Physical Demands of Portugal Tour

We've been on 3 Rick Steves tours, but not Portugal. You can always opt out of an activity, but if the activity is happening on the day you are traveling between destinations on the bus, opting out might mean finding a seat somewhere outside of the bus while others participate. I've seen people opt out of things, but remaining on the bus isn't usually an option; as that's a break opportunity for the bus driver. At least that has been our experience.

Our Portugal tour was several years ago. My memory is that there was a lot of walking. Lisbon and Porto are hilly although we encountered more of that on our food tour in Lisbon which was prior to the RS tour. I don’t think there is a foot of level sidewalk in Portugal. Many sidewalks are paved with small blocks of stone which are uneven, sometimes loose, slippery especially if it rains. As far as opting out I’m afraid. I can’t speak from experience. I recall many days involved a lot of walking so you’d be missing much of what you paid for. Your call, but you may want to run this by the folks in the RS office, see what they say.

I took the tour in 2022. In particular, there were two days that I think could be particularly challenging for someone with a knee issue.

1) Lisbon is very hilly and the streets are tiled and uneven. In particular, the walking tour on the second day takes you through the Alfama. There are many stairs and some steep hills. You could plan to do this on your own, riding the tram (which can be very crowded)

2) In Porto, it was a long, uphill walk from the riverfront to the hotel. On the tour, we walked downhill. At the end of the tour, you needed to walk back to the hotel at our own pace. You could probably ask the guide about alternative public transportation to get back to the hotel if this was too taxing for your knee.

There were other cities with hills (e.g., Coimbra), but the hill climbing was largely during free time so you could do this at your own pace. For example, we used the bus to visit the University at the top of the hillin Coimbra.

I wore trailrunners for most of the tour in Portugal. I would suggest shoes with some traction as the tiles can be slick.

I did this tour in May 2023. Superb! My recollection about there being 2 days of alot of walking coincides with Laura's.

Porto: As a group, we did group walking activities in the city twice: first a food tour...and the next day another city tour. At the end of our food tour, our guide packed us all into about 5 different taxis to return to our hotel. So, at the end of the next day's local tour in Porto, I think the guide could help you get a taxi.

Lisbon: I see a bigger hurdle with walking with the group in Lisbon. It would be a real loss if you chose to skip the walk through the Alfama, but do what you need to do.

Thanks for the feedback. The biggest problem with the knee is pain is transitory. I really wanted to know if there were opt out opportunities if it flares. Sounds like I have my answer. Thanks to all

It has been many years since I took the tour. The country is very beautiful. During that tour and many others opting out of an event, a walk, a meal, etc has been readily accepted. Most often the logistics are very easy to coordinate. Relaxing in a cafe, the park, or a sidewalk bench, or just strolling until the group completes a specific activity has been fine. The tour guides have been able to accommodate without it ever being an issue. Schedules are posted or communicated daily and one is able to decide what works and what may be a challenge. I’ve traveled with friends who have not been able to do certain walking or hiking or uphill activities and the tours still have been great for them. This is a tour that I desire to take again.

My husband and I just returned from the RS Portugal tour that ended September 8th. He has had knee replacement surgery on one knee and his other knee is a mess and should be replaced. That being said, he wore a special knee brace for the "strenuous" walks and also took a compression sleeve that he wore some of the other time. He did really, really well and didn't complain about pain at all. I was worried he wouldn't be able to keep up, but he handled it all with no problems. In all honesty, we found the most strenuous days of walking on the trip were the two days we spent on our own before the tour started! We did a day trip on our own to Sintra and instead of taking the shuttle up to the Palacio de Pena, we walked it. The next day, we walked up to the Castelo de Sao Jorge in Lisbon which was a very steep climb and with lots of stairs. My husband handled both of those walks by wearing his brace. Enjoy the trip!!

Bolts are very inexpensive, plentiful and reliable in Portugal. In many cases, you'll find that two or three people sharing a bolt will be much cheaper than using transit. And you do not have to walk up and down to any Metro stopper station. You just order one and they will take you door-to-door.

We used bolt during our trip. One of our group has sciatica and one day my wife was feeling poorly so we just used bolt instead of walking.

Go to Google Maps and ask for directions from your hotel to various destinations and google will give you an estimate for the cost of a bolt.

If you plan to use bolt, make sure you load up the app and set it up on your phone while you are still at home and have access to texting because you may need to deal with an SMS verification text to activate the app. Good luck.