Winter in Portugal: Rich History & Culture from Cascais to Lisbon

This trip was the perfect mix of history, culture and sightseeing. Paula was an excellent guide. She quickly brought the group together and then led us expertly with a great deal of energy and knowledge. The hotel in Cascais was lovely as was the city itself. It was great to be away from the hustle and bustle of Lisbon, but close enough to visit it. The food was great and our group was very congenial.

What a wonderful trip! Isabel Neves is a great group leader and is very knowledgeable, patient and fun! The variety of interesting sites we visited, the activities and great meals we enjoyed and the history of Portugal we learned were all amazing. Cascais is beautiful and the hotel was great and a perfect location for our home base. I highly recommend this trip!

Great trip, good food, abundant wine, knowledgeable tour guide and field staff. I had a wonderful time.

Great trip with a great guide. I really enjoyed the diversity of locations we visited

This was a really wonderful trip. We were met at the airport and taken to our ocean front hotel in Cascais. The hotel was close to the town of Cascais and the Marina, so walking was very convenient. We met our Tour Guide, Isabel Neves, in the evening and got an introduction to the plan for the following days. Isabel is an excellent guide and a lovely person. The places we visited were well chosen and we had a very good history of the places from Isabel as we traveled on the bus to the various locations. One of the highlights was our cooking experience in a charming hotel. Instructed by one of the chefs, we prepared our appetizers and shared them with the other Road Scholars. Delicious lunch followed. As always Road Scholar provided a terrific experience on this trip.

An excellent program that truly provides and in-depth portrait of Portugal. The field trips were organized perfectly and added to the understanding of the country.

The Winter in Portugal trip was beyond my expectations. Great group I met on my first solo trip and the sites and experiences were engaging and I learned so much. Loved the less crowded time to travel and highly recommend giving "winter" trips a try. Great value and no crowds.

Portugal...yes we loved it!

What a wonderful trip. I enjoyed the trip and learned so much about the history and culture of the warm Portuguese people. Our daily activities and meals were all wonderful. Our group leader Isabel was warm and patient and explained everything about Portugal and our adventures with our group. I am pleased to give this program the highest recommendation!!

This was an excellent program. Isabel, our leader, was extremely knowledgeable and a perfect guide for each of the places we visited. Meals and accommodations were great.

Overall, it was excellent, although Lisbon was shorted and there was too much free time.

This was my first trip with Road Scholars and I certainly hope it is not my last. Hoping to do one with my 16 year old grandson. This one taken with my adult daughter was enjoyed by both of us. We chose to do a tour because neither of us had been in this country and were happy to have some choices made for us. It was an awesome introduction to the world of educational touring. Thanks to everyone who worked on this trip!

As a first time Road Scholar participant, the Winter in Portugal program wildly exceeded my expectations in all respects. The Group Leader quality is remarkable.

A very enjoyable trip. Sites, events and leisure time were in balance for me. A very personable and enjoyable guide, with a manageable group of like minded people in my age cohort.

This was an excellent program and I learned a lot about Portugal

This was, without a doubt, one of the best weeks of my life. Apart from learning so much about this beautiful, clean, safe and friendly country, we had an awesome tour guide, Paula. Everything was well planned, and the tours were exceptional. I would never have been able to see and learn about the various sites as a tourist on my own. Paula is very well versed in her knowledge of the area and a delightful person to be around. Thank you to all that made this possible, including the coach driver (who never stops smiling, it seems) and the helpful hotel staff. I want to go back!!!

My best Road Scholar trip yet! Great learning experiences, wonderful accommodations, tasty meals, an outstanding, just the right amoount of free time, well informoed group leader, and congenial companions. Loved every moment!

My knowledge of Portugal quadrupled during this week. The trip is balanced, packed, and well paced. Accommodations right on the ocean exceeded my expectations. Excellent food. The small group size is ideal for a trip this length; there was time to chat with everyone. I am a regular traveler with Road Scholar and this trip lived up to the standards I tell other people RS offers.

