My Lisbon Holidays

Our guides Pedro in Lisbon and Manuel
In Porto were exceptional.

Thanks to KimKim and our amazing trip coordinator, João, for planning the perfect itinerary for our 10-day trip to Portugal. João was consistently accessible, super flexible with last-minute changes, and paired us with incredible guides—Francisco, Pedro, and Manuel. I highly recommend João to anyone visiting Portugal.

Obrigado!

We had an amazing time. Tiago was very helpful and responsive. The accommodations and excursions he planned for us were perfect. We will highly recommend him to friends and family that may want to visit Portugal and the Azores!

Trip was great. Tiago took care of us and planned a lovely trip. He was always in touch. He gave us Pedro as a tour guide for our day trip to Sintra and he was the best! Would highly recommend.

Hotel Reviews

PortoBay Teatro

Porto

Hotel Lisboa Plaza

Lisbon

Belmar Spa & Beach Resort

Lagos

Activity Reviews

Port Wine Cellars & Tasting Experience

Porto

Algarve Caves Boat Tour

Portugal

Cancelled due to high seas.

Winery Visit with Wine Tasting

Portugal

Joao worked with us to create a perfect itinerary based on our interests. The trip was well planned and having the rental car was really nice. I liked the app as a reference. We loved flying into Porto and had a fantastic “Taste of Porto” food tour. Our guide was Kevin, who was very knowledgeable and fun loving. I heard that he also a guitar player in a band with similar musical taste. How fun is that? We ended our trip in Lisbon and got to personally meet Joao. He showed us his beautiful city with an insiders point of view. We really appreciate all that he did for us! Thank you Joao for making our trip beautiful! Cynthia

Despite the short notice for our Portugal trip, João executed everything flawlessly. He was incredibly responsive, took the time to understand our wishes and preferences, and organized every detail beautifully. Everything was thoughtfully planned, making our trip smooth and enjoyable from start to finish.

He even surprised us by showing up in person to guide us on one of our day trips! That level of dedication and personal attention went above and beyond our expectations.

We highly recommend João to anyone looking for a knowledgeable, responsive and thoughtful travel agent. He made our Portugal trip truly special, and we would definitely work with him again!

The trip was wonderful. Planning was as I requested. Joao was available to help me when I couldn’t locate a guide at a meeting point or had to change an arrangement. Outings were fantastic. Warren, was our guide for the Lagoa Fogo hike and he was a kind, knowledgeable, generous human being and guide. IPA, for the bike tour was fantastic. We visited a local cheese shop/restaurant in Furnas and ate cheese chocolates that were delicious. Patrick took us off roading in Sete Cidades in an open vehicle (highly recommended) and he was an excellent driver and source of local info. We saw dolphins and whales on the whale watching tour and the boat ride was fun. Unfortunately, we contracted a stomach bug that the locals are also getting and that they think arose from a bacteria in the usually very drinkable water (unsure where) although some think it was a virus. Who knows? We had to miss our canyoning experience which was unfortunate. Next time. Furnas is one of my favourite places. It’s so lush. We walked on a lava sand beach at Praia de Fogo. Gorgeous. And the geothermal ocean pool at Ponta de Feraria was possibly one of the most incredible places in the world. Kimkim helped me plan a wonderful vacation and supported us throughout the vacation. Thank you to Joao. Much appreciated.

Activity Reviews

Furnas Valley Bike Tour

the Azores

E bikes were fun and made the sites easier to access. Roads are dirt and can be steep. Stops to places were explained well by IPA, our guide. Cheese restaurant and tasting of local cheeses was a wonderful.

Quality of Experience

My

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Whale-Watching in São Miguel

the Azores

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Good commentary during excursion.

Transport

Guided Hike in São Miguel

the Azores

Quality of Experience

Warren is very easy going and loves his work.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Sete Cidades by Jeep - A Half-Day Off-Road Tour

the Azores

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Joao D. and the My Lisbon Holidays team are absolutely amazing. Joao is incredibly knowledgeable, resourceful, easygoing, funny and just an all-around pleasure to work with.

