Portugal – General Info

General Info on Portugal Trip

Page Contents

  1. Guidebook used
  2. Itinerary
  3. Means of travel
  4. Tour guides
  5. Weather
  6. Money
  7. Tipping
  8. Theft

Guidebook used

We used 2 Rick Steves guidebooks, Portugal (9th edition) and Barcelona (6th edition).  We have used Rick Steves books on other trips and have been happy with his suggestions and guidance.  We did NOT follow Steves advice on ripping out relevant sections to take with us as we preferred to keep the books intact for future use.

Itinerary

We traveled to Spain, including Barcelona, in 2017. For the Barcelona portion, we met with ex-pat friends (US & Canadian citizens who live in Amsterdam and South of France) and they were our guides. We loved our time with them but wanted to go back to see some of the things we missed. So when we were planning our trip to Portugal, we decided to add a stop in Barcelona. Actually, in a bit of amazing mental gymnastics, we actually STARTED our trip to Portugal with our stop in Barcelona!! We’re kind of wacky like that…

So, from May 16 to May 28, 2024 our schedule was as follows:

  1. Barcelona – 4 nights
  2. The Algarve (Portugal) – 3 nights
  3. Lisbon (with day trip to Sintra) – 4 nights

Before we left, we booked all hotels and inter-Europe transportation.  We had ideas of what we wanted to visit in each location, but did not have a hard fixed schedule.  Like no, if its noon on Tuesday, this must be the National Palace!! However, per recommendations from Rick Steves, we hired personal guides for Barcelona, Lisbon, and Sintra.

We used the generosity of our daughter and son-in-law and we booked our business class flights using the Points Pro guys and my son-in-law’s Amex miles. So, we were limited in which airlines we could select, which is why our flights to and from Europe were on British Airways and both involved a layover of several hours in London Heathrow.

Means of travel

  1. JFK to London Heathrow – British Airways business class
  2. London Heathrow t0 Barcelona- British Airways business class
  3. Barcelona to Lisbon airport – TAP business class
  4. Lisbon airport to Salema (The Algarve) – Hertz rental car (manual)
  5. Salema back to Lisbon airport – Hertz rental car (manual)
  6. Lisbon to London Heathrow – British Airways business class
  7. London Heathrow to JFK – British Airways business class

Tour Guides

While Rick Steves guide books are basically written so that you can be your own tour guide, we have on our last few trips arranged for a guide for 1/2 day at least in each location. For more exotic locations, we have gotten a guide for our entire stay.

For Barcelona, we contacted Sonia Crespo (sonia@barcelonaexperts.com) from the Rick Steves book about a 1/2 day tour for Saturday, May 18th, our first full day in the city. Even though we contacted her in November of 2023, she was not available but arranged for one of her colleagues, Montse, to be our guide (montserratguiabarcelona@gmail.com). Montse was very knowledgeable and we were very happy with her. We prepaid via credit card for this guide ahead of time.

For Lisbon, we again found a guide from the Rick Steves book. With Cristina Quental (anacristinaquental@hotmail.com) in late 2023, we arranged for 1/2 day on our first day in Lisbon (Saturday, May 25th) and then a full day tour with driver to Sintra on Monday, May 27th. Cristina was knowledgeable and we were very happy with her. We paid her cash at the end of each tour.

Click here to see both guides.

Weather

As we were traveling in mid-spring, we did not expect it to be hot with long range forecasts predicting highs in low 70’s and lows in the 50’s. This basically turned out to be accurate but what wasn’t clear to us were the winds which were often strong and made the temps feel cooler. So, we definitely used our jackets.

As for rain, the long range forecasts were not promising, indicating rain at several points during our trip. But, we lucked our with only a few sprinkles on our first morning in Barcelona. Otherwise, our trip was rain free.

Money

We took about $2000 in Euros as for a number of things (hotel in Salema and two tours in Lisbon) we negotiated a cash rate. We used credit cards for most larger amounts, like dinners, hotel charges, and a small souvenirs.  In Barcelona, most taxi’s accepted credit cards even for amounts under 10 Euros but in Lisbon, taxi’s wanted cash more often. We used an ATM only once (after my wallet was stolen in Lisbon) to withdraw 200 Euro’s. Before departing, we did NOT notify our credit card companies as most do not require that any longer.

TIpping

We followed Facebook sites on Portugal and Barcelona for months before our trip and noted the comments on tipping.  We added a few Euros in restaurants, rounded up to next Euro on taxi rides, and only tipped hotel porters who handled our luggage. We did leave a few Euros for hotel room cleaning staff when we departed.

Theft

We have traveled to Europe a number of times before and are aware of the general warnings about petty theft. In the Rome metro on one trip on a packed train, I was standing holding a railing and reached into my pocket to find a young girl’s hand also in my pocket!!

As protection, I wear of pouch around my neck and under my shirt which contains the bulk of our money and any other valuables. Nevertheless, in Lisbon, my wallet was stolen. It was taken as we were walking with our guide through a rather crowded Sao Jorge Castle. I am not sure where it was taken but the thief was able to get it from a deep front pocket with a velcro closure in my cargo shorts. Our tour guide had warned us and so I removed my wallet from my back pocket and put it in the front one with the velcro closure.

Luckily this happened as we were ending our 1/2 day tour, so we hopped into a taxi to return to the hotel to begin contacting credit card companies. The tour guide assisted us in using an ATM to get some extra cash and we spent the next hour or so in the hotel bar drinking and calling , “chat”ing to turn off my cards. No charges were attempted.

Interestingly, the hotel was contacted later that day by someone who had found my wallet (the room card key with the hotel address was in my wallet). So, it was returned with my credit cards, license, etc intact. Of course, what was missing was about 100+ Euros in small bills. The more serious money was safe in my neck pouch.

Later that day, we found an H&M (yes, like in USA) and purchased a fanny pack which I wore around my neck and under my arm so the pouch was on my chest. Once I started wearing this, I noticed MANY men used a similar approach. Live and learn, even at my advanced age…

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