Exploring Portugal’s Stunning Coastlines: Active Senior Vacation

My trip was very personal. It was not just to travel and see different places, it was to absorb the place, community, spend time alone, etc. That said, Portugal is an incredible country. I spent three weeks in Lagos and three nights each in São Miguel and Porto. The golf, beaches, and sun in the Algarve are special. The beauty and quaintness of São Miguel are amazing, and Porto has become quite the city, with much to do and experience.

My agent spent countless hours with me in preparation, educating and arranging my month-long adventure, and often going beyond expectations. The trip involved many arrangements, including golf, tours, living, etc. The team was available every day, which was necessary at times.

We had the most amazing trip through Portugal thanks to Zicasso putting us in contact with Filomena and the entire crew at her travel agency. Our trip was just what we enjoy doing. As a background we are in our mid-70s, but we like to be active meaning we enjoy moderate hikes, food walking tours, cooking classes/demonstrations, local music, some private tours and some group tours while visiting normal tourist areas and having time allowing us to wander around the cities and towns so we can meet the people, sample local cuisine and do a little shopping. Portugal offers mountains, rivers, beaches, large cities and smaller towns. Filomena listened to our likes and dislikes and developed the perfect tour. We like to visit a country for at least a couple weeks which allowed us to visit Portugal from the northern border to the southern coastline. We do not like the night here and a night there just to say we were in a specific area. We love being places for 3 to 4 nights so we can enjoy the area. The Portuguese are most accommodating with most speaking some if not perfect English (we did manage to find one hole in the wall restaurant were NO English was spoken but we ended up with a great grilled fish dinner and a very good wine – perfect for us). Everywhere we visited the areas were very clean, we drank the tap water with no ill effects, and we ate local fruits, salads and vegetables again with no problems. The food was universally great many times we opted to eat at the same restaurant as the tour guides, not fancy but great food! The selection of hotels from Porto in the north to Lagos on the southern coastline were very nice with very good breakfasts, very comfortable rooms, great locations and very good WiFi connectivity. We felt perfectly safe wherever we wandered as a matter of fact we slept with the patio doors open at night to enjoy the coolness of the night breezes. Every driver and tour company arrived if not exactly on time a little early. Our travel agency team put together a complete itinerary with an app which allowed us to verify pick-up location and directions, hotels, tour operators and times as well as a description of the planned tour/visit. In addition to that app, the use of the WhatApp app allowed us to contact our travel agency team and they responded almost immediately when we had a question. Additionally, they recommended local attractions that we might enjoy and food suggestions we needed to sample in each location. Filomena kept us busy but also allowed some free time for us to explore things on our own. We have had the good fortune to visit Asia, various Caribbean Islands, Mexico, parts of Europe, Northern Africa, South America and of course the USA. This Portugal Tour put together by Filomena may well have been our best trip to date. We highly recommend their services and are sure you will not be disappointed.

My trip planning request connected us with Zicasso's travel partner and we had the best trip of our lives. She really took all the special things we wanted to do (three couples traveled) and put together an awesome itinerary including Porto, Lisbon, and Lagos. She kept in touch with us before and during the trip, always sending an email to see if we had any questions or to ask how things were going. This is the only way we will travel to new destinations in the future – work with a super-qualified local travel agent and have everything arranged in advance. She didn't let us down.

The hotels were beautiful and located close to all the things we wanted to do during the day and evenings. The half-day and full-day tours were excellent, and the private ground transportation she arranged for our group from location to location was very comfortable.