Went with a large group of friends for a Douro Valley Wine Tour in March. Our Living Tours guides…read morewere Luis Matos and Pedro Teixeira, who picked us up from our hotel in two vans and drove us around all day while narrating the history and knowledge about the area. We stopped by two beautiful vineyards for delicious wine tastings (Quinta Dos Castelares and Quinta Santa Julia) with a peaceful boat ride on the Douro River in between. The whole day lasted 9am to 6pm. Luis and Pedro did a wonderful job and made the trip seamless and memorable. They mentioned that they partner with different vineyards daily, so you could get other wonderful options for wine if you go on the tour with them. Overall, highly recommend the experience and thank you for a great trip!

Living tours has a great Douro Wine Valley tour. Rita and Luis were fantastic guides and Rita is…read moreso knowledgeable about the history and we learned so much about the beautiful country of Portugal. The first winery was amazing! 100% recommend using this company.

We took Eugenia's walking tour when we were in Porto a few weeks ago and it was more than we could…read morehave asked for. Our group was about 8 people, making for a much more intimate experience than the large groups we saw around town. It was a very curious group and Eugenia enthusiastically answered all of our questions, even though it resulted in the tour running a little long (which was terrific for us). I highly recommend this walking tour!

Fabulous tour guide, Diane. I Highly recommend her because she has a good depth of historical…read moreknowledge, sense of humor, and a witty delivery make your time on the tour enjoyable and entertaining. She was able to deliver historical points in concise, easy to understand verbiage with a kick of lightheartedness when appropriate and sincerity where it belongs. Loved it. Make sure to bring your tip money as it is their way to earn a living. They are independent contractors who pay Sandemans for the leads.

Get ready for a really long walk, up and down the hills, with this tour. We were so tired at the…read moreend of the tour! However, the guy Andre did a wonderful job showing you the major sites, and giving tips on places to explore more on your own, restaurants and food to try. He even sent us an email listing all the things he mentioned and suggested. How awesome is that? The tour is a bit heavy on history, I'd prefer more focus about the culture, and the food, but then it's just personal, and you can see that Andre is really proud of his country and his city. We just showed up at the meeting point at the start time, though you can make reservation online. There is a break at a cafe half way through so you can get a coffee or use the restroom, or just sit and rest your legs.

City Tailors and Taste Porto have merged into one company since I believe April of 2022. I began…read moreattempting to create a customized trip starting with Ricardo in early January 2022 for a trip in June. We discussed some ideas and I ended up requesting a trip of 6 days with a private tour guide - 3 days, a break day, 3 more days, then a concert festival the following day on my own. Apparently, 6 days is unintentionally the longest number of days for time spent with a tour with the same private guide at this company at the time of writing this review. A lighthouse tour was 5 days and it was 3 days at most before that. Within the 6 days, 2 were within Porto and 4 were in suburbs of Porto with history of its own and hidden food gems that one would not be aware of unless one grew up in this area. I have just completed the 6 day tour and it has become one of the most heart warming confidence building trips of my life. If you want a customized tour with this company, you need to come as an adventurer and not a typical tourist. If you want a typical tourist trip, there are many other companies and guides for this. If you are more of a traveler, foodie, adventurer, then this may be the Porto company for you! If you are not a planner and if it fits into a guide's schedule, you could be asked to pay a premium price. Remember, you're paying for 35+ years of experience done more on the company's terms. They can work with you on some ideas, but it is important to come with an open mind. If you have many extreme allergies, there are certain tours or parts of tours that may need a premium price or the company might not be able to serve extreme, unusual situations but they will try to do so. When you tour with CityTailors, do not expect mainstream. Also, plan ahead if you can. If you aren't a planner and need to be thrifty, look elsewhere. Remember, you get a unique brand of quality here like no other. Some mainstream things may be included, but other more unusual spots will be created as well. Local people or southern Portuguese are not likely to hire a tour guide company, but they really should or at least consider a private tour guide. Not only would you be supporting your own, but you would be enhancing your trip in ways you thought not possible. I also told my tour guide after the tour that his girlfriend was tired of hearing him talk to her about his 11,147th tour and showed the graffiti picture of angry woman with her roll away suitcase. Oh, don't forget to "look for signs in Porto"!

