Portugal with Air Canada Vacations

Travel and Leisure

As we've just pulled the trigger on some flights to France for September this year, I've been thinking a lot about our recent travel experiences, and the trip we took to Portugal came to mind. It was early 2019, and we had another couple who wanted to go to Europe with us, as they had never been, and wanted to try it out. 

Since I am the primary travel arranger in the household, I was a little concerned about being the tour organiser for people that we've never travelled with, and dealing with potential missed expectations. So when I stumbled across a package with Air Canada Vacations, I felt it merited a closer look. It was a 12-day package, including air, hotels, transfers, first class rail, and a number of tours. What I liked about this, was that the itinerary was set up for us, but it still gave a lot of independence; e.g. in Porto there were two included tours; a shuttle tour that took us to the main attractions, and a walking tour of the old town area. Aside from that, we were on our own to explore as much or as little as we wanted.

The price was good, but it wasn't about trying to save money; Portugal is cheap. However, at ~$2,600¹ it was a decent price (on sale at $500 savings per passenger). Flights alone would have been around $1,300 each, so my Scottish rationale is that we're getting 12 days of vacation for $1,300 or just over $100/each per day! Ok, so there are a couple of catches here. First, the flights went through Toronto on the outbound and returned via Montreal, so it wasn't the best air itinerary. This is because the overseas flight is with Air Canada Rouge, AC's discount arm. The actual flights were fine, but as we always do, we upgraded our seats to the Preferred ones with slightly more legroom (not Premium Economy). While we would have liked to used business class, at least on the outbound, trans-Atlantic leg, they don't have it (e.g. lie-flat seats) on AC Rouge. The second thing I encountered is regarding hotel selection; they offer either 3-star or 4-star accommodations, and for the most part, you won't find much difference in Europe between the two. 

The upgrade price was marginal, but the hotels they listed for 4-star (which aren't guaranteed to be the ones that you will stay at) were not as close to the old town areas as I would have liked. So I chose to stay with the 3-star hotels, but it ended up that we did not get placed in the hotels that were in the brochure. In Porto, we were right beside where the 4-star hotel was located in the business area, but only a 4€ Uber trip to the Ribeira district. Our hotel in Lisbon was walkable (near the Marques de Pombal monument, above); the 4-star guests were closer to the Baixa area, but complained that it was very noisy.

Having the transfers both to/from the airports as well as the train stations was a nice to have. One time however, they did not account for how many folks they needed vans for, and we needed to hold our suitcases on our laps for 15 minutes. The included tours were pretty good, except the half day Porto tour; it was more of a shuttle that took us around to a number of locations, and the guide seemed disinterested. As an example, the shuttle took us up to the Porto Cathedral, but there wasn't much of a "walk and talk", and we were left to wander around for 30 mins on our own. 

They did take us to a port lodge however, which was a very neat experience (different tour guide). We'd recommend this to anyone going to Porto, but all of the port lodges are on the other side of the river in a different city called Vila Novo de Gaia. Apparently this is due to the fact that the wines could be stored on the cooler side of the valley, as well as taxation reasons. Some have restaurant facilities, and you can grab lunch over there, where you'll see Porto from a different perspective.

The bus tour in Lisbon was a little bit better, and we visited a number of the key monuments and historical sites there. Most of these locations were a short drive from the old town area, so not walkable and a little too far for the tuk tuks. However, we did get another included tour that did use the them. While we did the Rick Steves free audio tour to explore the Bairo Alto and lower Baixa areas, the tuk tuk was instrumental in getting us up to the hilly areas for more sites and great vistas. Ours was organised by the tour company, but it was with sardinhadobairro.pt and we would recommend them. The three tours complemented each other nicely, and the tuk tuk definitely saved our legs from hiking up the steep slopes.

Breakfast was included with our hotel stays, and for the most part, you could get pretty good food in Portugal. We made one mistake one afternoon in Porto, after walking around in the morning sun we were getting thirsty and hungry, and pulled into the first restaurant we saw; this was a mistake, as our meals were lacklustre. After looking up some recommendations on Tripadvisor, we found a fantastic steakhouse for dinner, which happened to be only a few blocks from our hotel! 

As a general rule-of-thumb, we'd recommend that you wander a few blocks away from the tourist strip to get a meal, as you will find the food better, at a lower price. But if you are in the Ribeira district, and want to sit alongside the river with a view, we ate at Chez Lapin, and it was pretty good. We got lucky with this one, as we were walking the busy promenade, and saw that their patio was quite busy, so we stopped in for dinner. It wasn't until we were on our walking tour two days later that our local guide suggested that this was one of the better places to eat along the Ribeira.

And then while you're in Porto, there's the local special sandwich, if you can call it a sandwich - the Francesinha! It's got three kinds of meat, sandwiched between slices of stale bread, generously topped with cheese and smothered in a spicy gravy. While not for everyone, it was worth trying; it's a huge meal if served with fries, or perhaps two could share it as an afternoon snack. You can get them anywhere, like you would get pizza in Italy.

In Lisbon, we tried the Time Out Market for a lunch break during our Rick Steves audio walking tour. It's a large hall located in the Mercado da Ribeira with many different food items available. It was pretty chaotic, as you'd order your food and then take your pager device and try to find seating. When your pager goes off, you send someone in your party to retrieve your meals, while the others hold down the table space. It was an interesting experience, but not on the must-do list.

The only other memorable place to eat in Lisbon was the Cervejaria Trindade, not especially because of the meal, but the history and... the beer. Considered to be the oldest brewery in Portugal, the restaurant is housed in an old convent. Sure, it's a little bit touristy, but it is certainly a more memorable place to eat than some patio restaurant on Rua Augusta. Portion size was a little small, so make sure you order appetisers first.

Travel in between destinations was included with our package, and it was pretty easy for us, and we like getting around in Europe using rail. We essentially wrapped up the trip with four nights in the Algarve, which I had been to back in the late 90s. We didn't have any included tours there, so we rented a car to do some exploring in the surrounding areas. A lot had changed in 20+ years, and I found that a lot of the quaint, seaside charm had been lost from the larger towns along the coast. A different kind of British Invasion had occurred since, and destinations like Albufeira have become party central for heat-seeking Brits. 

We had to get back to Lisbon for our flight home the next day, and so our last day consisted of some lazy Sunday morning strolling around town before getting our transfer and heading to the train station. Getting into Lisbon around dinner time, we didn't have much time to do anything except get something to eat and pack up for our morning transfer and flight. We would have preferred that there was more time in both Porto and Lisbon, and we could have skipped the Algarve completely. AC Vacations actually has a package for just Porto and Lisbon, but it's too short.

Which brings me to my summary about this semi-structured trip by Air Canada Vacations. Was it good value? Yes. I appreciated that I was not responsible for setting the agenda, and creating an itinerary for the whole group. Would I do it again? Probably not. These days, it seems that most packaged vacations are only 7-12 days long, which we find is not enough time to get immersed in a destination. If there were some flexibility on the flights, so that you could extend on your own somewhere else, it would be much better. But I guess in order to keep costs low and predictable, everything has to remain within the lines. 

¹ all prices discussed are in CDN dollars