Loving the wine in Portugal - Our second day out with Rui. After a drive through the hills we arrived at Quinta Santa Maria in Gidril, a village perched on the edge of a valley. We were greeted by our British expat host who guided us through the beautiful grounds and outbuildings of the Quinta tasting wines and enjoying nibbles along the way. The wines were flavourful, and the nibbles carefully chosen to enhance each we tasted. Before leaving we purchased a couple of bottles to savour at home, of course! Next stop of the day was The Monastery at Mafra. While this 400 room palace may once have housed a monastery, it was the biggest and most ornate of the several palaces we were able to visit during our time in Portugal- built with Brazilian gold and reputed to have emptied the treasury! Rui will do custom tours, as ell: For our third trip we have Rui taking us on a self-designed Templar Castle tour. We suggested three sites we wished to visit and he put together our itinerary ending with a boat ride to The island of Castelo Almourol. Bound to be another magical day!

Very disappointing day - After showing the tour was “available”, I booked it only to be told the winery in Mafra was Not available. Rui apparently committed to another vineyard which turned out to be lovely. The tour of the palace/monastery was a separate charge and unguided. The actual cathedral was closed. The overall is minimally set up to host tourist. Rui appeared to not know anything about wine, minimal about the region & gave us no historical background for the palace/monastery. For all intents & purposes, he was a VERY expensive Uber. I’ve been on many Viator excursions and in many countries and never had a major let down experience. I’ve had mostly 5 stars and at worst 1 off of what you read….this was so not on par for the price and should not be recommended by Viator. It was clear this was his 1st time as he had to ask where our self guided entry(only option) into the Palace at Mafra would exit. Wasted our day.