Upon arrival, a tour guide will be waiting for our at the Lisbon International Airport to give us a warm welcome, the necessary assistance and to escort us to the hotel in Lisbon.

Check-in at the hotel.
Overnight in Lisbon

Breakfast at the hotel. Half day guided tour.
Lisbon is the vibrant and historic capital city, also called the “city of the seven hills”.

Belém will be our first stop and it has the biggest cultural heritage and the largest concentration of monuments, like the Belém Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries.
We will also visit the church of Jeronimos Monastery – listed World Heritage by UNESCO – a masterpiece of the “Manueline” style.
In Belém there’s still time to savor the famous Pastel de Belém, pastries that have been in production since 1837.
The tour continues passing through the Commerce Square (Palace Square), Rossio, the Lisbon Cathedral and the Carmo Convent.

Overnight in Lisbon

Breakfast at the hotel.
Today the tour will bring you to Fátima.
The Sanctuary of Fátima is the largest place of worship in Portugal. Nossa Senhora de Fátima is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary honoring the reported apparitions of her to three shepherd children in Fátima, on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13. Pilgrimage to the site goes on all year round but the main pilgrimage festivals take place from May to October, on the 13th day of each month, on the anniversaries of the original appearances.

Continuation to Coimbra, also known as the city of the students, began to evolve into a major cultural centre with the foundation of the University of Coimbra in 1290.
The university, one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world, attracts visitors from around the world due to its monumental buildings and history. In Coimbra we visit the university, the library and church of Santa Clara and then head north to the city of Porto.

Overnight in Porto.

Following breakfast at the hotel, a guided tour of the most typical streets in Porto.

The tour begins in front of the Porto City Hall, from there we go on to visit the city’s most emblematic monuments with a grand ending at the Port wine cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia, on the other side of the Douro River, with a special treat… A toast… with the famous Port wine!

In a colorful urban landscape, with many centuries of history, we will tread through peculiar places, get to know the most picturesque corners and witness the magnificence of the great architectural symbols of the “Invicta” city, like the Cathedral, the neo-Classical Stock Exchange Palace, the Cathedral Neighbourhood and the Church of St. Francisco, all top exponents of Baroque art.

In the afternoon, we will enjoy a cruise on the Douro River, of 50 minutes duration, giving us a totally different perspective of the city’s beauty as we slowly travel up the river and under the six bridges that cross it.

Return to Porto for overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel.
The Minho region is considered to be the greenest region in Portugal. This tour will take us to Braga and Guimarães.

In Braga, we marvel at the majesty of the Cathedral and the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus with its monumental Baroque stairway that climbs 116metres (381 feet).
The present sanctuary’s construction began in 1722.

Guimarães, also known as the  “The Cradle City“, was the first capital of Portugal and also the birthplace of Alfonso I of Portugal, the first Portuguese King.
In Guimarães, we will visit the Palace of the Dukes, the Guimarães Castle and its Middle Age historic centre, declared a World Heritage Site in 2001 by UNESCO.

Return to Porto for overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel. Today we cross the Portuguese northern border and drive into Spain heading for Santiago de Compostela.
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in Spain.
In 1985 the city’s historic centre was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The city’s Cathedral, with its baroque façade, is the destination of today. It has been throughout history, the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James.
Legend has it that the remains of the apostle James were brought to Galicia in the early 9th century in a boat made of stone, and were later discovered at Santiago de Compostela.

The cathedral was built in his honor on the spot where his remains were said to have been found.

Return to Porto for overnight.

Breakfast at the hotel.
From Porto we travel South, heading for Lisbon, and on the way we visit the cities of Alcobaça, Batalha and Óbidos.
The city of Alcobaça became notable with the first King of Portugal, D. Alfonso Henriques, who decided to build there a church, the biggest in Portugal at that time, to celebrate the conquest of Santarém from the Moors, in 1147.
The church, later evolved into the Monastery of Alcobaça. The finished church and monastery were the first truly Gothic buildings in Portugal and are also one of the first foundations of the Cistercian Order in Portugal. Due to its artistic and historical importance, it was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1989.

The tour then brings us to Batalha where we visit the Monastery, one of the best and most original examples of Late Gothic architecture in Portugal, intermingled with the Manueline style.
The monastery was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota.

Before driving to Lisbon, a brief tour in the delightful town of Óbidos, located on a hill and still encircled by a fortified wall.
The well-preserved mediaeval look of its streets, squares, walls and its massive Moorish castle, have turned the picturesque village into a preferred tourist attraction in Portugal.

Overnight in Lisbon.

Breakfast at the hotel.
Check-out and transfer to Lisbon International Airports for return flight.

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