Explore UNESCO-listed Évora with a Local Expert, visiting the Roman Temple, the Capela dos Ossos and Évora Cathedral. Together, these sites reveal the layers of Roman, medieval and religious history within the city’s walls.

See one of Portugal’s notable classical remains, the chapel walls lined with bones arranged by 16th-century monks, and the cathedral’s Romanesque and Gothic architecture. Each landmark offers a different perspective on how Évora changed as its influence grew.

Visit the Sanctuary of Fátima, Portugal’s major pilgrimage site. Walk across its expansive square and see places of worship including the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary and the Chapel of the Apparitions.

The sanctuary centres on reported Marian apparitions in 1917 and continues to draw pilgrims from around the world. Its open space and devotional buildings offer insight into a living tradition, whether you come to reflect or to understand its place in Portuguese culture.

• 3 Dinner (D)
• 10 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

• 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 defences. Afterwards, with your Local Expert, walk through the historic centre to the 15th-century synagogue, one of Portugal’s few surviving examples, now housing a small collection on the town’s former Jewish community.

Insight Vacations

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays

Meet your Travel Director and small group over dinner at a Lisbon neighbourhood restaurant. Share a table and get to know your fellow travellers while tasting dishes shaped by the capital’s Atlantic setting.

Lisbon’s everyday cooking draws on seafood, olive oil and regional produce. This hosted meal offers a relaxed introduction to Portuguese food and conversation away from the city’s busier sightseeing streets.

Explore Lisbon with a Local Expert, tracing the broad streets of the Lower Town before visiting Belém on the Tagus. See Belém Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries, landmarks connected to Portugal’s maritime past.

The Lower Town’s orderly layout reflects the rebuilding directed by the Marquis of Pombal following the 1755 earthquake. In Belém, riverside views evoke the voyages that linked Portugal to distant coasts. Taste a Pastel de Belém, baked in the district from a recipe dating to 1837.

Walk through the cloister of Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon’s Belém quarter, studying the elaborate stonework of this UNESCO-listed monument. Look closely for carved ropes, plants and armillary spheres worked into its arches and columns.

Built during Portugal’s early 16th-century maritime expansion, the monastery is a defining example of Manueline architecture. Its sheltered cloister gives you time to appreciate the skill and symbolism behind details that reward a slower look.

Walk with your Travel Director through Lagos’s walled old town, including Praca Infante Dom Henrique and the streets near its harbour. Stone walls, compact squares and glimpses of the waterfront reveal the shape of this Algarve coastal town.

Lagos was closely linked to Portuguese voyages along the West African coast. Its historic centre places that maritime history beside present-day cafés and working streets, offering a grounded introduction to the Algarve beyond its beaches.

Cruise by small boat through Ria Formosa Natural Park with local marine biologists and oyster farmers. Pass lagoon channels, sandbanks and bird-rich wetlands before visiting a working oyster farm for a guided tasting of freshly harvested oysters.

Learn how traditional cultivation supports sustainable aquaculture, and visit a small island village to see how livelihoods remain tied to the water. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience connects the Algarve’s coastal ecology with the people who care for it.

Explore Tomar with a Local Expert, visiting the UNESCO-listed Convent of Christ and its Templar Charola. Examine the celebrated Manueline Window, then walk through the historic centre to the 15th-century synagogue and its small museum.

Founded as a Templar stronghold, the hilltop complex was developed by the Order of Christ over centuries. The surviving synagogue preserves another strand of Tomar’s history, offering a view of the Jewish community that once lived here.

Walk Coimbra’s steep Old Town lanes with a Local Expert, passing long-standing student cafés and climbing towards the upper town. The route brings the city’s former royal and enduring academic identities into view.

Coimbra served as an early capital of Portugal, while university life has shaped its streets for centuries. Its closely packed buildings and uphill passages make that history tangible, revealing a city where daily routines still unfold around a historic seat of learning.

Visit the UNESCO-listed University of Coimbra, whose roots reach back to the 13th century. Step inside its baroque library to see carved shelving, painted ceilings and historic volumes gathered within one of Portugal’s most distinguished academic spaces.

The university developed around Coimbra’s former royal palace and remains central to the city’s identity. Its library offers a close look at the care devoted to preserving books that supported generations of Portuguese scientific and literary study.

Sit down to a Farm-to-Table lunch in the Douro Valley, prepared with regional produce. Taste local dishes alongside Port wine made from Douro-grown grapes, with staff explaining the connection between the wine and its landscape.

Vineyards have been cultivated on the valley’s steep terraces for generations. Seeing those hillsides while sampling their wines gives the meal a clear sense of place: the ingredients, growing conditions and winemaking traditions are all part of the experience.

Wander through the medieval centre of Guimarães, following narrow lanes between small squares, arcades and stone-fronted houses. See the town’s castle and the historic streets that developed around its fortified core.

Often called the birthplace of Portugal, Guimarães has close ties to the country’s early formation. Its preserved urban fabric makes that heritage easy to read on foot, with courtyards and buildings still in use centuries after the medieval town took shape.

Explore Porto with a Local Expert, visiting São Bento Railway Station to study its blue-and-white azulejo panels. Walk across the Dom Luís I Bridge for views over the Douro and the city’s riverfront.

São Bento’s tilework depicts episodes from Portuguese history, while the iron bridge reflects the engineering ambition of the 19th century. Together, these landmarks show different sides of Porto: a city shaped by national stories, trade and its steep relationship with the river.

Walk inside Óbidos’s medieval walls, entering a town of narrow lanes, whitewashed houses and small churches. See the azulejo-decorated town gate and sample ginja, the local sour-cherry liqueur traditionally served in a small cup.

Granted as a royal wedding gift in the 13th century, Óbidos retains a compact street pattern shaped by its long history. The tasting adds a distinctly local flavour to a visit focused on the town’s preserved architecture and everyday life.

Join your Travel Director and small group for a hosted dinner at a Lisbon restaurant. Share regional cooking and raise a glass together in the Portuguese capital.

Lisbon’s restaurant tables bring together flavours from across the country, from Atlantic seafood to inland produce and wines. This included gathering is an opportunity to compare favourite discoveries and enjoy the easy conversation that comes from travelling as a small group.

Choose an optional evening exploring Lisbon’s food and culture for another perspective on the Portuguese capital. The itinerary mentions this organised experience but does not specify its venues, tastings or format.

Lisbon’s culinary traditions draw on Atlantic ingredients and neighbourhood dining, while its cultural life extends well beyond the daytime landmarks. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Travel Director for the available programme and price.

Choose an optional experience in Porto’s Ribeira district, the historic quarter beside the Douro. Its narrow streets and tall riverfront houses offer a closer look at the setting that helped define the city’s trading life.

Ribeira is part of Porto’s UNESCO-listed historic centre, where the waterfront still carries the character of a working river city. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the specific route and activities should be confirmed with your Travel Director.