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Post by Owen on Apr 14, 2016 19:56:18 GMT
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Post by Owen on Apr 14, 2016 20:12:25 GMT
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Post by Owen on Apr 14, 2016 20:13:12 GMT
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Post by Owen on Apr 15, 2016 4:16:12 GMT
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Post by Owen on Apr 16, 2016 20:05:50 GMT
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Post by californian on Apr 17, 2016 1:01:38 GMT
Thank you Owen, getting my research ready. We (daughter and I)are going two days before the tour, so we will doing some sight seeing. There is a great museum, Calouste Gulbenkian, at about 20 min walk from the hotel, plan to spend a few hours there as well. Thank you for all the links.
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Post by tiffany on Apr 17, 2016 13:02:26 GMT
Hi Cali, what tour are you taking? I went on Trafalgar's Best of Portugal tour a few years ago and loved it. In fact, it is one of my favourite tours to date. I had an extra day in Lisbon after the tour, and booked a 3 hour walking tour of Lisbon which was excellent. If you have time, I would highly recommend this walking tour. The link is below. Regardless, I'm sure you'll have a great trip and love Portugal! www.viator.com/tours/Lisbon/Lisbon-Guided-Walking-Tour/d538-5383LISBONTOUR?aid=svr1012a
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Post by marielouise on Apr 17, 2016 18:13:22 GMT
Thank you Owen, getting my research ready. We (daughter and I)are going two days before the tour, so we will doing some sight seeing. There is a great museum, Calouste Gulbenkian, at about 20 min walk from the hotel, plan to spend a few hours there as well. Thank you for all the links. Hi, we went on Insight's tour Best of Spain and Portugal, but it was 11 years ago and the first tour for my husband. We went to the Gulbenkian museum and enjoyed it, it was mid May and not crowded. We also enjoyed lunch in the cafeteria. I also remember a lot of carpets, statues and of course paintings. I think Tiffany's walking tour sounds good too. Which tour are you taking, are you only going to Portugal?
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joyb
Junior Member
Posts: 59
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Post by joyb on Apr 17, 2016 18:18:32 GMT
Hi Cali, what tour are you taking? I went on Trafalgar's Best of Portugal tour a few years ago and loved it. In fact, it is one of my favourite tours to date. I had an extra day in Lisbon after the tour, and booked a 3 hour walking tour of Lisbon which was excellent. If you have time, I would highly recommend this walking tour. The link is below. Regardless, I'm sure you'll have a great trip and love Portugal! www.viator.com/tours/Lisbon/Lisbon-Guided-Walking-Tour/d538-5383LISBONTOUR?aid=svr1012aTiffany, I did the same Portugal tour in 2014 and it was truly memorable. Had an amazing tour director who added so much to the tour. People in Portugal were so friendly and really seemed to value the tourists. Was an outstanding tour.
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Post by tiffany on Apr 18, 2016 13:58:16 GMT
Joyce, I went on Trafalgar's Best of Portugal tour in May of 2014. Our tour guide was Miguel and he was wonderful. I wrote a tour tale that's quite long and detailed, but allows people to know what to expect if they go on this tour.
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Post by tiffany on Apr 18, 2016 14:01:13 GMT
Marielouise, I went on Insight's Best of Spain and Portugal tour in 2008. It was a good tour, but I felt like I didn't see enough of Portugal on that tour, so I had to go back and see more. If you are interested in Portugal, I would highly recommend Trafalgar's Best of Portugal tour.
I was planning on going on Trafalgar's Northern Spain tour in 2017, but it looks like it will be postponed until 2018. I'd really like to see more of Spain.
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Post by californian on Apr 18, 2016 16:40:29 GMT
Thank you everyone, I am excited about this tour (Best of Portugal), we are going on September, just finalized everything today. And thank you Tiffany, I looked for a tale but I could not find any, I will look for it, love your tales, with so many details! .
I did find it and read it already. thank you again Tiffany, very detailed, perfect!
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Post by tiffany on Apr 19, 2016 13:53:51 GMT
Thank you everyone, I am excited about this tour (Best of Portugal), we are going on September, just finalized everything today. And thank you Tiffany, I looked for a tale but I could not find any, I will look for it, love your tales, with so many details! . I did find it and read it already. thank you again Tiffany, very detailed, perfect! I'm glad you found and read my tour tale. It's quite long and may be too detailed, but once I start writing, I just can't seem to stop! This is a great tour and you and your daughter will love it. The weather should still be nice in September. Hot, but not too hot. Lisbon is an easy city for walking. Almost everything in the core is a grid, so as long as you know the difference between north, south, east and west, you should be able to get around on foot. I believe that there are only two tour directors that do this tour, Miguel and Pedro. Miguel was excellent, but I've heard good things about Pedro as well, so you should be well taken care of regardless of who you get. I can't wait to hear about your experience when you get back.