This was an outstanding adventure- excellent food, activities, accomodations- I wish the trip had been longer as there is so much to experience in Portugal. I highly recommend this program

This was my first Road Scholar trip and it met my every expectation. We had a wonderful guide and a great group of people, terrific food and interesting experiences. I look forward to another trip next year.

This is a great trip, which I would highly recommend. The location of the hotel in Cascais is wonderful - how great to wake up to an ocean view each morning! The various field trips had good variety, I especially enjoyed the trip to Sintra and the Gulbenkian Art Museum. The Fado performance was a highlight. The Group Leader, Isabel, was a gem!

The splendor of seeing the country through an amazing guide and professionalism of the program is a real selling point. All of our needs were met and the visit exceeded my expectations since this was our first tour. The opportunity to have 3 out of the box experiences added immensely. I would highly recommend this tour, especially if they are lucky to have Isabel Neves as guide.

Great program! Location of hotel was wonderful. Food was very good with a few exceptions. No choices for many of the plated meals. The buffets almost had too many choices. Fado was fantastic. Would definitely recommend this program.

This was a memorable Road Scholar adventure. Our group leader, Isabel, is a gem. I hope to do another trip with her.

Please remember to leave the breakfast boxes on your plane. Fruit, meat, and vegetables are not permitted in the USA. They will be confiscated and you will be searched.

My experience was fabulous. Loved Portugal, its food, wine, people, and scenery. Don't miss this program.

This was a varied and delightful introduction to Portugal and places in and around Lisbon. Our resort hotel--all RS rooms faced the outdoor pool and the Atlantic--was very comfortable, with elegant dining areas and a variety of dishes. I realized quickly that I knew almost nothing about the history and politics of Portugal and was grateful for two morning lectures that began to orient me. We visited must-see sights in the area--Mafra and Sintra palaces, key monuments, and more--but also Road Scholar's signature: visits to interesting places that add depth to the country experience. In our case, we visited a family-owned tile factory which made clear the complexity and skill involved in turning clay into works of art; and we visited an agricultural firm (state-owned, by happenstance) which raises cattle AND cork trees, as well as wine grapes and olives. A huge advantage of touring with RS is that all transportation and arrangements are carefully planned. I stayed over on my own for three days in Lisbon to see more sights, and found I could only manage a much-truncated set of activities compared to the full program on the RS portion of my trip. Our trip leader Isabel Neves was a superb leader and companion on this adventure.

This trip exceeded my expectations in every way. I learned so much about Portugal and its history from Professor Isabel that I wished I were a student again! Our trip leader, Inês, and all of our guides were terrific. The seaside location of Cascais was the perfect base for this trip, so peaceful and restorative. The food was delicious. I can't say enough about the pastries, the cheeses and the wines! If you've always wanted to visit Portugal, what are you waiting for?

Exceptional trip in every way. It exceeded my high expectations - which is rare in my experience. Beautiful and interesting places to visit and I learned so much. I thoroughly enjoyed the other participants too.

My wife and I give this Road Scholar tour five out of five stars. Our guide was among the best in our experience at Road Scholar. This is also true of our historians on the tour. Very engaging, friendly and helpful. The tour itinerary was very enjoyable, especially the highlight being the Fado club. Memorable points include Sintra, Mafra, the Tile works, cooking class, and of course the Gulbenkian museum, an incredible jewel of Lisbon. Eat as many of the different pastries as you can! Note about packing: Our tour was during the first week in February. We were comfortable wearing a sweater. The temperature was normally in the 60's during the day. I would recommend this tour based on the variety and quality of experiences, the friendly people of Portugal, the unforgettable food and wine, and the beautiful scenery. My wife says that Portugal reminds her of Italy as it was forty years ago.

I chose this particular Portugal trip because it stayed in the beach town of Cascais, which is 25 miles outside of Lisbon. The area is beautiful and the hotel was outstanding, with every roadscholar traveler having an oceanfront room with a spectacular view. The itinerary each day got us to see many towns of southern Portugal, with several days of activities in Lisbon. The museums and castles, along with visits to a cork tree forest, a vineyard, a horse breeding farm, and a tile making factory were well organized and fun. Most outstanding was our guide Isabel Burnay. She was so knowledgeable and so enthusiastic about her country that she charmed all of us. One of the highlights for me was the evening our guide arranged for us to have dinner in a home in Lisbon. I would highly recommend this trip. If you like visiting a country in the off-season, and be in a climate that is less hot and humid than it would be in the summer, then this is the trip for you. Thank you Roadscholar for another amazing adventure!