On our first trip to Portugal. Friends gave us 2 " must -do's": Fado in Coimbra and hiring Ricardo…read morefrom The City Tailors as a tour guide in Porto. They were " dead on" about both. But this is a review about Ricardo who was certainly for us the most knowledgeable , pleasant , interesting , and fun tour guide we have ever used, and we travel a lot in Europe. He guided us with his trainer "Ze" who was wonderful as well. Ricardo in particular is clearly extremely well read and skilled but is just a nice guy. History, architecture , culture, coffee, wine and FOOD , including just a lovely, authentic and delicious multi course lunch included in the tour price. My wife and I felt like we were just walking the city with good friends whose company we totally enjoyed. This is as I said a " must do" in Porto. Hire Ricardo. He will " make your day".

Andrès was an incredible guide. We learned so much about the history of Portugal, along with its…read moremany different cuisines. Every shop owner was welcoming and served good (but not Portuguese-sized ) portions. We were definitely full afterwards. I love that this tour is rain or shine and that they are very upfront about it. They are also very punctual. Part of our group was late, so our guide started the tour with my wife and me, and then another guide brought the other people to catch up a little later. They are also very accommodating to dietary needs or if you prefer an N/A beverage instead of wine (although there is a lot of good wine!). All of the spots were wonderful, and I really appreciated the market aspect of the tour. I just wish I had more time to go back. I would spend way too much money on all the amazing food there! This was the last part of our stay in Porto, which was nice, and we actually ended up eating at a spot (Popina) that my wife and I had dinner at the night before. Highly recommend and would definitely do it again or try one of their other tours.

Great guide, very knowledgeable about Porto and the offerings but the food offerings once outside…read moreof the market were nothing special.

Beautiful area and fun experience for lunch and port tasting. Only critique is the little town of…read moreAramante where we stopped for an hour was in no way prepared to have tourists arrive. No one accepts credit cards so be prepared with Euros. Also long delays because of cycling race... something you would think the tour group would be aware of.

Manuel was the best driver ever and made the tour special with music and his caring heart. Philip…read morewas a kind and knowledgeable guide and they were a fabulous team! Don't miss it- and tip them well- they work very hard!

Andreia was a fantastic guide! She was personable, funny, informative, accommodating, and a great…read moredriver. I enjoyed her tour of Quinta Santa Eufemia, having lunch at Restaurante Tipico, and one more winery. She stopped at various places to let us take photos, including Regua and Sabrosa (where explorer Magellan lived). She also kept reminding us to drink water and made sure we were comfortable on the windy roads. I also loved that she was a local from Gaia, around the area, and could share many personal stories and experiences about wine in the Douro area. Regarding the tour in general, the 7-seater van was clean, spacious and comfortable, with large windows on either side, and adequate A/C. The river cruise was relaxing, though I was hoping for some commentary from the captain instead of just the boat ride. It didn't hurt that the weather was perfect, sunny but breezy. An excellent value tour, and would definitely recommend to others!

We took Cooltour's all day (10 hour) tour of the Douro River Valley which included stops at an…read moreolive oil plant/winery, a boat trip, lunch, and another winery. It is not a cheap trip but it was worth it. Our guide, Luis, did a great job driving us about the are and educating us on the region. It was very interesting The van picked us up near our AirBnb in the morning and dropped us there at day's end. This was a small tour group, only 8 people plus Luis. The Douro is a stunning area and all of the stops were really well done with locals introducing us to their oils and wines. The one hour boat ride was beautiful and the lunch at a local restaurant was good. Highly recommended!

English tours available and our guide was informative and entertaining. We booked online in…read moreadvance. Tour the wine cellar then move to the tasting room to try all the port. Charcuterie boards available for purchase.

Worth the trip! This…read morePort wine house is not on the busy tourist route. We have had many wine tastings and tours in our day, and wanted to do something different. We asked at the information booth, on the main drag in Gaia, where the cellars are that offer a more personal experience and stated that we were willing to travel a bit off the main path. She gave us a brochure (which is in the shape of a wine bottle) for Pocas Junior that had the address and map to the tasting room and cellar. We decided to take a 5 minute ride with Uber that cost 3 Euros, to experience what we hoped was a more personal tour and tasting. This Port house is located on a quiet street and is identified by a large "P" on the building. Once inside, we were met by a personable and professional guide who gave us what turned out to be a private tour. The tour cost 3.5 Euros followed by a tasting of two Port wines. Our guide explained in detail the process for making Port as she walked us through their impressive working facility. She was highly knowledgeable and happily answered our questions. She explained that this Port house is owned and run by a Portuguese family and also clarified the difference between a Port and a Colheita. We were treated with genuine hospitality, instead of simply being part of a large tour group. If you want to experience something unique and special, go to Pocas.