Custom Tailor-Made Private Portugal Itinerary

Why a tailor-made itinerary is often the right answer

Published itineraries exist because they work for most people. But most people are not travelling with a grandmother who tires by three o'clock, a teenager obsessed with surfing, or a family name they want to trace to a village in the Beira. When your trip has a shape of its own, the itinerary should match it.

We have designed days around wedding anniversaries, birdwatching, azulejo workshops, cork production, football stadiums, monastery libraries and one long search for a particular type of ceramic. None of them are on the website. All of them were among the best days of that year.

How the planning works

It begins with a conversation, not a form. We want to know how you like to travel — early or slow, museums or markets, one good meal or three small ones — as well as the practical details of dates, group size and mobility.

• You send your dates, group size and what you would love to see or do
• We reply within 24 hours with a suggested route, realistic timings and a clear price
• We refine it together until it feels right — nothing is fixed until you say so
• We handle the reservations that need handling: restaurants, tastings, tickets, boats
• You travel, and change your mind whenever you like

What we can build

Single days out of Lisbon, Porto or the Algarve. Multi-day journeys of three to fourteen days. Fixed-base trips where you stay in one hotel and take a different day trip each morning. Cruise-day itineraries built around an all-aboard time. Transfers with sightseeing built into the drive between two cities.

Interest-led days work particularly well: wine and food, religious heritage, Jewish Portugal, Templar history, azulejos and craft, gardens, architecture, surfing and coastal walks, or photography routes planned around the light rather than the opening hours.

Family travel and ancestry visits

Families get child seats, shorter walking sections, ice-cream stops that are actually planned, and a guide who talks to children rather than over them.

Ancestry visits are among the most rewarding days we run. If your family came from a village in the north, the Azores diaspora route, or a parish near Coimbra, we will help you find the church, the records office and, more than once, a surviving cousin. Tell us what you know and we will do the groundwork before you arrive.

Accessibility and slower travel

Portugal's cobbles, hills and old buildings can be difficult. We plan around them honestly: sites with lifts and ramps, drop-offs as close as regulations allow, viewpoints reachable without stairs, and shorter days with a proper rest in the middle.

If a famous site is genuinely not manageable, we will say so in advance and suggest something as good that is.

What is included, and what you pay for separately

Included: the private vehicle, the licensed driver-guide, itinerary design, fuel, tolls, parking, bottled water and Wi-Fi on board.

Paid by you on the day: entrance tickets, meals, tastings and boat trips. We keep it that way deliberately, so nothing is bundled into a headline price that you might not want, and so you always know what you are paying for.

Regions we cover

Lisbon and its coast, Sintra and Cascais, the Silver Coast, Fátima, Tomar and the Templar heartland, Coimbra and the centre, Porto and the Douro, the Minho and the green north, the Alentejo, and the Algarve — mainland Portugal in its entirety, plus cross-border days into Spanish Extremadura and Galicia for longer itineraries.

Best time to travel

April to June and September to October are the best all-round months. July and August are hot and busy but perfectly workable with early starts and coastal afternoons. November to March is quiet, mild in the south, and excellent for city travel, wine cellars and photography — and the prices at good hotels fall considerably.

Who tailor-made suits best

Returning visitors who have already done the classics; multi-generational groups with different energy levels; travellers with a specific passion; anyone with awkward flight times or a cruise schedule; and people who simply prefer their holiday not to look like anyone else's.