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Post by californian on Apr 19, 2016 14:46:11 GMT
Thank you Tiffany, I am glad you mentioned that Lisbon is "easy to walk", I was concerned about the hilly part, I don't do too well climbing steep hills! Google helps not getting lost, (I do get turned around quite easily), we had so many problems finding the right date that instead of going two days ahead as we wanted, we will arrive just one day ahead and no extras at the end, so I hope we can do at least the museum (you don't mention it, but I read is quite nice) and a couple of other things. I am glad you say is your favorite tour, I heard many good things from others as well. I still have a few European tours that I would love to do, hope things get a little more settled there. Happy travels, thanks again.
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Post by tiffany on Apr 19, 2016 15:47:55 GMT
There are a lot of steps in the Alfama district, but otherwise, it's pretty easy to walk around Lisbon. I do remember walking up-hill a little bit, but it was not very steep and not very noticeable. I'm sorry you will only have one extra day in Lisbon, and hope you are able to go to the church you want to see. The views from St. George's castle are good, and that could be another option for you. You would have to take a taxi to the top though, as you would probably find it hard to climb up. I'm sure you'll find a lot of things to do during your free time.
I'm going to Eastern Europe this fall, and am a little bit worried given everything that's happening in Europe right now, but my travel agent says there are no travel advisories, so I think I should be okay. She did note that flight prices are going down right now due to less people traveling to Europe.
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Post by Owen on Apr 19, 2016 19:45:30 GMT
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Post by californian on Apr 19, 2016 20:33:34 GMT
I'm going to Eastern Europe this fall, and am a little bit worried given everything that's happening in Europe right now, but my travel agent says there are no travel advisories, so I think I should be okay. She did note that flight prices are going down right now due to less people traveling to Europe. We were going to Amsterdam (Already had 3 nights at a hotel near the museums) continue with the Best of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg and then 1 week in Paris (taking the train from Brussels) I was set to go anyway, but my daughter had a premonition about going Brussels, and she associated with the same premonition she had when planning to sail in Phuket island in December of 2004 and deciding going elsewhere. She is now a little superstitious! I am glad you found cheap flights, we had to do lots of research to find reasonable priced flights to Lisbon.
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Post by plane2catch on Apr 19, 2016 21:21:04 GMT
California, did any thing bad happen in December 2004 on Phuket Island?
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Post by californian on Apr 20, 2016 1:28:35 GMT
Plane 2catch, that was when the big Tsunami hit on Dec 26, she and her husband would had been sailing in the area.
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Post by Owen on Apr 20, 2016 10:25:01 GMT
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Post by tiffany on Apr 20, 2016 13:23:09 GMT
I'm going to Eastern Europe this fall, and am a little bit worried given everything that's happening in Europe right now, but my travel agent says there are no travel advisories, so I think I should be okay. She did note that flight prices are going down right now due to less people traveling to Europe. We were going to Amsterdam (Already had 3 nights at a hotel near the museums) continue with the Best of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg and then 1 week in Paris (taking the train from Brussels) I was set to go anyway, but my daughter had a premonition about going Brussels, and she associated with the same premonition she had when planning to sail in Phuket island in December of 2004 and deciding going elsewhere. She is now a little superstitious! I am glad you found cheap flights, we had to do lots of research to find reasonable priced flights to Lisbon. I'm sorry you had to cancel your original tours, however, you picked a good tour as a replacement. I have until mid-August to cancel my tour and get my money back, so I'm waiting until then. I have friends from the US and AU meeting me on this tour, so I really don't want to cancel unless I have to.
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Post by plane2catch on Apr 20, 2016 19:01:44 GMT
Tiffany, I hope you are going on Highlights of Eastern Europe. I can't remember if it was an Insight Tour or Trafalgar Tour but I remember it was 18 days. I thought it was an excellent tour. I was able to visit Poland for my first time on that trip. Safety is always a issue when one travels but, it is hard to live your life in fear. Your trip most likely won't be going thru Paris or Brussels. Since news reports stated that the terrorist where initially planning to hit Paris again before they switched to Brussels, I wouldn't want to travel to Paris at this time. Hope you have a delightful trip and look forward to your tale if you so choose.
