Adventures Online: The Best of Portugal From Lisbon to the Sea

This online adventure served as a great introduction to Portuguese history, culture, customs, geography, food, wine and major cities. Adriana and Paula were excellent guides. I visited Portugal in person three weeks after completing this program, and certainly was better prepared than I would have been otherwise. Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed the virtual trip to Portugal! I learned alot about the people and customs. The architecture was beautiful too. The port tonic was most refreshing!!

If you are planning a trip with Road Scholar, please take any courses offered online. The Portugal Lisbon to the Sea online course was very informative, well prepared and definately educational! If you want a leg up on a future trip, please take a course from Road Scholar!

Like many others who have travelled abroad, I'd never been to Portugal nor read much about it. So I took the course and read 2 books. The program is outstanding -- instructors are knowledgeable, warm, engaging and very organized. Great visuals. Had fun 'walking' through the cities, listening to live fado music, going on a commercial fishing boat, then to market, and then to a Sunday Portuguese bar-b-que with one of the instructor's families. Had a good group of fellow travelers who participated in Q&As. Highly recommend.

The online course was terrific. Each day had a different focus. Because the online guide is a real local guide, we got great color on Portugal, not just the sites, but what it is like to live there and the history. This was my first online course….I’m signing up for more!

Group leaders were wonderful and very knowledgeable. It really felt like being there !

Excellent program, next best thing to being there. Nice mix of presentation styles, including lectures, video-taped walks, live musical presentations and Q&A with locals. And, as always with Road Scholar, great presenters and a nice group of actively involved fellow participants.

This was the best zoom class ever! Highly informative. A wide variety of presentations from live speakers to videos. A wonderful tour guide and the next best thing to being in Portugal. I highly recommend this class!

By its nature, RoadScholar brings together interesting and interested participants with excellent programs with interesting and interested presenters. The dialogue is wonderful, the chemistry expansive, totally amazing.

This program allowed me to travel virtually to a country I have long been interested in. The guides and instructors were genuine and professional and shared a depth of knowledge I hadn't expected; and the adjustments to video versions of walking tours and presentations worked extremely well. I appreciated having a Road Scholar tech support person in attendance the whole time in case of glitches. She kept us all in unbroken contact. This was a great experience!

This virtual tour of Portugal was excellent. The presentations were very interesting and the use of zoom was most creative. The instructors were easy to understand and really made a connection with participants. We were sad to leave on the last day.

This was an entertaining and informative program giving a good overview of Portugal's history, culture, products and life.

I signed up for the online adventure, The Best of Portugal from Lisbon to the Sea, because I had never visited this country and really wanted to experience it. My hopes for an engaging and informative tour were met and exceeded. My group coordinator and the local guides gave me such a distinctive flavor of the country that I truly feel I have visited Portugal. Road Scholar's virtual tours are a godsend for people who cannot physically travel for one reason or another. I do hope they continue to provide them.

Fantastic program with experienced and engaging presenters.

Just finished Adventures Online: The Best of Portugal From Lisbon to the Sea. Excellent program. The instructors were very knowledgeable and engaging. I learned a lot about Portugal- it's history, culture, the issues the people deal with. Short of travelling there (which I do want to do when able to), this was a great option.

It would be great to take a virtual trip before actually visiting in person. Virtually, you learn and see and have time to digest on the information with no distractions...able to focus. Physically, when you actually take the trip, walk the grounds, smell and touch...you will enjoy the trip on a much richer and deeper level. And you will truly savor the moments.

With the intention of going on the Duoro river cruise program someday, I registered for this program to get some early knowledge of Portugal (and counteract the inability to travel in person right now). The program provided such good information on the history, culture and current aspects of the country. I loved the variety of activities - slides, pictures, videos, live interactions (music concert and discussions with college grads) and the participant connections. The program was technically run to perfection and the leaders kept us engaged. I did miss being able to try the local food like we can in person but it was nice not to have to pack a suitcase! I am signed up for the virtual tour to Antarctica next.

The Best of Portugal from Lisbon to the Sea was an amazing virtual tour! The program sparked a strong interest in visiting Portugal in the future. After taking the virtual tour, I believe the actual trip to Portugal will be a richer experience. I highly recommend this tour. Of course, the tour guides were quite knowledgeable and set the stage for a delightful experience. Thank you!

As long as you can’t go in person, this virtual tour to Portugal is the next best thing. With very personable and competent leaders and carefully planned timing, we walked through old towns, rode on a fishing boat, conversed with natives, listened to fado; all the while learning about the history of Portugal as well as the present day. I highly recommend this trip.

Top quality leaders/lecturers created an open and congenial atmosphere and provided a well organized and interesting picture of historical and contemporary Portugal. Emphasis on the importance of the sea in every aspect of Portuguese history and life, including art. Video presentations were well integrated into talks and field trips along with information from a range of presenters including a Coimbra student, Fado musicians and a family sharing a sardine barbeque. Questions and comments from involved participants were encouraged and never answered in a simplistic way. Learned about rice, fishing, and Mediterranean diet. Excellent experience!

