Self-Drive Portugal Itinerary: Iconic Cities to Charming Towns

I'd make this 4.5 stars if I could. We had a five-star experience with a few glitches, but they were addressed quickly and kindly.

Zicasso’s travel specialist is a gem. She goes out of her way to clearly communicate what to expect, who you'll be with, and the times for meets and activities. She made us feel special, as though we were her personal guests rather than just clients. We had a luggage issue that she went out of her way to help resolve.

We asked to stay in nice places with AC and king-size beds, and she delivered. All places were great and a bit different from what we're used to and from each other. Most of the drivers were also a lot of fun to be with and spoke at least reasonably good English.

I offer two suggestions for those who use this service. One, always verify meet times and contact info that you receive. Two, don't pre-book two meals in a day if you're staying at a place that offers breakfast. It's just too much food too close together.

We had an 11-day vacation. We chose variety rather than immersion, so went from Porto to Douro Valley to Alentejo to Lisbon to Lagos in the Algarve area, with some stops in between and drivers who brought us everywhere. Next time, we'd likely choose two or three places for a more immersive experience.

I highly recommend this travel company and the travel specialist in particular.

My husband and I had a wonderful week touring central and northern Portugal with this Zicasso travel company. The itinerary developed by our travel specialist was excellent, as were the hotels she selected.

Above all, we appreciated our driver. He was kind, patient, and full of knowledge. He guided us through many sites and provided a history of each place we visited. He answered all our questions. We would never have had the depth of understanding on our own. He was also flexible if we needed to make changes and had the patience of Job driving through the busy streets of Lisbon and Porto, and through winding roads of the medieval towns... again, something we could not have done on our own.

Our entire trip was very personalized to our interests. We have already recommended the travel company to our friends. We look forward to coming back because we had such a beautiful trip.

Good Afternoon,

We are reaching out regarding a review request for our recent trip. Recently, we booked a 10-day trip to Portugal through Zicasso. This is our third trip booked through Zicasso, and we chose Zicasso because the previous two trips were fantastic; they were well organized, and we had very enjoyable experiences in two countries we had never visited. The previous agents built our itinerary based on their vast knowledge of the country, confirmed all logistics, were communicative, and provided us with a great and luxurious experience in line with the cost. 

Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about our recent experience with this travel company. We approached the collaboration with the travel company and agent similarly to our past two vacations. Based on the provided itinerary and our conversations with the travel agent, we understood, as before, that the itinerary items that required guides, reservations, and transport details had been worked out with the respective parties. However, on our trip, there were many miscommunications between the agency, ourselves, and our guides and drivers. The itinerary listed many places we thought we would be shown on the tours, but in reality, we did not visit many of them, they were just listed as options for us to explore ourselves, which was unclear from how the itinerary was initially presented to us in the planning stage. When the tours started, the tour guides were often asking us what we would like to see instead of having a list of stops to take us to. As this was our first trip to Portugal, we were not informed enough to provide that input and did not expect to have to do so. The guides were very good, they were knowledgeable, often kind, and tried to help us, but it was clear that they had also not received proper communication from our travel agent, which was upsetting and made the experience feel very disorganized. Additionally, the private transport drivers were not clear as to where they were taking us, again due to miscommunication from the travel agency. For example, when we traveled from Lisbon to Porto, as per the itinerary, we were supposed to stop at Obidos and Coimbra along the way for specific sightseeing and tours. Our driver was not aware that we were meant to make those two stops along the way. Luckily for us, we found out the previous day that the same driver would be taking us to Porto, and our guide worked with him to figure out the stops and timings for our scheduled activities on that trip. However, it was stressful to learn that our driver was not aware that we had a stop at Obidos, he did not know that we were going to have a tour guide in Coimbra who he had to coordinate with regarding pickup and drop-off. Additionally, we were meant to have lunch at a restaurant where the agent was supposed to have made a lunch reservation. However, when we went there, they had no reservation on record but they were nice enough to accommodate us. As this was happening and we reached out to our travel agent to request that she communicate with the driver, we just received a text message back saying that the driver was already aware, which was clearly not the case.

