlights from our time together:

Dinner — and Lots of Wine — in Porto

rick steves holding his buttoned shirt open to reveal his Keep on Travelin t-shirt underneath — Photo: Bin Lee

The wine is so good in Portugal, it can be tough to stop at a couple of glasses. During one round of toasts on our Heart of Portugal tour, I realized the words on my T-shirt summed up what I wanted to say. So, startling my group, I stood up, unbuttoned my shirt, and (almost) bared my chest, declaring “Keep on travelin’!”

Rambling Around a Family-Run Cork Farm

Midway through each Rick Steves tour, our guides give everyone in the group a chance to evaluate the experience so far. Everyone fills out a little sheet with suggestions on how we can make the tour better — and tour members often share their highlights. On this tour, the highlights included doing hands-on activities and meeting families at local farms — farms that produce grapes for port wine and grow cork trees so that the port will stay in the bottle until it’s ready to be enjoyed.

Deep in Portugal’s interior, the wonderful Rovisco Garcia family harvests the bark off a vast forest of cork trees. Their farm has become a popular stop on our Portugal tours. They are so eager to show us around, they built a special trailer for their tractor so that whole groups can ramble around the farm together while the sons talk about their work and the cork industry. Eventually, the trailer ends up at the big farmhouse where the family — under grandma’s direction — serves the group an amazing meal featuring local produce, traditional dishes, and more of that great local wine.

Rick Steves smiling, holding a plate of food at the end of a buffet line — Photo: Bin Lee

Comic Relief at a Cloister

Most of us enjoy a break from American politics when we’re on vacation. But at one venerable cloister, I noticed our group was pointing and laughing at something carved into a fine old relief. It was a character, chiseled 500 years ago, that was the spitting image of our president. I’ve been visiting this monastery for 20 years…and suddenly it has an unforgettable new stop.

DIY Souvenirs

Throughout Europe, Rick Steves guides find lots of ways to help our groups roll up their sleeves and have literal hands-on experiences. For example, on my Heart of Portugal tour, we visited a tile factory and learned about the tiles that are so integral to Portuguese cityscapes — and we each got a chance to paint our own tile as a souvenir of the trip. Our personal tiles were then fired and waiting for us at our hotel the next day. I was impressed by the fun designs, the hidden artistic talent in our group, and the joy this project brought each member of the tour.

—

Want to join the fun? Travel with Rick Steves’ Europe Tours on a Heart of Portugal in 12 Days Tour.

June 28, 2018June 28, 2018

Portugal: Foibles, Frustrations, and Favorite Finds

Every year, I go on a Rick Steves tour — and I get a lot of work done. (If ever you find yourself updating a guidebook, as I do for three months every year, consider taking a tour to make your job easier.)

Rather than driving between destinations, on a tour I can just park myself in the back of the bus and write or relax. (Our tour groups only take up about half of the seats on our big buses — so there’s always plenty of room.) I’ve got an expert tour guide at my side whenever needed. And, thanks to the free time we build into every itinerary, I’m with 25 travelers who are using my guidebooks — and are happy to share with me all of the foibles, frustrations, and favorite finds that they experience along the way. Each morning, I make the rounds and enjoy “free time” reports from our gang: where they ate, what they did, and what the pitfalls were. And as I experience the must-see attractions with them, I can gauge how best to cover those sights for the independent travelers who use my guidebooks.

This year, I took our Heart of Portugal in 12 Days tour — and I had a blast. As always, our “no grumps” policy made for a fun and happy group, and our knowledgeable guide, Fatima, made sure that we experienced maximum travel thrills. And all along the way, I had the chance to talk to travelers about some of the ups and downs of exploring on their own — all of which will find its way into the upcoming tenth edition of my Rick Steves Portugal guidebook.

Here are a few of the nuggets that I picked up:

Lisbon’s Mouraria District

In Lisbon, the big news for me was the realization that my beloved Alfama quarter is no longer so rewarding to visit. Lisbon’s Visigothic birthplace and once-salty sailors’ quarter, tumbling from the castle down to the harbor, is salty no more — except with the sweat of cruise groups hiking now-lifeless lanes. The new colorful district to explore is the Mouraria, on the back side of the castle. This is where the Moors lived after the Reconquista — “Mouraria” means “Moorish quarter” — and to this day, it’s a gritty and colorful district of immigrants. Until recently, a tourist may not have been comfortable exploring here. But today, with the rising tide of affluence, this vibrant district — the birthplace of fado, Lisbon’s bluesy folk music — is starting the path to gentrification.

Not-So-Free Tours in Lisbon

The tour scene in Lisbon is changing — as in other touristy European cities — with the dominance of “free” tours. These dishonestly named tours are actually tip-based: At the end, you’re still expected to pay (in the form of tips, rather than a fee). And, while the guides can be solid, in many cases they have simply memorized a script — so they’re more entertainers than historians. These tours are not bad in themselves. Just remember you have the option to pay up front to join a tour led by a licensed and well-trained guide who’s a true expert in their city. “Free” tours are a fine example of the axiom, “You get what you pay for.”

(In a way, these “free” tours feel in keeping with the general dumbing down of our world lately — a reflection of people’s shorter attention spans, and the success of options that are cheap in every sense.)

Disorganized Crowds at the Jerónimos Monastery

Lately, I’ve been tuning into where my travelers’ pinch points are when it comes to crowds and lines. More and more people are traveling, and popular destinations can accommodate them by simply building more hotels. But throughout Europe, many of the marquee attractions that draw tourists have fixed capacities: The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Michelangelo’s David in Florence, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Alhambra in Granada. Many of these “must-see sights” are physically at capacity. They simply cannot fit the massive crowds of people that hope to see them every day.

