Portugal It Is!

"What should we do for our 15-year anniversary trip?" That was the question my husband and I kept asking each other. We finally decided Portugal after a week of jumping all over the globe. Then came the decision on how long we would be able to go and what places in Portugal.

As I read up and researched Portugal, I came to the realization that for a small country there are a lot of places and experiences that I wanted to cover. At the end we settled on Porto, Lamego (Douro Valley), Lagos (South Coast of Portugal), and Lisbon. We decided to fly into Lisbon and rent a car to travel around the country for 12 days in the last 2 weeks of October. It was not the peak tourist season, and it was not too cold nor too hot. While we were expecting the rain, experiencing it in person was another thing – off and on continuously and followed by period of sunshine. Also, all the places we visited we walked most of the time, so bring your walking shoes.

The Flight

We flew business class on TAP Air Portugal as it was the best deal, and we also got a direct flight into Lisbon. We also wanted to be able to sleep comfortably using the flat bed seat so that we minimized the jet lag. Business class on TAP is called Executive. There are 2 options for the Executive seats. We took the Top Executive option as it gave us the option of refund.

With the business class seats we got free access to the lounge at the airport before departure. TAP has a reciprocal agreement with Turkish Airlines for lounge access and I must say the food in the Turkish Airlines lounge was great! I had to remind my husband that we would get more food on the plane! All in all, we were very happy with the service and meal choices. I also selected the low sodium meal option for my husband when we made our reservations, which was very helpful. The inflight wine selection was very good and a great way to taste some good Portuguese wines.

The Rental Car

After we landed in Lisbon we had to figure out where to go pick up the rental car. We booked our car through Cael using the car rental option via TAP Air Portugal. The Cael customer support emailed me before our departure from the US to give us instructions on where to go in the Lisbon airport to take the shuttle to the Cael car rental office. Once we landed in Lisbon it was a little confusing to find the shuttle pick up spot. Luckily, I had gotten international calling added to my cell plan before leaving the US. This came in use throughout our trip. I had to call the Cael customer support number (provided in the email) to get more details on the shuttle pick up spot.

We picked up our economy rental car at the Cael office (which was a little far from the Lisbon airport). The Cael representative was very helpful, and she gave us a few tips about road travel through Portugal. Namely, tolls and best routes to take. We added in a GPS and toll transponder to our rental to make it less complicated for us as we were planning on driving all over Portugal.

Initially we were supposed to drop the car off back at the Cael office near the airport, but the rep at the Cael counter offered us the option of dropping the car off at a Cael office near our hotel in Lisbon. This was more convenient for us as it was one less thing to do before leaving for the airport.

I'll end this here as I didn't want to write a novella for my first post. I'll share more about our Portugal trip and the places we visited in the next few posts! Cheers and live life to the fullest!