With only about three weeks’ notice, he planned an unforgettable nine-day trip to Portugal for me, my wife, and our teenage daughter, including stops in Madeira, Porto, and Lisbon. Everything was incredibly well thought out. The hotels were perfect, the details were thoughtful, and every experience and restaurant he recommended was right on point.

One of the absolute highlights was our day trip to Sintra. We had asked Joao to arrange a local guide for us, and we were so pleasantly surprised when Joao himself showed up to be our guide! He knows the area incredibly well, and hearing his personal stories about growing up there, along with the history and local insights he shared throughout the day, made the experience truly special. The whole family agrees he made the difference from a great trip to a spectacular one.

From start to finish, the entire trip was seamless, thoughtful, and memorable. We can’t recommend Joao and My Lisbon Holidays highly enough, and we will absolutely be working with him again the next time we return to Portugal.

We travelled Portugal from Porto to the Algarve and back to Lisbon between 7 and 24 August 2026 — eighteen days, eleven hotels, and a route that took us from the vineyards of the Douro to the cliffs at Cabo de São Vicente and the vast headlands of Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe. It was a birthday gift for my partner, which meant the pressure to get it right was entirely self-inflicted and entirely real :). João and the KimKim team delivered something better than we'd imagined.

On João
What sets João apart is that he plans like someone who actually knows the country rather than someone reading it off a map. The roadbooks weren't generic — they were routed with real thought about where the light falls, where the crowds are at 9am versus 3pm, and where you should slow down. The N222 between Régua and Pinhão came with a simple instruction: take it slowly and stop often. He was right. Small notes like that appeared throughout, and they were consistently correct.
He was also honest in a way that's rare in travel planning. When something in the Arrábida was likely to be chaotic in August, he said so and suggested skipping it. When a stop was worth an extra hour of driving, he explained why. That kind of candour builds trust fast.

The hotels — and three in particular
The accommodation selection was the strongest part of the trip. Every single property was chosen with a clear reason behind it, and several were genuinely extraordinary.
Quinta de la Rosa in the Douro was the emotional heart of the trip. Two nights on a working family estate that's been in the same hands since 1906, perched above the river, with the pool looking out across terraced vineyards. It doesn't feel like a hotel — it feels like being let into somewhere private.
Heritage Avenida Liberdade gave us central Lisbon done properly — an 18th-century townhouse on the grandest boulevard in the city, with Bairro Alto and Chiado on foot. The Petite Pool and a perfect gym after a long day of walking Belém was a small mercy we appreciated more than expected.
Santiago de Alfama was the perfect final night. A restored 15th-century building tucked into Alfama's cobbled lanes, eight minutes from São Jorge Castle, with the Tagus in view. After two and a half weeks of driving, arriving somewhere that quiet and that beautiful for the last night was exactly the right note to end on.
Special mention about: Montebelo Mosteiro de Alcobaça, a five-star hotel built inside a UNESCO monastery, with an indoor pool set among original medieval pillars — surreal and wonderful. Fortaleza do Guincho, a 17th-century cliffside fortress with the Atlantic crashing below and a Michelin-starred kitchen. Pousada Sagres, positioned on Ponta da Atalaia with sunsets that genuinely stopped any conversation.

The activities - perfectly planned and flexible.
The Douro day was close to perfect: a tasting and picnic at Quinta da Rôeda in the morning, then a private boat out of Pinhão in the late afternoon. Our skipper was wonderful — he found us a quiet stretch of river and let us swim right there, surrounded by terraced vineyards rising on both sides and the light going gold on the water. Floating in the middle of that landscape is the single image we'll carry longest from the whole trip.
The Lagos coastal cave tour with BlueFleet was the other. Threading through the grottoes at Ponta da Piedade in the morning, the golden cliffs and the water impossibly clear. Worth every minute of the early start.