In the Azores, because of the weather, our whale tour was cancelled, which we completely understand due to safety, but we still had a jeep tour portion of the excursion. The guide for this jeep tour did not provide a good experience at all. He did not stop at a lot of viewpoints though we saw other jeep tours stopping at them, and he spent a lot of the trip complaining about tourists. The jeep ride was very uncomfortable as they made several of us sit in the back rear facing seats, even though we had specifically mentioned to the agent during planning that my mother is 70 years old and cannot easily climb in and out of some of these types of vehicles. As part of the itinerary for this day, a lunch was also included but the tour guide was not aware of it, and when he learned about it, he said he could not arrange the lunch because he needed to go to his next tour. We ultimately left and had lunch on our own. When planning, our agent said that although this was a jeep tour it would be comfortable and that the tour the next day would be in a minivan. However, the next tour was also in a jeep. The tour guide was very good but the ride was uncomfortable, and again did not accommodate the mobility issues we had identified with our agent previously. 

On the last day, we were supposed to be picked up for our transport to the airport for our flight home. The driver did not show up and the hotel staff tried to help us by calling the travel company’s emergency number. It was surprising that instead of helping us they were being very rude to the hotel staff who were actually going out of their way to help us. We found out that the agency communicated the wrong time to the pick-up driver and finally the hotel arranged for a taxi to take us to the airport, otherwise we would have been late for our return flight. 

Overall, the trip was not on par with the level of quality we have come to expect from a Zicasso identified travel agency. In addition to the general logistical issues we experienced, the agent never checked on us at any time to see if all was well. Whenever we had a question and we reached out to her, we received unclear responses via text, and nothing further. We wanted to provide this feedback as we know Zicasso takes pride in providing luxury travel experiences to their customers, and we have experienced that first hand in previous trips. As return customers, I would not recommend this agent/company to anyone who wants a Zicasso experience.

 Sincerely,

Jyotsna R.

We just returned from a 13-day trip covering Porto, Lisbon, Rabat, the Agafay Desert, and Marrakech, and the trip exceeded what we had hoped for. We are a family of five, ranging from our early 60s to mid-20s, and Zicasso's travel specialist built an itinerary that worked well for all of us, with some unique experiences that suited our interests and travel style.

He was consistently responsive throughout the planning process and followed through on every detail. More importantly, the on-the-ground logistics in both countries worked well: private drivers arrived on time, guides were knowledgeable and personable, and the accommodations were well chosen. Our camp in the Agafay Desert was a particular highlight.

What made the trip genuinely worthwhile was the texture of it. The Portuguese side offered the kind of immersion you don't get from a highlights tour: a sidecar ride through Porto's historic quarters, a kayaking day in the Douro Valley, and a cooking class the morning we flew to Morocco. The Moroccan half was equally substantive, from the Rabat medina to the Berber family lunch in the Ourika Valley. We came back feeling like we had experienced both cultures, something that we try to really accomplish when we travel.

If you are considering this type of itinerary, this travel specialist is the right person to plan it. I'd book with him again without hesitation.

The trip was simply amazing. It exceeded our expectations. The accommodations were first class and conveniently located in Lisbon and Porto. The guides were all top-notch. They were both informative and entertaining. We never felt like we were sitting in a lecture hall.

Also, my group just turned 70 in age and the guides and drivers accommodated our pace. In Porto, the guide acquired taxis to get us from the river up the hill to the cathedral. In the Douro Valley, the guide was able to arrange for us to be dropped off on the far shore to avoid some of the mountain roads. The drivers were also a delight and we felt safe with them at the wheel.

In addition, we would all recommend Zicasso’s travel company and, in particular, our travel specialist. He was easy to work with in laying out the itinerary and it was obvious he knew the best guides, drivers, and accommodations. He was always attentive. We experienced no problems at all on the trip and my only communication with him was to tell him how excellent everything was going.