Lisbon Explorer Private Tours

Lisbon Explorer Private Tours

Lisbon Explorer Private Tours
5
City ToursCultural ToursWalking ToursPrivate ToursFood Tours
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
About
Private Tours For the Culturally Curious! Perfect for travelers, foodies and art lovers who want more than a mass tourism experience • Lively and knowledgeable experts • We are local scholars with a passion for the food, wine, culture and history of Portugal • Excellent English-speaking • Easy walks downhill, or luxury vehicles with heat and A/C • Insider tips on restaurants and places locals visit • FREE rides on historic trolleys • Access car-free historic quarters and go inside sights • No megaphones, headsets • Affordable. ----- To really know Lisbon one must go into the small maze-like streets of the city's old quarters, where automobiles are limited and real life unfolds in pedestrian friendly streets and squares. The young and vibrant guides and scholars who lead our tours are not part-time students or actors who memorize scripts, or offer free tours to large groups without advance reservations. We carefully choose historians who are talented at speaking on Lisbon's treasures, and the amazing stories beneath them. After each tour our staff is available to assist with free city maps, additional sights to see, and restaurant or shopping suggestions. We look forward to bringing Lisbon alive for you in truly amazing, historic and relevant detail.
Lisbon, Portugal

Awards
Travelers' Choice
2024

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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

5.0
5.0 of 5 bubbles1,533 reviews
Excellent
1,501
Very good
28
Average
3
Poor
1
Terrible
0

Pioneer34577631787
1 contribution
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2024 • Family
Davide was great to work with during the planning stages. Thank you for all of your prompt (always within 24 hours) and detailed responses during our planning stages as we made adjustments the quantity of people and the itineraries of our tours. I believe this provided our group strong confidence in your tour company. On our first tour we started with pickup at the Lisbon wine hotel and took a group of 17 on a minibus to Sintra. We stopped at Pena Palace in the morning before a deluxe meal at Cafe Paris in Sintra which was delicious. In the afternoon we stopped at Quinta da Regaleira and Monserrate Palace and Park. As expected, it was warm and there was a lot of walking involved. This was an 8-hour full day tour.

Our second tour the next day also started with hotel pickup this time on a large bus for 22 members with luggage. We stopped at the Jeronimos Monastery and really enjoyed the cloisters. We then headed over to Belem tower with great views next to the water. We passed the Monument to the Discoveries on our way to drop off at the cruise port. This was a shorter 3-hour tour.

I also must compliment Liliana as she was a great tour guide, very knowledgeable and enthusiastic to share her passion for Lisbon and Sintra as she filled us in on the historical facts and cultural insights of these locations.

I know many in our group greatly enjoyed both tours and came away with many memories. I would be willing to use your company again in the future should we have the opportunity to return someday.

Personally, the Sintra tour was amazing, and we were very glad to have modified the standard itinerary to include the Monserrate Palace.
Written August 20, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Rich
Nipomo, CA94 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2024 • Couples
With 3 full days to explore Lisbon, we started with a 3 1/2 hour tour on the first afternoon focusing on the Jewish history of the city.

Here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- We met our guide, Daniel, in the Principe Real section of Lisbon and walked a couple miles toward the Baixa and Chiado neighborhoods. He was more knowledgeable than an encyclopedia…as personable as an entertainer and tied lots of historical loose ends together.

- Daniel included many of his own personal views which, depending on your outlook, could add or subtract from the experience. For us, it cut both ways.

- All in all, a comprehensive and, at times, intense yet enjoyable 3 1/2 hour walking tour with insight into the Jewish past of Lisbon and Europe at large.

- Price seemed reasonable…..100 Euros per person.

Cons:
- As noted above, Daniel included many of his own personal views which, depending on your outlook, could add or subtract from the experience. For us, it cut both ways.

- There was quite a bit of walking up and down hills on cobblestone streets, but it’s Lisbon, of course…so that’s something to keep in mind.

We'd recommend this tour, but first see if the primary guide, Paulo, is available.
Written December 13, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jeremy S
9 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2023 • Family
Daniel was a wonderful tour guide. He was so interesting, informed, flexible, full of interesting stories and knew such a lot about Lisbon and its Jewish history. He was superb with our teenage boys and made the 3.5 hours absolutely riveting - we can’t recommend him enough.
Written January 7, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Sharon B
Haifa, Israel491 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2022
The tour of Jewish Lisbon is exceptional. Paolo Sheffer guided us through hundreds of years of Portuguese Jewish history and threw in many, many tips on making the most of our time in Lisbon.

We learned about the building boom in Lisbon, about explorable underwater aqueducts, about Jewish sausage, and where to buy it, about the hot spots for night life in the city, about the current Jewish community, about tiny historic shops, like the one where you can order hand made leather gloves, etc. etc.

