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Vibrant Travelers Women only, small group w**e, food and cultural tours hosted by a w**e pro, supporting women w**emakers & women business owners.

A portion of each tour goes back to organizations that support women & girls. Celebrate, connect, sip & savor with us!

Our final adventures together 💃🏻❤️We wandered in Porto today, catching sunshine and historic sites. Justice stood strong...
10/10/2026

Our final adventures together 💃🏻❤️
We wandered in Porto today, catching sunshine and historic sites. Justice stood strong as we passed the court building, and we admired the Clérigos Tower with its Baroque architecture standing tall over the historic center of the city. We visited the Lello bookstore, known as the most beautiful bookstore in the world and the site where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books- very clearly inspired by the interior neo-Gothic and art nouveau architecture. The nearby Fountain of the Lions very clearly depicts creatures from which she allegedly drew inspiration for the emblem of Gryffindor. The tiled churches of Carmo and Carmelitas are protected from damage by the underground subway with netting covering the tile, but their beauty still stands out.

From there we headed to the Bolsa Palace- not actually a palace, but rather the stock exchange building, commissioned by the commercial associations of Porto. The massive courtroom is meant to be intimidating, trying to hold the population accountable for integrity in trade. The assorted ballrooms and offices contain details like carved ceilings and original glass windows, but their real stunner is the Arab room- intended to impress as a receiving room with its architectural details and real gold.

The church of St Nicholas is another tiled church - o e of the 427 Catholic Churches in Porto. We admired the Duoro River and its port house warehouse buildings before we were treated to a magnificent Church of St Francis- no photos allowed inside but more Baroque wood details and tons of gold!

We took a short rest back at our hotel in Foz by the beach before our farewell port tasting and dinner at Espaço Porto Cruz. Everyone surprised themselves by learning that they now love white port, tawny port and rosé port! More w**e, food and laughter over our final meal together and we all crashed hard, with hugs and promises to travel together again.

This was an incredible 9 days digging into what makes Portugal so special!🇵🇹❤️

Vintage Cars & Hilltop VinesPicked up this morning by gorgeous restored classic cars, we were treated to an open air rid...
09/10/2026

Vintage Cars & Hilltop Vines
Picked up this morning by gorgeous restored classic cars, we were treated to an open air ride along the Duoro River en route to lunch. First, a pretty stop along the way for some refreshments- João treated us to a traditional Portuguese pastry made by the convent in his village: the Crista de Galo, or rooster’s crest, a flaky pastry of filled with a mixture of egg and almond. He paired it with a 10 year old tawny Port from Quinta Menin. (Perfect!) We looked up ahead, and off in the distance there was hill with a tiny building on top- that’s where we headed next for our lunch!

Touring the Quinta das Carvalhas vineyards, we admired the stunning terraces and vineyards, admiring a 100 year old plot containing a field blend of over 40 different varieties. Up at the top, we had a private lunch in the round home and tasted the w**e from that plot, and many more interesting w**es with our meal. It was a memorable experience!

Hopping back into our vintage cars, we made our way down the hill, said goodbye to our amazing drivers, and continued on to Porto and the ocean. We caught a stunning sunset from the balcony of our ocean view rooms, and laughed our way through dinner together.

Tomorrow: exploring Porto!

A hike & a yacht!Nature called, and we answered! A morning hike through Duoro vineyards combined with a leisurely yacht ...
08/10/2026

A hike & a yacht!
Nature called, and we answered! A morning hike through Duoro vineyards combined with a leisurely yacht cruise along the Duoro River made for the perfect day.

We enjoyed the fresh morning air as we walked along a hiking trail through vineyards and olive groves. As we made our way up, up and up along the terraces, we marveled at their construction and that these vineyards are worked by hand because of the steep slopes.

Because we had earned a nice rest, we boarded a private yacht to be treated to a cruise up the Duoro River, enjoying refreshing white w**e as we relaxed and watched vineyards roll by. We shared a picnic on board of peticoes - nibbles of steak sliders, local cheese, ham, and salad, followed by apple cake and pastel de nata.

