"We don't know exactly what we want. We just want to experience Portugal differently."
Start with the conversation, not the map.
I'll ask what you actually enjoy — food, craft, architecture, walking, quiet — and I build the days from your answers. Some people want every hour planned. Some want three good anchors and space in between. Both work.
Start the conversationBefore I plan anything, I ask
How do you like to eat?
Long lunches or quick ones. Adventurous or not. Anything you can't or won't eat — and be honest, it's easier for me to know now.
How much walking is comfortable?
Not how much you can do — how much is still enjoyable. Porto is built on hills, and I'd rather plan around that than discover it at four in the afternoon.
What did you love last time, and what did you regret?
The regret is usually more useful than the love.
What do you take home?
Ceramics, wine, textiles, a photograph, nothing at all. It tells me where to take you.
How much do you want decided in advance?
Some people want every hour planned. Some want three good anchors and room to wander between them.
Is there an occasion?
An anniversary, a birthday, a first trip together, a last one. I'd like to know.
And who's coming?
Ages, mobility, anyone who tires easily, anyone who's difficult to impress. All of it helps.
What I can arrange
My background is production.
Over twelve years I have organised an interview and lunch with a sumo wrestler in Japan, balloon flights over Cappadocia, and a private rooftop above Central Park in New York, closed for the evening, for one group. In Portugal the requests are usually quieter — but the work is the same: knowing who to call, and calling early.
Lunch at a table, not a restaurant
Cooked by someone who has made the same dishes for forty years, in her own house.
A cellar with no tasting room
Small Douro producers who don't take visitors, but open the door when I call.
The floor, not the visitor centre
Factories and workshops — ceramics, textiles, cork, canning, tiles. Watching how something is made is more interesting than most museums.
A local's flat in Porto
Four floors up, no lift, the best view in the building. You have coffee. You look out of the window. It's not a tour, and that's the point.
If there's something you want and it isn't on this page, ask. The answer is usually yes.