Spai and Portugal

mrslilifisher

My husband and I are going to Spain and Portugal on the upcoming May 11th tour. This will be our 8th Tauck tour and we will be arriving in Lisbon on the 9th of May. Anyone out there doing the same, arriving early in Lisbon? If so, lets talk.

Lili Fisher

Hellerpn

We too are arriving a day early. Leaving from Philadelphia. This is our sixth tour. Let's talk

Phyllis and Jeff Heller.

mrsfisher

Phyllis: Sorry for the delay in response; bug in the Tauck system prevented me from answering.
We are flying to Madrid from Miami and then flying on TAP to Lisbon. We are leaving on May 8th, arriving on May 9th in Lisbon and staying at the Ritz, the Tauck hotel.

We usually do the hop on hop off bus tour when we are on our own prior to the group arriving. However, we noticed this trip, there is no "get acquainted" dinner. The tour actually starts at 2:00 p.m. on the 11th.

Do you plan ahead when you arrive early? This is our first time in Spain and Portugal so everything will be new to us.

Maybe we can meet up at the hotel and get acquainted over lunch/drinks!

Lili

rabo

My wife and I did this tour in 2010. It was our first Tauck tour and it absolutely spoiled us. You'll have a great time. Our tour director was Joe Pereira. If you have him with you, it will be that much better!

Hellerpn

We are arriving at about 9:00 am on Thursday the 10 th. and staying at the Ritz. Looks like you are arriving on Wed.
When we get to the hotel, we will definitely contact you.

We have bern considering a working tour of Lisbon suggested by a previous traveler . The web site is:

http://lisbonexplorer.rezgo.com/details/16157/Hidden-Lisbon-Group-Tour-Limited-to-10

Looking forward to a great trip. By the way, we are also planning to visit Barcelona when the trip ends.


Phyllis and Jeff.
email. [email protected]

Hellerpn

We are arriving at about 9:00 am on Thursday the 10 th. and staying at the Ritz. Looks like you are arriving on Wed.
When we get to the hotel, we will definitely contact you.

We have bern considering a working tour of Lisbon suggested by a previous traveler . The web site is:

http://lisbonexplorer.rezgo.com/details/16157/Hidden-Lisbon-Group-Tour-Limited-to-10

Looking forward to a great trip. By the way, we are also planning to visit Barcelona when the trip ends.


Phyllis and Jeff.
email. [email protected]

Hellerpn

Oops, make that walking tour

mrsfisher

Yes, the walking tour sounds nice as well. We don't however, want to duplicate what Tauck will be showing us.

We understand that the little town of Fatima is about one hour's bus ride from Lisbon and buses run constantly all day. We know that this is a pilgrimage type of town, and Mother's Day is the really big day for this town drawing hundreds of tourists, but since we will have the time, and it will be a few days prior to Mother's Day, we will most likely go either later on Wed. or early Thursday.

However, since you will be arriving on Thursday, I am sure we can connect for an early bite to eat or drinks after dinner.


Thanks for the website; I will check it out. Having the two extra nights in Lisbon will be really nice and we are looking forward to it. We took advantage of the two extra nights on our last trip with Tauck to Cape Town, South Africa. We did find it to our benefit regarding jet lag, and we were able to see so much in Cape Town we would not have had time if we did not get there early.

Again, looking forward to meeting both of you. We always meet such nice people on our Tauck tours!

See you in May.

Lili

RobertM

Hi Phyllis. My wife and I are also participating in the Tauck Spain and Portugal tour, though not till the mid-June departure so we will not be linking up with you and the others. I notice you are extending your trip to Barcelona. We have made the same decision and were wondering whether you have opted for train or air for the trip from Madrid. We are leaning heavily towards the train as door to door it seems to be a very efficient way to get to Barcelona time wise.

Also, have you zeroed in on any tour companies in Barcelona to round out your experience?

We have opted to stay near Las Ramblas at the Alma Barcelona as we were warned things can get fairly boisterous on Las Ramblas and so have avoided any hotel real close to this area.

Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated.

Cassiopeia

lilifisher wrote:

My husband and I are going to Spain and Portugal on the upcoming May 11th tour. This will be our 8th Tauck tour and we will be arriving in Lisbon on the 9th of May. Anyone out there doing the same, arriving early in Lisbon? If so, lets talk.