Making our way to Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, we toured the w**e museum, cellars and a w**e tasting before heading back to the boat.

As the sun set, we said farewell to our crew, grateful for another beautiful day in Portugal.🍷🥾🇵🇹🍇❤️

07/10/2026

☕️❤️Slow mornings in the Duoro

Convent of Christ to Duoro Valley majestyA UNESCO World Heritage site built in 1160 by the Knights Templar, the Convent ...
07/10/2026

Convent of Christ to Duoro Valley majesty
A UNESCO World Heritage site built in 1160 by the Knights Templar, the Convent of Christ was our morning visit in Tomar from Évora. We walked the same stone halls as the Benedictine monks, marveled at the gorgeous Manueline church’s round interior, and learned some of the meaning of the details of a highly sculptural exterior church Chapter House window, known by all Portuguese school children from a young age.

After a delicious lunch in Tomar at Casa Matreno, we set off for the Duoro Valley. Steeply terraced vineyards alongside the river greeted us in the evening light. Arriving at our stunning hillside hotel, we enjoyed a house port w**e together, and allowed ourselves to relax into the quiet of the area.

Cooking in UNESCO World Heritage Évora🔪👩‍🍳🇵🇹We kept it local today, spending our morning learning to cook traditional Po...
06/10/2026

Cooking in UNESCO World Heritage Évora🔪👩‍🍳🇵🇹
We kept it local today, spending our morning learning to cook traditional Portuguese food at the wonderful Portuguese Cooking with Sofia with Sofia at her small farm just outside the city wall. ❤️ We learned the Portuguese word for knife - faca- which kept us laughing all day! We also learned that you can use rubbing alcohol to cook sausages, you can peel mushrooms, pork is never white meat, and that goat cheese makes an excellent cheesecake! My favorite part about including a cooking class in every tour I create is that hands on cooking really does provide us with an important immersion in a culture’s history, politics, geography, values and daily life. We aren’t just cooking a meal, we are understanding a part of the cultural DNA of a place.

After lunch, we took a walking tour of historic Évora, digging into its Roman roots and the layers of history that make it such an important place. Not only did we see a cute little Fiat Topolino car, but we saw the beautiful local pink marble used in construction everywhere. Inside the Cathedral, we listened to a choir rehearing for a performance and we saw a very rare, and at one point in history, illegal, statue of - gasp! A pregnant Mary! Not ones to turn down a photo stop on TOP of the Cathedral, we survived the many winding stairs and stood on the roof enjoying the views.

Down below, we saw Diana’s temple (Roman) and then the mildly creepy Cathedral of Bones- with our spirits lifted at the end with an exhibition of sweet nativities that are from around the world, including a very detailed GINORMOUS one of Évora!

Tomorrow we are off to the Duoro Valley!🍷🍇

All about Clay!The through line of our adventures deep into authentic Alentejo today was clay. We traveled to Viana do A...
05/10/2026

All about Clay!
The through line of our adventures deep into authentic Alentejo today was clay. We traveled to Viana do Alentejo to spend time with a Master potter, where this 83 year old man makes beautiful ceramics by hand. He is one of the last two potters here, where there were once 30. We practiced throwing pots, as well as learning to paint the pottery.

Afterwards, we traveled to the tiny town of Vila de Frades for an incredible lunch experience at gerações da talha We learned about how w**e is made in Talhas, giant clay vessels made by hand, while we enjoyed their natural w**es expertly paired with regional dishes. We began with local cheese, charcuterie, olives and homemade bread with the Natalha white, followed by a hearty pumpkin and white bean stew paired with the Natalha rosé, then a main course of pork cheeks paired with the red, and finally, a fabulous fig cake with a fun experimental rosé! The w**es are field blends of up to 150 different varieties, and are stunning! Careful natural viticulture and natural w**emaking preserve ancient traditions by this young team. Owner Teresa continues the tradition of her grandfather to keep this estate alive.