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Post by californian on Apr 20, 2016 19:40:50 GMT
Tiffany, I hope you are going on Highlights of Eastern Europe. I can't remember if it was an Insight Tour or Trafalgar Tour but I remember it was 18 days. I thought it was an excellent tour. I was able to visit Poland for my first time on that trip. Safety is always a issue when one travels but, it is hard to live your life in fear. Your trip most likely won't be going thru Paris or Brussels. Since news reports stated that the terrorist where initially planning to hit Paris again before they switched to Brussels, I wouldn't want to travel to Paris at this time. Hope you have a delightful trip and look forward to your tale if you so choose. Same from me, Tiffany, Highlights of Eastern Europe with Trafalgar is still one of my favorites, (it was #1 until The Best of Finland, Russia and the Baltic States, which I think will remain # 1 for long time!) I think it was 18 short, very short days. Not sure if now the portion between Warsaw and Berlin is still on the bus, it takes most of the day, and makes the stay in Berlin a little shorter than we would had liked. Don't forget to stop by the chocolate place across from the Hilton, what a place!
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Post by plane2catch on Apr 20, 2016 21:16:59 GMT
I did both the "Highlights of Eastern Europe" and the "Best of Finland Russia and the Baltic States" tour. The only tour I didn't quite enjoy was my tour of Scandinavia. For some reason I actually got tired of the ferry crossings and fjords. My tour of New Zealand was fun although there was one day on the bus that I thought was extremely long without many towns along the way. I guess I was overwhelmed with too much scenery on that day. But the shotover boat ride was a blast.
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Post by tiffany on Apr 21, 2016 13:21:10 GMT
As of now, we are still planning on going on the Eastern Europe tour, and we even booked an extra day in Vienna before and after the tour. We would only cancel if something major happens before mid-August.
I have been to Berlin before, so I might skip the included and optionals offered in Berlin in order to do my own thing. We shall see.
The Best of Finland, Russia and the Baltic States tour is on my list, but we probably won't go there for a few years. We are talking about meeting our friends from the US and AU in May of 2018 on the Northern Spain tour. Our friends are going to go on the Best of Portugal tour either before or after the Spain tour, and my friend and I will fly into Barcelona for a few days, as the tour doesn't go there, and then take the train to Madrid for a day or two before the tour starts. I think I need to take a break from traveling to Europe in 2017 in order to save some money, and will probably only go on a cheap all-inclusive type of trip.
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Post by californian on Apr 21, 2016 18:40:51 GMT
I hear you, same here. I still want to do an Insight tour of the Balkans, is long, expensive and I would be going solo, so that's extra as well, but I might have to forget that, maybe do some local US tours, New England, etc. Have a daughter moving to North Carolina, so it might be interesting a few visits there and explore that area. My daughter is talking Vietnam in 2018, attractive, but it has never been in my list. Oh well, maybe I have to get a job...
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Post by tiffany on Apr 22, 2016 17:07:05 GMT
I have a job, but I also have bills to pay and other expenses, and I find I've been spending too much on traveling the last couple of years. As much as I would like to go on a trip to Europe next year, I may need to take a year off and re-build my bank account. I also find that the cost of the tours have gone up significantly since I started traveling in 2007, making traveling more expensive. If only I could win the lottery! I think a cheap all-inclusive will have to be enough for me next year, and then maybe I can save enough to go on two tours in 2018. We shall see.
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Post by californian on Apr 22, 2016 20:19:35 GMT
I worked part time until last year (helping one of my daughters) didn't make much but it paid for the trips. She sold her business and that was the end of my traveling money! At my age I am not inclined to work, I would be totally lost in today's world...Volunteering is fine, but having a serious job is totally a different thing...
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Post by tiffany on Apr 23, 2016 13:19:32 GMT
I'm sorry to hear you daughter sold her business. It sounds like the ideal way for you to make extra money for traveling. I can understand why you don't want to get back into the working world again, especially if you have been out of it for a while. I'm glad you are able to go to Portugal this year though, and the good news is, it's not a very expensive country, at least it wasn't when I was there. I have already been on most of Trafalgar's lowest costing European tours, and the Europe tours I have left to go on are quite expensive. I now get five weeks vacation at work, which means more time to travel, but I can't afford to go on the tours I want to go on! Maybe I need to get a second job to pay for my upcoming travels!
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Post by californian on Apr 23, 2016 14:59:01 GMT
Haha! I could maybe drive my car for UBER, I heard many housewives are doing it! Just renewed my license, have a decent car and a good record....I drive all my older friends around, so I have experience...but seriously I doubt any stranger will get in a car driven by a 75 years old! Oh well, just a thought...
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