For many of our tours I travel to the destination prior to adding the trip to our tour offerings. I sample the hotels, meals, and excursions. However, for this trip it was a little different. We’ve been offering our Portugal tour since 2019. It’s one of our best tours and I have the utmost confidence in Pedro, our ground partner, and his team. Mike did our SAWUSA tour this summer and loved it. So, I wasn’t really here to do that much work. My wife is turning 40, and we’d needed a place to go without our three kids. So, we made this a work/personal tour. It was super valuable for business purposes as every chance I have to meet with ground partners face to face is valuable, and the more I know about the places we visit the better. Anyway, here are my thoughts…
Flying
One huge benefit for Lisbon is it’s one of the closest European flights. Our flight time was only like 6 hours from Washington DC to Lisbon. Definitely better than 9 or 10, but still a taxing red eye. I paid a little extra to pick my seat and the plane was half full. That made me mad – the airlines just get you every which way!
Vineyard
Our first hotel was a vineyard, Quinta Da Pacheca, that one of our lacrosse tours ate lunch at this summer. It’s a wine-tourism place. You can stay in wine barrels, do wine tastings, and see how they make the wine. One thing I learned is Portuguese are super passionate about wine. I know sometimes Americans don’t understand why brewery or vineyard tours are part of SAWUSA tours with minors. But it’s important to remember the purpose of our tours is to learn and grow. Europeans approach alcohol differently than we do. They take immense pride in the production and tastes. ‘When in Rome’, is the approach you want to take when traveling. In Portugal, they love wine – so wine it is!
Porto
We toured the Northern city of Porto. Our Lisboa Lacrosse Cup and Portugal Basketball Festival tours go south to the Algarve. I’m not a beach guy, so I wanted to explore Porto. It was amazing. We did a ‘6 Bridges Boat Tour’. I think in the future we will explore taking groups North to Porto. If we do, I’d really recommend this tour. It’s a great way to see the city, learn the history, from the comfort of an old boat like the one you see pictured below. The history of this old city is amazing. Pictures don’t do it justice. We also walked the city and saw all the towers, castles, train stations that Pedro recommended. We only had one day in Porto. I would’ve loved more.
Adventure
I don’t think this is something we could do as a group, but it was cool. We did a 5 mile hike including the World’s longest suspension bridge. It’s called Arouca 516, because it’s 516 meters long (1/3 of a mile). Not pictured is the waterfall under the bridge (if you are brave enough to look down) and the hike which is all wooden decking going down the mountain. Beautiful scenery. I think even more fun for us was the drive to get there. We took our little rental car over some mountain roads that blew our minds
Food
I loved the food in Portugal. The Franceshina on the left is famous from Porto. If you love food, google it. Just amazing. On the right, Nutella breakfast croissants. Perfection. Trying to find a place for a ‘light lunch’? Not possible.
Halfway
We made a stop halfway at a really cool eco-lodge with white huts (yurts). We probably couldn’t take a group to one of these as there were only like 8 huts. But, the place was so cool, I had to include a picture. Here is from our room looking at another vineyard. This place was so cool and allowed us to see a little more of rural Portugal in addition to just the cities.
Pedro and Maria
The rest of our tour was in Lisbon. First stop was lunch with Pedro and Maria. Pedro took us to an awesome spot with a view of historic Belem, and even treated us to the famous pastries. It was great to catch up in person again and talk shop. Our ground partners are crucial to our success. We come together with different first languages, different customs, and different business challenges. Bridging these gaps is what it’s all about. Working with the right people is key!
More Adventure
We did some Crossfit in Lisbon and then we tried ‘Coastereering’. It’s a fancy name that is supposed to be about exploring the coastline and traversing and all that. However, it’s just a clever name to attract more people. It’s cliff-diving, and it’s amazing. We got up to 26-28 feet jumps. Doesn’t sound like much, until you are up there! Full wet suits and helmets and shoes. We explored caves and climbed and then we jumped in the ocean. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. The scenery was insane. I felt like I was on a movie set.
Lisbon
We walked a lot in Lisbon. Our travelers have complained over the years that there is a lot of walking on this trip. Lisbon is super hilly, and hot. We will definitely find some ways in 2025 to reduce some of the walking on this tour. One thing I wish we could do, but of course can’t with a large group, is rent one of these ridiculously small electric cars with built in tour guide GPS to give a city tour. We did a 3 hour tour driving around all the tiny streets in a tiny car. It was a great way to see Lisbon. We got a lot of looks. I felt like Bowser driving in Mario Kart.
More Lisbon and Heading Home
Although I’d been to Portugal before, and to Spain a few times, it was my first time in Lisbon. It was such a cool city. It’s easy to see why it’s becoming such a tourist hotspot. I left Portugal confident that our Portugal & Spain tours are some of the best tours we offer. Portuguese people are awesome and their country is filled with history and tradition. If you haven’t been to Portugal… to steal a line from Mike – pack your bags!