Strolling down the street after lunch, we stopped into the Vinho Talha interpretive center where we explored the traditional w**emaking process further.

We ended our day with a visit to a Villa Romana de São Cucufate, a 2,000 year old Roman villa, where clay was an integral part of the construction process. Wandering the ruins and imagining how life was lived at that time in Portugal was incredible.

Our wonderful, thoughtful, funny, art historian guide Catarina really brought this day of clay to life for us!❤️

Lisbon awaits!Today we set out in our minibus for an extensive tour of Lisbon with our lovely guide from yesterday, Ana....
04/10/2026

Lisbon awaits!
Today we set out in our minibus for an extensive tour of Lisbon with our lovely guide from yesterday, Ana. Our first stop was in working class Graça to see a street that’s private and noted by a beautiful tile sign, where we caught a trolley stopping behind us. We walked over to the magnificent Monasterio Sao Vicente de Fora, originally constructed in the 1100s, refreshed and updated in the 1500-1600s.

It was early to get into the monastery, so first we checked out the Feira da Ladra- the flea market- held every Tuesday and Saturday beside the monastery since the 1200s. Filled with all kinds of treasures from handmade local pottery and paintings to an array of vintage teacups, pipes and lighters, records and clothes, we survived mostly unscathed- only one small purchase was made! We headed into the monastery for an extensive tour. We learned about its importance and saw the beauty within- tiled hallways, a very Baroque altar inside the church, a stunning tiled sacristy, a peaceful and majestic pantheon for Portugal’s royal family, and a cistern from the 1100s, still filled with water.

A short drive later, we enjoyed lunch by the water at Zero Zero, and visited the Monument to the Discoveries- a massive stone monument honoring Portugal’s explorers. There are more women in front of the monument in our photo than on it! Can you spot the kneeling Queen, mother to the man at its helm? We followed an underground tunnel to admire the Jéronimos Monastery, a Gothic marvel with an even more spectacular line of people waiting to visit the inside! All of us were thrilled with our earlier visit to our monastery, no lines and virtually all ours!

We ended the day with a pastry pick me up at the world famous Pasteis de Belém. It was required research to determine which pastel was the group favorite- the pastel de nata from yesterday or today’s pastel de Bélem! All smiles, it seemed the group was firmly divided in two for which they preferred!

We bid farewell to Ana & to Lisboa, and it was on to Évora, for more fun tomorrow!🚌❤️🎉

03/10/2026

Follow along on Instagram for our adventures in Portugal for the next 9 days! I’ve cross posted my stories to this page so you can watch here too!

A tasty history food tour!After our welcome reception where we got to know each other over glasses of Portuguese traditi...
03/10/2026

A tasty history food tour!
After our welcome reception where we got to know each other over glasses of Portuguese traditional method espumante, it was off to our historical walking food and beverage tour of Lisbon. Stopping at O Trevo in Barrio Alto for bifana, a hearty pork sandwich best with local Portuguese mustard, we started to learn about the complex history of the city. Along our walk, one guest popped in for a quick leather glove fitting by the famous glove merchant Lovaria Ulisses! Next up was a stop for refreshment at A Ginjinha, where we learned about the drink Ginjinha, a cherry liqueur traditionally sipped by construction workers in the morning to warm their souls before work - Yowsa! Afterwards, we got our pastry fix at Confeitaria Nacional for pastel de nata, a custard tart that everyone adored! Fortified for our walk up the hill to the castle, we caught the sunset overlooking the Tejo river, with the Christ the King statue and double decker suspension bridge modeled after the Bay Bridge in the SF Bay Area behind us. We met a cork tree, sat on cork benches, and learned about the importance of the cork industry to the country. As the sun set, our little flock of women snapped pics of the little flock of peacocks in the trees at the Castle! 17,000 steps later, it was time for bed.

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