If you go on this tour, take notes!!! Paolo talks a mile a minute and every second is full of fascinating information. He has tremendous enthusiasm for Jewish history and art and has clearly researched the subject deeply. No doubt his information is much more accurate than standard Lisbon city guides. He cleared up myths, such as the idea of Portugal Jews having a "Golden Age" and that the Inquisition was much milder than the one in Spain. In fact, he pointed out that Jews were being massacred in Portugal long before the Inquisition came here.

I could go on and on but you should just book a tour with Paulo and learn more than you ever dreamed you would about Lisbon and Portugal.

On a practical note, the tour is expensive if there are few people participating. If you are traveling on a budget and have some flexibility, request booking a tour with at least four other participants. The cost is global, distributed among the number of people, i.e., the more people, the more affordable it is.

Highly recommended.
Written March 21, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Delmartourist
Delmar, NY52 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2024 • Couples
We went on the Jewish tour of Lisbon with Paolo Scheffer - as recommended by a friend. This was by far the best tour I have ever taken (and I have been on many).
Mr. Scheffer is knowledgeable about the city and its history, the history of the Jewish people, and just about everything Lisbon. I recommend starting your time in Lisbon with this tour (we took it on our last day). He provided a great overview of the city, and helped us to acclimate to many of the neighborhoods. Our group of six Americans (mostly non-Jewish) were blown away by what we learned of the history of Lisbon and the many contributions of its Jewish population. This tour is not to be missed.
Written November 10, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

harry
Los Angeles, CA13 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2024 • Family
We did the "Jewish Lisbon Tour" with Daniel Pereira via LisbonExplorers. There is a lot written about how great Paolo Schaefer is (and we would love to return and hear his take) but Daniel (his colleague) was truly above and beyond--on a very short list of the best tour guides anywhere. It was a compelling and fascinating 3.5 hours walking around Lisbon that not only deepened but honestly transformed our perspective on the history of Jews in Lisbon and Portugal. Daniel is a world class teacher on this subject who offered tremendous nuance for our family (4 kids, college and high school age). The tour left us wanting to dig deeper into the history based on things Daniel called our attention to. Highly recommended.
Written August 7, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

debby s
3 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2023 • Couples
Paulo gave us the most riveting walking tour of Jewish Lisbon. His knowledge on the subject is so vast and his skills as a tour guide are unmatched. His ability to relay information and to tell stories is beyond impressive. He is patient with questions, he is extremely personable and his passion for this subject is contagious. He was extremely generous with both his knowledge and his time as he gave us even more time than he had originally promised us. We were a group of 6 adults engaged in different professions and all of us were totally mesmerized by his tour. I myself am a tour guide with over 20 years of experience, so I am well aware of how much hard work it takes to excel in this profession. Paulo is clearly among the best I have ever met. The subject matter was difficult and he handled it with deep sensitivity and has a breadth of knowledge that is simply astounding. A few days later I met a family who had also done the tour with him and their reaction was one and the same. Anyone who manages to book a tour with Paulo will quickly realize how fortunate they are!
Written February 8, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Robin D
Vienna, WV5 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2024 • Family
We did the tour of Jewish Lisbon with Paolo. It was an amazing semi-private tour. He is very knowledgeable and great story teller. He wove the history of the Jewish people in Portugal with the history of Portugal as a nation. learned so much. It’s unfortunate that many of the buildings associated with this history have been destroyed, but he walked us around the city and showed us all he could. Highly recommend. he is the only Jewish tour guide in Lisbon doing Jewish tours. Great perspective on the history.
Written August 5, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Cathy R
Doylestown, PA2 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2024 • Couples
The walking tour was outstanding. Paolo was a masterful storyteller. He had the ability to recreate scenes that were so visually striking…everyone could feel, see and hear what took place many centuries before. His passion and knowledge of Jewish history made an imprint in our hearts and brains. What a special day !
Written May 23, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Hannah M
10 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2022 • Couples
We booked two semi private and private walking tours in late October with Lisbon Explorer and enjoyed both of them tremendously. We started with Jewish Lisbon, led by Professor Paolo Scheffer, who took us on a tremendous walkabout through the main part of the city - on three levels! It set the stage for our wonderful exploration of Portugal, and shed fascinating light on the history of Portugal and its Jewish community. There is much we never learned in standard Western history classes, and Paolo shares history we never knew and his modern-day insights and opinions. We asked a LOT of questions, and he really enjoyed that. We learned so much. I can highly recommend this tour. Book early - Prof. Scheffer is one of a kind and in high demand. We would even do it again!

We followed that tour the next day with a walking tour of Alfama with his colleague Daniel. Despite the pouring rain, we had another interesting tour and conversation about Portuguese history and modern Portugal. Three hours to engage, ask questions, learn and also experience visually is what travel is all about, and Daniel was interested and interesting.
These walking tours are hands down more interesting than any bus tour or canned spiel from most guides.
Written January 5, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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