Hand Crafted Travel

Hand Crafted Travel Hand Crafted Travel organizes small group tours and independent travel in Europe. Over 25 years of e

Should I stay or should I go…
08/08/2026

Should I stay or should I go…

07/02/2026

Bounced through cork oak groves in a 4x4, spotted deer doing their best impression of not noticing us, and rolled past vineyards heavy with the season. This is the kind of estate that makes you reconsider your career choices.

Lunch delivered: cheese and charcuterie to start, pork and potatoes for the main, a salad doing its dutiful vegetable business alongside. Dessert arrived too. I have no memory of it and no photo evidence, which either means it was forgettable or I was three wines deep into the flight and thoroughly charmed. I suspect the latter.

Alentejo doesn’t shout. It just quietly convinces you to move here.

Bounced through cork oak groves in a 4x4, spotted deer doing their best impression of not noticing us, and rolled past v...
07/02/2026

Bounced through cork oak groves in a 4x4, spotted deer doing their best impression of not noticing us, and rolled past vineyards heavy with the season. This is the kind of estate that makes you reconsider your career choices.

Lunch delivered: cheese and charcuterie to start, pork and potatoes for the main, a salad doing its dutiful vegetable business alongside. Dessert arrived too. I have no memory of it and no photo evidence, which either means it was forgettable or I was three wines deep into the flight and thoroughly charmed. I suspect the latter.

Alentejo doesn’t shout. It just quietly convinces you to move here.

Some villages you visit. Marvão you climb up to, and then immediately understand why someone built a castle there.Perche...
06/23/2026

Some villages you visit. Marvão you climb up to, and then immediately understand why someone built a castle there.

Perched on a granite ridge in the Alentejo, with views that stretch into Spain on a clear morning, this is one of those places that feels almost too photogenic to be real, with whitewashed houses, cobbled lanes, and a medieval castle that looks like it grew straight out of the rock. Arrive early, before the day-trip buses, and you'll have the ramparts practically to yourself, just you, the silence, and a few suspicious storks.

Grab a coffee, walk the walls, breathe the mountain air. Sometimes the best itinerary is just "stand here and look at things."

Most people drive straight past Tomar on the way to Lisbon or Porto…which works out great for the people who don't.This ...
06/22/2026

Most people drive straight past Tomar on the way to Lisbon or Porto…which works out great for the people who don't.

This is Templar headquarters territory. The Convento de Cristo sits on a hill above town looking less like a church and more like a fortress that decided to become a church, because that's exactly what happened. The round Templar chapel is the kind of room that makes you stop talking mid-sentence.

Below it, the old town does its own quiet magic: a Jewish quarter with one of Portugal's oldest synagogues, a riverside park made for slow walks, and a Sunday-market energy even on a Tuesday.

Come for the knights. Stay for everything they apparently forgot to mention.

Forget Lisbon and Porto for a minute. Coimbra is Portugal's old university town, all hills, black capes, and centuries o...
06/21/2026

Forget Lisbon and Porto for a minute. Coimbra is Portugal's old university town, all hills, black capes, and centuries of student tradition packed onto the banks of the Mondego River.

Climb up to the University of Coimbra, where the Joanina Library will make you gasp out loud. Gilded woodwork, hand-painted ceilings, and a colony of bats that live there on purpose to eat the bugs that eat the books. Yes, really.

Wander the steep alleys of the old town, and grab a coffee in a student-packed café.

Quieter than the big cities, but just as soulful. 🎓📚🇵🇹

Two hours east of Porto, the land folds into terraced vineyards stacked along a river so dramatic it almost feels staged...
06/19/2026

Two hours east of Porto, the land folds into terraced vineyards stacked along a river so dramatic it almost feels staged. Spend a day if you must, but spend a few if you can.

Base yourself between Régua and Pinhão, the heart of the Cima Corgo. Stay at a small wine estate like Quinta do Pego, where breakfast comes from the property and the view comes free with every room.

In Régua: the Museu do Douro for the history of port wine, then watch cruise boats squeeze through the lock like it's a magic trick.

Wine and tapas at Quinta da Jallota. Go for one glass, stay for two hours.

Tour and tasting at Quinta da Vallado. Over 300 years of winemaking, underrated whites, and a foot-treading tradition that's still very much alive.

Slow down. The valley insists on it.

🍷🇵🇹

🍷🐟 There are lots of companies offering food tours in Porto, but one is the best. Ask me how I know…I’ve taken plenty of...
06/17/2026

🍷🐟 There are lots of companies offering food tours in Porto, but one is the best. Ask me how I know…I’ve taken plenty of them, and this one I have been on half a dozen times now, just to make sure they are still on top of their game 😀

Three and a half hours. Eight stops. Countless tastings, and multiple drinks. I lost count of how many times I said “okay, one more bite.”

The genius of this tour is what they don’t feed you. No Francesinha. No Pastel de Nata. Instead, they go straight for the stuff most travelers never find on their own — including pataniscas, a fluffy cod fritter that that I actually like. And I don’t like fish.

The tour starts with a pastry, moves into the historic Bolhão Market with glasses of wine in hand (yes, wine, before noon…you’re welcome) and just keeps going from there: cheese, charcuterie, fruit, more wine, more food. The guides know everything: the food, the history, the vendors by name. It feels less like a tour and more like eating through the city with a very well-connected local friend.

If you’re heading to Porto, I can arrange this for you. Before you fill up on the obvious stuff. Your stomach will thank you. Eventually.

Cobblestones, port wine, and a skyline that looks like it was painted by someone who really wanted to show off. 🏛️✨Porto...
06/15/2026

Cobblestones, port wine, and a skyline that looks like it was painted by someone who really wanted to show off. 🏛️✨

Porto’s old town is one of Europe’s great walks — start at the Sé Cathedral, where Romanesque arches and sweeping river views remind you that some cities just got the fundamentals right from the beginning. Wind your way down through the ancient streets to the Ribeira, a riverside maze of colorful, laundry-draped facades and café terraces where the only real decision is: do I order the wine now, or now?

Cross over to Vila Nova de Gaia for a tour of Cálem, one of the legendary port wine lodges, where you’ll learn exactly why this particular corner of Portugal has been making the rest of the world very happy for 300+ years. 🍷

Then board one of the iconic Rabelo boats for the Six Bridges river tour, gliding under six stunning spans of the Douro while the city unfolds around you in all its tilework-and-terracotta glory. It’s the best seat in the house.

Porto doesn’t try too hard. It doesn’t have to.

Halfway between Lisbon and Porto lies Nazaré, a little fishing village with an outsized reputation 🌊The colorful boats, ...
06/15/2026

Halfway between Lisbon and Porto lies Nazaré, a little fishing village with an outsized reputation 🌊

The colorful boats, the clifftop views, the dried fish hanging in the breeze. This place has been doing “charming Portuguese village” long before the Instagram crowd showed up. The old quarter of Sítio perches dramatically above the lower town, connected by a century-old funicular that’s worth the ride for the views alone.

Yes, the giant waves are real (search YouTube for Nazaré big waves if you’ve never seen them), but they only roll in on a handful of wild winter days when the Atlantic is in a particular mood. Visit any other time and you’ll find a perfectly lovely beach town without the surf circus. Honestly? That might be the better deal.

Break up your Lisbon-to-Porto drive here, grab a grilled fish lunch on the seafront, and let the Atlantic remind you how small you are. 🐟⛵

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