Portugal Private Tours & Local Tour Guides

“Excellent Day with Francisco”

We had a wonderful 8 hour tour of four palaces in Sintra. Firstly, even though we had a rental car, this is not a tour that we could have done on our own. The maze of streets and few hidden parking spots would have likely meant that we would have has to miss sites. Also, gps doesn’t work on the volcanic mountain. Second, he has an excellent knowledge of the sites, and of Portuguese and world history. He also is an excellent story teller, and a great guy. Francisco picked us up and dropped us off at our hotel, which was helpful. Moreover, he grew up in Sintra, and now lives nearby so he knows a lot of people, and picked an excellent, simple local restaurant for lunch. If we did it again, would spend an extra night in Sintra and do a second day of touring with him. Highly recommend a tour with him.

“Amazing day in Sintra”

We had a great day on our tour of Sintra. Duarte was not our guide which was a surprise but Joao did a really nice job. At his recommendation we toured the inside of the Queluz Palace and the outside of the Pena Palace since the lines at the Pena Palace can be quite long and would have taken up too much time. The only thing we didn't like was Joao tried to sell us more tours when we returned to Lisbon.

Duarte P.

(4 reviews)

Hi Sue Thank you very much for contacting me, and especially for your review. João Ramos does work with me, and I organised your Sintra tour with him because you were only 2 passengers, and your tour would have been more comfortable in a smaller car, which is the one João normally works with. I asked João why he had suggested other tour options, and what he told me was that when he realised that you would be returning to Lisbon, and accompanied by friends, he tried to let you know that he and I could design and organise a tour for the whole group that would meet your wishes for the visit, which could include: wine tasting, artisanal cheese making, drawing and painting tiles, in short, there is a world of experiences that could be organised by us. I know that he has done this with the best of intentions, as he is truly passionate about our history and culture, and I'm sure that you would be truly amazed at how much you can do, and at the wonderful experiences and memories you can take away with you. I wish you a wonderful holiday on your cruise and if you need any support from us, we are here to help. At your service Duarte Pestana and João Ramos

“4 star review”

We had an amazing tour with Maya in Lisbon. She was so pleasant and friendly and brought us to some really interesting places! We especially loved the Jorge castle and stopping for pastel de nata where she made sure we got them fresh from the oven! Maya knows the city well and it felt like we were touring Lisbon with a new friend. The only thing that wasn't perfect was not being informed that Joao was not our guide as we were expecting him. Also the information we received about the meeting point and time was different than we requested but because the email came a day before the tour with instructions we believed it to be correct.