The virtual tour of Portugal was a wonderful mix of history, current culture, walking tours, food, music, interacting with locals, great guides and speakers and the technology to enjoy all this was very good. Thank you, Diane

We just finished the program this morning, and I feel like I've been in Portugal. The presenters, the materials covered, and the way in which they were covered were all marvelous.

This was an amazing program, by far the best online program I have experienced through Road Scholar or any other platform. Paula and Luisa were truly wonderful. They were fun to be with, and kept us on schedule so the entire group could experience every facet of the program. Prof. Helena Baltazar was also terrific; she is extraordinarily knowledgeable about history, art, and culture of Portugal and extremely engaging. The additional feature of joining an extended family for a visit to the market and a family sardine barbecue was a real treat! The program was truly unique, not only did it include several dozen videos and virtual tours of sites all around the country, but we met four lovely Portuguese citizens who spoke to us in small groups about everyday life in their country and answered many of our questions. The expansive nature of the program using every possible online tool and engaging tour guides made the country come alive while sitting in front of a computer screen. I cannot recommend this program enough!

This program is absolutely first rate. You will have fun learning about this intriguing country and the program leaders Paula and Luisa and Helena were excellent in so many ways. It was an enriching experience for me and kept me feeling stimulated, hopeful and even happy during this pandemic.

What a fun experience! Road Scholar did such a great job making me feel like I was in Portugal! I loved learning about the history and culture of Portugal. And meeting natives made it such a special experience! I look forward to doing this again.

My wife made all the arrangements and contact so I just go along on the program!

My trip to Portugal was "A Real Life Experience" thanks to the mentoring of our local Guide. She alternated among "real life" Walks, local experts and friends, historic and current context untiI I forgot that I was only at Home behind my computer and not struggling with my Walker up and down hills. Can't wait for my next Trip!

The trip to Portugal was so beyond what I could ever have expected.It was superbly organized and seamless. The lecturers Helena and Adriana were excellent. The field trips were extremely interesting. There was a great balance between lectures and field trips and conversations with local people. The group leader created a very warm and friendly atmosphere. I would highly highly recommend this trip.

A wonderful first experience in virtual travel.

A lovely way to see Portugal when we can't actually be there. Well done, Road Scholar. Thank you.

I highly recommend this program! Our instructors were outstanding and worked so hard to help us feel we literally were in Portugal. A good combination of lectures and virtual field trips. A live, not recorded, program with opportunities for great conversations with residents who were so eager to share their love for Portugal. A great experience - one you shouldn't miss!

A wonderful way to experience a location (hopefully, but not necessarily) prior to visiting. The leaders were friendly & knowledgeable and the program allowed lots of questions which was an added benefit to a non-live program. Highly recommend.

Adventures Online: The Best of Portugal From Lisbon to the Sea. Isabel Bernay and Paula Fernandes gave our group an excellent and engaging program about the history and culture of Portugal. Their interactive sessions with Portuguese citizens emulated the "true Road Scholar experience" and we felt we were in the country versus Zoom!

This is a wonderful program, full of interesting facts and interactions on Portugal. The instructors had a great series of presentations. I feel like I have been to Portugal. You will not regret taking this class.

I enthusiastically recommend this program. There was obvious quality background preparation for the delivery of content, but the group leaders, instructors and other team members really made this program special. This online adventure is a great replication of a typical Road Scholar program with efforts to travel virtually, to visit and communicate with locals, and to provide interesting historical and cultural information. Now, to visit Portugal in person - it's on my bucket list!

The group leaders, Isabel Burney and Paula Fernades, were AMAZING! Their program was put together with love and care to give us a slice of Portugal. They had arranged Field Trips for us to see Fado performances and also breakrooms to ask questions of "locals" in the cities we visited. I know this took time and care to put together and it truly shows. I have an in-person trip to Portugal for October 2021 (rescheduled from Oct 2020) and I am looking so forward to it! A few weeks after the course, Isabel and Paula mailed out "Thank You" postcards to everyone!!! Phenomenal!!!!

I highly recommend experiencing a virtual trip. It will really give you a feel for the country; the sites, it's culture & people. You can review your guide book, as I did for Portugal, but there is no substitute for the personal connection. In our program, we had discussions with Portuguese students & working adults, which provides insight you would not have otherwise. Folks, get on with life long learning through travel, even if it is virtual for the present time!

This was my first virtual educational travel experience and I can't wait to do another one! Really got immersed in the country's history and current experience by interacting with locals and great presentations. I appreciated sharing this program with folks all over the U.S.

This was fabulous! Along with the 2 Program Leaders/Instructors, there were several other people that we were able to interact with. Everyone was so friendly and informative. There was a good mix of topics, videos, live interaction, and a very thorough handout for us to keep. Almost felt like I actually travelled there!