The logistics
Airport transfers at both ends, every hotel confirmed, parking notes for each stop — including which car parks to use and roughly what they'd cost. The trip ran without a single logistical problem across eighteen days and eleven properties. That is not luck.

Would we book again?
Without hesitation. We layered our own restaurant bookings on top of KimKim's framework, and having that framework solid meant we could spend our energy on the fun decisions rather than the boring ones. João built us a route that was ambitious without being exhausting, and beautiful without being too obvious. And gave us a true taste pf Portugal from north to the south and back.
If you're planning Portugal — particularly if you want the Douro and the southwest coast done properly as well as all super tips on Lisbon and Porto — talk to João. And we are looking froward to the next one :)

Hotel Reviews

Santiago de Alfama - Boutique Hotel

Lisbon

Santiago de Alfama was the perfect final night. A restored 15th-century building tucked into Alfama's cobbled lanes, eight minutes from São Jorge Castle, with the Tagus in view. After two and a half weeks of driving, arriving somewhere that quiet and that beautiful for the last night was exactly the right note to end on.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Heritage Avenida Liberdade

Lisboa

Heritage Avenida Liberdade gave us central Lisbon done properly — an 18th-century townhouse on the grandest boulevard in the city, with Bairro Alto and Chiado on foot. The Petite Pool after a long day of walking Belém was a small mercy we appreciated more than expected.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Quinta de la Rosa

Pinhão

Quinta de la Rosa in the Douro was the emotional heart of the trip. Two nights on a working family estate that's been in the same hands since 1906, perched above the river, with the pool looking out across terraced vineyards. It doesn't feel like a hotel — it feels like being let into somewhere private. Dinner at Cozinha da Clara on the estate was one of our best meals of the eighteen days.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

Private Boat Tour in the Douro River

Portugal

The Douro day was close to perfect: a tasting and picnic at Quinta da Rôeda in the morning, then a private boat out of Pinhão in the late afternoon. Our skipper was wonderful — he found us a quiet stretch of river and let us swim right there, surrounded by terraced vineyards rising on both sides and the light going gold on the water. Floating in the middle of that landscape is the single image we'll carry longest from the whole trip.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

I chose KimKim for a large moment in my life: my second time overseas, my first time in Portugal, and the only time I'll be proposing. For years I had hoped to travel to Portugal, and over time it became apparent that this was where I should propose to my (previously known as) girlfriend. I count myself BLESSED to have been matched with Tiago, almost as if destiny was pulling the strings. After a few messages back and forth, I could feel the warmth and kindness, and knew I was in good hands. Tiago listened to how we liked to travel and created a plan with me that would hit all the requirements and create a perfect space for the proposal. In Lisboa, we experienced a sunset cruise with the coolest crew you could meet, experienced a traditional Fado performance in one of the oldest Fado houses, and explored old palaces and beautiful parks with Francisco (also the coolest and kindest guy you could meet). We spent 3 hours driving to Porto with Pedro, and we did not stop talking once. Conversation flowed like honey and the hours blew by. In Porto we had a private cooking lesson with the funniest and coolest chef, Sara Verde, and got to literally get our hands on authentic food (we cut up our own squid). We chose to go in August due to the eclipse passing through, and Porto was the perfect setting for the proposal (it was amazing and she said yes). Last on my bucket list for Portugal was the Azores, and Tiago started us off the first morning with a whale watching tour where we got to see multiple species of dolphins and multiple whales. The rest of the time on the island Tiago really let us explore: each day he had a full itinerary written up that we could pick and choose from. We got to experience beautiful lagoon views from the tops of mountains and beach swimming like we had never experienced: surrounded by cliffs and in the clearest water you've seen. Throughout the trip Tiago was just a message away, and had an arsenal of other helpers that were also invested in us having a great time. We had an amazing trip and loved all the people involved. Thank you, Tiago. And Francisco and Pedro too 😉