11-Day Country Roads of Portugal - Small Group 2027

Highlights

• Lisbon: Meet your Travel Director and Small Group at a local neighborhood restaurant, where you’ll sit down to plates shaped by Lisbon’s Atlantic staples, giving you a clear first taste of the city’s everyday cooking.
• Douro Valley: You’ll sit down to a Farm-to-Table meal prepared with produce grown in the Douro region. Alongside local dishes, you’ll try Port wine made from grapes cultivated on the valley’s terraced hillsides, with staff sharing how the landscape shapes the flavor and style of each pour. 
• Lisbon: Shared experiences and memories are often the foundation for special bonds and friendships. Toast your travels with wine and good cheer during your dinner at a restaurant in Lisbon, devoted to the enjoyment of regional cooking.
• Lisbon: With your Local Expert, explore the Lower Town, passing sites linked to the Marquis of Pombal’s 18th-century redevelopment and the grid layout that shaped modern Lisbon. In Belém, you’ll visit the tower built at the mouth of the Tagus and see the Monument to the Discoveries, created for Portugal’s 20th-century celebrations of its maritime history. 
• Lisbon: You’ll walk through the cloister of the UNESCO-listed Jerónimos Monastery, where early 16th-century Manueline carving appears in the ropes, armillary spheres and botanical details shaped into the stone. Each section shows the skilled artisanry that defined this period of Portuguese design. 
• Lagos: Get a feel for Lagos with your Travel Director, moving through the walled old town and Praça Infante Dom Henrique, taking in the waterfront once used for voyages along the West African coast. 
• Explore Évora with your Local Expert in a city shaped by Roman foundations and medieval expansion. At the Roman Temple, you’ll see one of Portugal’s strongest classical remains. You’ll view walls lined with human bones arranged by 16th-century monks at the Capela dos Ossos. Inside Évora Cathedral, you’ll move between Romanesque arches and the later Gothic work added as the city grew in influence. 
• Fátima: You’ll visit the Sanctuary of Fátima, centered on the reported apparitions of 1917. The site brings together major places of worship such as the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary and the Chapel of the Apparitions, set around a vast open square used for major pilgrimages. 
• Coimbra: Explore Coimbra with a Local Expert in a city that served as Portugal’s early capital. The walk brings you through steep lanes linked to the old royal palace, past long-standing student cafes and towards the upper town where academic life has shaped the streets for centuries.
• Coimbra: Visit the University of Coimbra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with roots in the 1200s. Inside the baroque library, you’ll stand among carved shelves and painted ceilings built to protect rare volumes, including works central to Portugal’s early scientific and literary study. 
• Guimaraes: Wander through Guimarães’ medieval center, where narrow lanes link small squares shaped around the original castle and palace. The quarter holds stone-fronted houses, arcades and courtyards that reflect the town’s role in Portugal’s early formation, with buildings that have remained in use for centuries. 
• Porto: Explore Porto with a Local Expert, walking through streets shaped by the city’s trading history. At São Bento Railway Station, you’ll see the azulejo panels illustrating scenes from across Portugal. You’ll also cross the Dom Luís I Bridge, designed by a student of Eiffel, with views over the Douro
• Obidos: Walk inside Óbidos’ medieval walls, you’ll follow a street pattern that reflects its origins as a Roman settlement later granted as a royal wedding gift in the 13th century. You’ll move through lanes lined with whitewashed houses and small churches, and sample ginja, the local cherry liqueur traditionally served in small cups. 
• The Algarve: Explore Ria Formosa Natural Park with local marine biologists and oyster farmers, cruising by small boat through the lagoon to a working oyster farm. Learn how traditional cultivation techniques support today’s sustainable aquaculture, taste freshly harvested oysters and visit a small island village to see how daily life, livelihoods and conservation all remain tied to the water. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.
• Tomar: Explore Tomar’s hilltop Templar Castle, founded in the 12th century and later remodelled by the Order of Christ, including the Charola and surrounding defenses. Afterwards, with your Local Expert, walk through the historic center to the 15th-century synagogue, one of Portugal’s few surviving examples, now housing a small collection on the town’s former Jewish community.