Hello
I'm taking a tour of Portugal starting in late June. I'm very comfortable with the tour operator, but want to know how worthwhile their optional tours are. These are the ones available:
Douro River cruise - $59
Fado night - $85
Sintra and Portuguese Riviera - $65
Fatima and Tomar - $85
Obidos and Nazare -$105
Are the prices reasonable? What else do you recommend? The locations I'm visiting are Porto, Algarve, and Lisbon. Thanks in advance.
LesLein
Wow, what does the basic tour include? What do these prices include? We took the RS tour and other than Tomar, Sintra and the Douro River cruise all the rest were included. We enjoyed the two nights of fado music but at $85 I hope there is a meal as part of it as that seems steep. Obidos was worthwhile, Nazare not so much. Nice view but a very touristy beach town. We took a private tour to Sintra, a do not miss. Fatima was a very stirring place but not all would agree.
We stayed in Obidos several nights. The town itself only merits a few hours. It is charming but only exists for tourism today. We enjoyed Nazaré and had a very nice seafood lunch overlooking the ocean. The Douro cruise- depends how long it is. Does it include lunch? Is it a round trip on tne boat or include a one way train ricket too?
Sintra is so easy to do. Take rhe train out there. They have buses/ vans that go up the hill to Pena Palace.
With so many of these as “add ons”, I quesrion where the tour is actually taking you. It appears to be rather incomplete. Portugal is such a small country and many of the places one ahould visit are at extra cost.
Stunning prices! Can you hire a car, as you can cover some of these places easily on your own at considerably less cost?
Douro cruise is worthwhile
Fado - I am not a fan of and at that price, it must include the best meal of your trip.
Sintra is worth seeing. Easy to see by train from Lisbon.
Fatima and Tomar are gems.
Obidos OK for 2 hours maximum and Nazaré is a regular beach resort (there are nicer places on this coast) that will be busy at that time of year.
All are overpriced IMO since most of them can be done on your own for a fraction of their charges. But, I do realize allowing the tour operator to make all the arrangements is an easy way to go. If you do some research on these places, then you could determine if you really want to see them - and how difficult it would be to go on your own.
The Douro is a wonderful place to visit but how long is the cruise? You can do a day trip with a number of companies that includes visiting a couple of wineries, lunch and a short cruise for about the same cost. An entire day cruising the Douro is not a good expenditure of your time. You can also book an hour cruise from the Rebeira area in Porto on the day you are there for a very reasonable cost, then take the water taxi across the river to visit the port lodges in Gaia. Some of these do regular wines in addition to port.
If the Fado night starts early, it is not a true Fado but rather one just designed for tourists. True fado doesn’t begin until 10:30 or after. And, I can do a dinner plus fado and all the wine I want for €25 euros in a small town close to where I live.
Sintra and the Portuguese Riveira is Sintra and Cascais. Both can be done by public transport, and trying to do both places in one day isn’t very feasible. But, the price they are offering is fairly comparable to some of the local tour companies.
Tomar and Fatima aren’t as easy by public transport so, if you are interested in the Knights Templar and a miracle sight, their offering might be the way to go. The Knights Templar stuff in Tomar is pretty amazing. I can’t speak to Fatima because I haven’t been and have no interest in it.
Óbidos is also not very easy by public transport and Nazaré is overrated, IMO. Óbidos is a cute town but very touristy and not worth the money they are charging
What is the name of the company offering these tours? What do their reviews on Trip Advisor say? Worth the money or not? Great service? Informative?
Thank you for your help so far. The tour operator is GoAhead tours. I've used them 9 times since 2007 and found them to very good. Their prices include airfare. Since they are big, they get good hotels. In the past their prices compare favorably to what other operators include.
The tour is a bus tour. It includes other things besides the locations I mentioned, such as guided city tours. There are usually stops between the cities, such as Coimbra.
I asked about the optional tours because operators use them to make much of their profits. Thanks to the above advice I will mostly strike out on my own.