Lili Fisher

My husband and I are going to Spain and Portugal on May 11th tour. This will be our 5th tour with Tauck. We will arrive in Lisbon on the 10th and will stay at the Four Seasons. Looking forward to seeing you. Love to talk to you. Am so excited.
Peggy Timbrooks

Cassiopeia

Hellerpn wrote:

We too are arriving a day early. Leaving from Philadelphia. This is our sixth tour. Let's talk

Phyllis and Jeff Heller.

We are arriving on 10th a day early. Leaving from Phoenix on the 9th. Our 5th tour. Be glad to discuss trip with you. Peggy and Gordon Timbrooks

mrsfisher

Peggy: So nice to hear from others going on this tour. We are looking forward to this trip. We enjoy our tours with Tauck; they do such a good job and we always meet such nice people. Again, we are arriving on Wednesday the 9th.
We took advantage of the special Tauck had for repeat travelers. We did this on our South Africa trip last Feb. and found it less stressful when the entire group arrives. No jet lag!

See you at the hotel!

Lili

Hellerpn

rgm1714 wrote:

Hi Phyllis. My wife and I are also participating in the Tauck Spain and Portugal tour, though not till the mid-June departure so we will not be linking up with you and the others. I notice you are extending your trip to Barcelona. We have made the same decision and were wondering whether you have opted for train or air for the trip from Madrid. We are leaning heavily towards the train as door to door it seems to be a very efficient way to get to Barcelona time wise.

Also, have you zeroed in on any tour companies in Barcelona to round out your experience?

We have opted to stay near Las Ramblas at the Alma Barcelona as we were warned things can get fairly boisterous on Las Ramblas and so have avoided any hotel real close to this area.

Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated.

We are taking the train from Madrid to Barcelona. Just bought tickets though web site can be confusing. The web site is


http://www.raileurope.com/train-faq/european-trains/ave/index.html

Have hotel but my wife has info

GlennG

My partner & I are booked on the July 6th tour and arrive in Lisbon on the 5th. We are staying an extra day in Madrid at the end of the tour & then will take the train to Barcelona.

Anyone else booked on the July 6th tour?

GlennG

Cassiopeia

mrsfisher wrote:

Peggy: So nice to hear from others going on this tour. We are looking forward to this trip. We enjoy our tours with Tauck; they do such a good job and we always meet such nice people. Again, we are arriving on Wednesday the 9th.
We took advantage of the special Tauck had for repeat travelers. We did this on our South Africa trip last Feb. and found it less stressful when the entire group arrives. No jet lag!

See you at the hotel!

Lili

Hi MrsfisherThanks for replying. This is supposed to be one of their best. Their two day special was great. What a good idea to take advantage of it. I took the air fare instead so had to pay the extra night but I did it for the jet lag too. It's worth it. It's going to be great to know someone from the first day. I'm Peggy. My husband is Gordon. We have traveled with Tauck lots of times and have always been satisfied. Hope the weather cooperates. I think we chose a good time to go. See you at the hotel. Or let's chat some more.

Cassiopeia

Sorry Lili my husband's name keeps being blocked. Going to try this. His name is G O R D O N.

mrsfisher

Peggy/Gordon:

We, too, have been on about 7 previous tours with Tauck. We have always been impressed with the directors, hotels and itineraries they provide. I am sure this tour will be wonderful, too. We try to get to Europe in May since we found the weather is usually quite mild; not too hot days and cool evenings. Easy to pack for as well; light jacket and casual slacks or skirts. Since we live in South Florida all year round, hot weather on vacation is not always welcomed for us!

Looking forward to some R&R at the hotel the first day; maybe the SPA!

We always do breakfast; maybe we will see you there!

Just a few more weeks to go.

Lili and Larry

mrsfisher

Peggy/Gordon:

We, too, have been on about 7 previous tours with Tauck. We have always been impressed with the directors, hotels and itineraries they provide. I am sure this tour will be wonderful, too. We try to get to Europe in May since we found the weather is usually quite mild; not too hot days and cool evenings. Easy to pack for as well; light jacket and casual slacks or skirts. Since we live in South Florida all year round, hot weather on vacation is not always welcomed for us!

Looking forward to some R&R at the hotel the first day; maybe the SPA!

We always do breakfast; maybe we will see you there!

Just a few more weeks to go.

Lili and Larry