Great food, nice people, beautiful country. Go to Portugal. Eat fish and listen to Fado music!

Winter in Portugal was a great experience. The field trips were informative and the pace was just right. Our team leader was a joy to be with. This was my first trip with Road Scholar and would take another trip with them.

This is a wonderful tour with a superb guide. The variety of activities is excellent. It's also nice that you stay in one hotel the entire trip.

Short program, but in-depth experience. Lisbon's centuries of history come alive! And Vasco da Gama will be more than a name in a history book after this trip!

This was a wonderful experience . Ines , our program leader, was so informative and helpful; she loves her country and it shows. I also liked Pilar, our guide, for her ability to make history a story and for her sense of humor. Monasteries, Lisbon, wonderful food, and the incredible Pena Palace in Sintra were all great experiences. I also wish to thank the kind lady who opened her home and made dinner for us !! Her warmth (and homemade soup) were wonderful to experience. My only "dislke" was the morning we drove all the way out to a farm. Yes, I appreciated and respected the lecture we had in the cork oak grove; cork is a national treasure in Portugal. But then we looked at 3 horses and had a two- hour lunch. Instead of looking at horses, we could have packed a lunch and gone elsewhere; perhaps to spend more time in Lisbon or another city. My fellow travelers were the friendliest and kindest of folks ; I was traveling alone and both "singles" and "couples" made me feel so welcome. We had a blast yakking together. All in all, a wonderful trip ! Oh, it was cold and very WINDY; bring not just thin layers, but a winter-weight sweater under your light jacket. Happy travels !

I would highly recommend this program. It included such a wonderful variety of experiences. I am so glad I made the trip and would definitely do it again. Ines, our group leader, was excellent!

This was my 6th RS trip and it was wonderful. We stayed in a lovely hotel right on the ocean in a suburb of Lisbon. Weatherwise we had one day of drizzle and we managed to see what we needed to see. Paula is a wonderful leader. She knows her country for sure! We saw lovely places....castles, farms, museums, monuments, fortresses, and of course, great food! Portugal is a lovely country not to be missed. We were blessed with lovely co-travelers who got along very well. Don't miss Portugal....a lively, lovely country of people who are proud.

Perfectly paced, gorgeous sites and scenery, welcoming culture, delightful accommodations. A perfect winter getaway!

Great program, great venue, great staff, a host of new friends, well planned with respect to mobility. Great new friends.

It was a notable learning experience. Our leader was passionate about her country, informative about its history and culture and a true teacher in every sense of the word. She prepared us well for each days experiences and supplemented the experts presentations knowledgeably and succinctly.

This was a realatively short program but covered a great deal of information about Portugal and it's history and people in a very enjoyable way. Our guides were great and the sites visited were worthwhile. I feel I've learned a lot and had a great time.

"Winter in Portugal" #22583 was a lovely educational trip to learn about the history and people of Portugal. The itinerary includes lots of variety - from a tile factory to a market place visit to a closing dinner with superb Fado music as examples. Cascais is a lovely setting and the hotel room balcony overlooks the ocean. February was a wonderful time to travel because there were no crowds and the temps were in the low 60's during the days. I knew very little about the Portuguese royal family and only a little about their 15th and 16th century explorers. This program helped me develop an appreciation for their mastery of the sea and spirit of exploration and adventure. Our group leader Adriana was excellent in all regards as was our guide Isabel who did the commentary at the historical sites visited. You won't be disappointed. The program is a great value for all that is included. You will love the friendly Portuguese culture. This was a 5 star experience!!

This was a fun and interesting trip I took with my Mother and Aunt. The program was well organized, the leader excellent and the group warm and easy to engage with. AND Portugal and her people were so wonderful. A beautiful and welcoming country rich in history and beauty.