While Portugal has almost no such sights, you will have to deal with crowds at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon’s Belém neighborhood. This photo shows the commotion as cruise and tour groups converge on the tiny entrance, creating a chaos you’ll find there all day long, nearly every day in peak season. While other such sights in Europe offer ways to secure tickets in advance, this sight is not that organized. Put on your shoulder pads and prepare to spend some time in line.

Pickpockets and Scammers

Lisbon and Porto — Portugal’s two big cities — are easygoing and friendly. But, like other touristic boom towns, they do have their pickpockets and scammers. Be on guard. And be wary when someone approaches you with a request to sign a petition to “help the children.” If you participate, the only children you’re likely to help are the ones picking your pocket as you’re distracted, reaching for the pen.

—
Join our traveling community — connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

June 27, 2018

Experiences are the Measure of a Great Tour

I spend about a third of each year in Europe. And every year, a highlight is actually taking a Rick Steves tour. This year, my pick was the Heart of Portugal in 12 Days — and I had a blast.

For our tour company, Rick Steves’ Europe Tours, 2018 has been the best year yet — with 28,000 travelers (and counting) joining us on over 1,000 departures. As the head of the company, I believe it’s essential to actually experience our tours as a participant. It helps me get to know our tours and our customers: Who’s joining us? What are their expectations, energy levels, attention spans, and highlights? And all of this helps me answer the key question: How can we be better?

My goal as a tour operator is to provide maximum efficiency, maximum experience, and maximum value. Travel can be filled with anxiety, and something I’m really committed to for our travelers is minimum anxiety.

On my Portugal tour this year, all but a couple of my fellow tour members were repeat travelers. In fact, I’d estimate that the people in our group had taken an average of four Rick Steves tours each. (Being a less “mainstream” destination, Portugal tends to draw more experienced travelers.)

During our peak tour times in spring and fall, we have over 100 guides (like Fatima, shown below) all working at the same time. Our travelers come on our tours with very high expectations — and our guides enjoy the professional challenge of exceeding those expectations.

Rick Steves and tour guide Fatima Bugarin — Fatima Bugarin

Guides tell me that one of the reasons they like leading Rick Steves’ Europe Tours is the high caliber of the people who join us. And they also like that we pay our guides entirely up front. That’s a huge difference between us and other tour companies, many of whom employ guides only if they generate a lot of secondary income. Many non-Rick Steves tour operators pay their guides only a nominal wage; the guide is expected to earn the rest of their income through tips, shopping kickbacks, and commissions on optional sightseeing tours that they “upsell” to their tour members. But we operate differently — we’ve made all our money up front, and our guides are fully paid from the start. This frees them up to be a friend and teacher to our groups, and to see our customers as travel partners rather than a source of income. It works better both for guides and for tour members — and, I believe, is simply better from a quality point of view.

On our Portugal tour, I loved the way our guide, Fatima, packed each day with experiences. We give each guide a discretionary budget to use on creative extras that will enhance the tour. And Fatima used it to both educate and treat our group. For example, on our Lisbon walk, she bought us all lottery tickets, showed us how they worked, and explained how the lottery helps fund programs for the blind. (And a few of us even won a handful of euros — so the lesson continued as we cashed in our winning tickets.) Another particularly tasty delight: Fatima surprised us with boxes of the best cream tarts in Portugal, still warm from the oven.

And at Belém’s Monument to the Discoveries, Fatima turned our group shot into a teaching moment, as we lined up like the sailors, conquistadors, explorer-priests, and scientists that powered Portugal into world leadership 500 years ago. I got to be Prince Henry the Navigator.

A line of men excitedly pointing forward, with Rick Steves at the front smiling and facing the camera, in front of a large stone monument that looks similar — The Monument to the Discoveries

I always come home from a Rick Steves tour inspired by our guides and our tour members. Any suggestions for next year’s tour?

June 20, 2018

Video: Porto’s Temporary Bolhão Market

Porto, Portugal’s second city, is a bit stressed out. Its beloved Bolhão Market had gotten really dilapidated and, earlier this year, it was closed for a much-needed renovation. The vendors — with a firm promise that they’d be back home in July of 2020, and with the reassuring presence of their Virgin of the Immaculate Conception — are carrying on in the basement of a nearby department store…and so are those shopper-merchant relationships that literally go back generations. Follow me for a peek at Porto’s temporary Bolhão Market.

—
Join our traveling community — connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

June 19, 2018

Porto’s Taberna Santo António: My Kind of Restaurant

I spend nearly every evening in Europe hunting…hunting for places like Porto’s Taberna Santo António. This impromptu clip gives a sense of the neighborhood energy of a great little eatery, with a local friend giving me what we agreed is a little bit of “heaven on a spoon.”

Looking for great new restaurants to recommend in the next edition of one of my guidebooks is also a lot like fishing: Sometimes you go home empty-handed, and sometimes you score. In Porto, I was a happy guidebook writer, having found several great new restaurants — some characteristic and rough like this one, others more romantic and elegant.

Here’s the write-up for the Rick Steves Portugal guidebook:

[$$] Taberna Santo António is a convivial, hole-in-the-wall place — the quintessence of a family-run, neighborhood favorite. There’s a tight dining room and a few prime seats at the bar where eaters are choosing from six traditional stews, marveling at the homemade desserts, and having fun with the waitstaff (Rua das Virtudes 32, tel. 222-055-306).

—
Join our traveling community — connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.