Portugal, a coastline and everything behind it.
Which boat actually gets inside the Benagil cave. Which Douro cellar pours the good stuff. Whether the Pena Palace ticket needs a time slot. Reviews of every tour in Portugal.
The tours Portugal fills first.
All Portugal reviews →More travellers take these than anything else in the country. Prices, ratings and what each one gets you for the day.
1
The Unvanquished Tour in Porto City Center
Explore Porto’s grand avenues, churches, viewpoints, and old streets on a lively 2.5-hour walking tour with local tips and pay-what-you-want value.
From · $3
Read our review →
2
Lisbon City Center Tour – The Unmissable Lisbon
from $3
3
Pena Palace and Park Entrance Ticket
from $11
4
Jerónimos Monastery Entrance Ticket
from $21
5
Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruise
from $101
6
Six Bridges Cruise
from $21
7
History, Stories and Lifestyle Walking Tour
from $29
8
2.5-Hour Benagil Caves & Dolphin Watching
from $40
What Portugal is known for, and how to book it.
A cave you reach by boat, a river valley of terraced vines, a palace painted like a fairground, and a guitar that only sounds right after dark. The handful of days most Portugal trips are built around.
Portugal is a coastline first, a country second.
Nearly 1,800 kilometres of it, from the surf beaches north of Porto to the biscuit-coloured cliffs of the Algarve, then out to Madeira and the Azores. Most of the best days here happen on a boat.
Lisbon is seven hills and a tram that struggles up all of them.
The capital rewards a plan: the Alfama lanes before the cruise crowds, a tuk tuk for the gradients your legs will not thank you for, and a table in a fado house booked days ahead.
In Porto the wine crosses the river to grow up.
Grapes ripen on Douro terraces two hours upstream, then the barrels come down to the cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia to age in the damp river air. Do it in the right order: the valley first, the tasting after.
- 1Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruisefrom $101
- 26 Bridges Douro River Cruisefrom $23
- 3Douro Valley: Wine Tour with Lunch, Tastings & River Cruisefrom $113
Two island groups, a thousand kilometres offshore.
Madeira is a volcano wearing a garden: laurel forest in the cloud, water channels cut into cliffs, a swimming pool made of lava. The Azores are nine green islands where the whales come past on migration and the ground still steams.
What a day out in Portugal actually costs.
The whole catalogue at three price points. Portugal is one of the cheaper countries in western Europe to have a very good day in.
Tram tickets, tastings, walking mornings and the short cave runs out of Albufeira and Portimao.
The full days: the Douro valley with lunch, Sintra and Cabo da Roca, dolphin boats out of Sesimbra.
Private guides for the day, small-group Douro trips with lunch on a terrace, chartered boats and the sunrise runs up Pico do Arieiro.
Three things you can only do in Portugal.
Sea caves and vineyards exist all over the Mediterranean. A cave with a skylight, a mountain plumbed by hand and a wine that takes its name from one city belong to this country alone.
The Cave With a Skylight
The Atlantic spent a few thousand years hollowing a dome out of the cliff at Benagil, then punched a round hole through the roof. At mid-morning the light drops straight down onto the sand inside. Boats run from Portimao, Albufeira and the little harbour at Benagil itself, and the sea decides which of them sails; landing on the beach inside is now restricted, so most trips look in from the water.
- 12.5-Hour Benagil Caves & Dolphin Watching★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 10,710 reviews
- 2Benagil Caves Speed Boat Tour with Sunset Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 9,329 reviews
- 3Benagil Sea Caves Speedboat Adventure Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,546 reviews
Walking the Levadas
Madeira gets its rain on the north side and its sunshine on the south, so from the 1500s islanders cut channels across the mountain to move the water. Nearly 3,000 kilometres of levada now thread the cliffs, each with a maintenance path beside it. The gradient is almost nil and the drop beside you often is not. Bring a torch for the tunnels.
- 1Enjoy a Guided Levada Walk in the Rabaçal Valley★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,197 reviews
- 2Rabaçal: 25 Fontes & Risco Levada Transfer Self-guided Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 841 reviews
- 3Madeira East Island Tour and Levada Walk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 787 reviews
Port, and Where It Sleeps
Port only counts as port if the grapes grew in the Douro, and the demarcated valley has been drawing its own map since 1756, which makes it the oldest of its kind anywhere. The wine is fortified young, then trucked down to the cool lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia to age. Tawny in barrel, vintage in bottle. The cellars pour both, and the difference is the whole point.
- 1Complete Douro Valley Wine Tour with Lunch, Wine Tastings and River Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 12,920 reviews
- 2Live Fado Show with Glass of Port Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 6,498 reviews
- 3Douro Valley: Wine Tour with Lunch, Tastings & River Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 6,081 reviews
Fado is a room, not a genre.
All fado nights →
Live Fado Show with Port Wine in Historic Center
Read our review →
Authentic Fado Show, Port Wine & Handmade Instruments
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Portugal.
Most of Portugal can be sorted from your hotel the night before. These cannot. They run on timed slots, printed vouchers, permits and a sea that gets a vote.
- 01Pena Palace and Park Entrance TicketEntry is by timed slot and the palace interior is capped. Summer mornings go first.
- 02Quinta da Regaleira Skip-the-Ticket-Line Entry & AudioguideThe other Sintra estate, and the same problem: fixed entry times on a small site that everyone reaches by the same road.
- 03Porto Walking Tour, Lello Bookshop, River Cruise and Cable CarThe bookshop admits ticket-holders only. The voucher is bought before you turn up, not at the door.
- 04Pico do Arieiro Sunrise Transfer Self-guided HikeA pre-dawn pickup for the sunrise, and Madeira now charges a permit on its marked trails. Neither is arranged on the morning.
Portugal in the rain is a cellar, a kitchen and a guitar.
Winter here is mild and wet, and Madeira can lose a whole afternoon to cloud in any month. None of the good indoor answers care: barrels do not mind the weather, a cooking class runs regardless, and fado was written for evenings exactly like that.
Where in Portugal are you based?
Lisbon530 tours
Porto258 tours
The Algarve253 tours
Madeira331 tours
The Azores125 tours
Sintra54 tours
The Douro Valley83 tours- All 18 regions →
Lisbon to the Douro, the way most first trips run.
CoimbraThe newest Portugal reviews.
Everything new →
Lisbon Cinematic Photoshoot with Top-Rated Photographer
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City of Neighborhoods Tour 1H 30M Private Tour by Tuk Tuk
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Lisbon Sailing Catamaran Public Cruise with drinks
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Alfama and the Castle of Saint George Skip the line Tour
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Romantic Private Sailboat in Lisbon for couples
Read our review →
Lisbon Private Tuk Tuk Tour and Hotel Pickup: 2, 3, or 4 Hours
Read our review →
