"Tours for you" Lisbon

[Bestbubba]

Can anyone help? We are looking to book a full day Lisbon/countryside tour for our CC roll-call. We have heard great things about "Tours for You" and read excellent reports on this board. The problem is when we contacted them, although extremely friendly and prompt with their reply, it seems they charge a 20% non-refundable deposit. We have all experienced missed ports on cruises and for this reason we are wary to book with them. Can anyone who has used this company share their experiences?

Thanks in advance

Sue

[wwinfl91]

We used them for a tour in 2005 from Lisbon and were extremely satisfied with their services. They provided us with a guide and a driver and a clean well maintained van for our group. I was the one who contacted the company and who organized the group, from our rollcall and a yahoo group I set up for the cruise. I did have problems with them initially as they wanted full payment up front which I refused to do. We finally settled on a 20% down which I charged to my credit card but the others who had agreed to go on the tour said they would divide up that cost if we had missed our Lisbon port call. Evidently the 20% down is not unusual as we also paid this for our tour to Paris from Le Havre with a different company.

 

We did have to pay up front for a tour we took in England from London to visit Stonehenge. I was a little uneasy about doing it but it worked out and we really enjoyed that tour also.

 

Because there were going to be more than 6 of us on the tour they let us know ahead of time they would be providing a 15 passenger van. Luckily we were able to sign up 3 other couples for a total of 14 people which really lowered the cost of the tour and the van still had plenty of room.

 

When I dealt with them they seemed open to negoiation. You might suggest you would be willing to do a 10% non refundable deposit and see what they say. Also although ships do miss ports I think it seems to happen less in Europe than it does in other places.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[Bestbubba]

wwinfl91, thanks for the info, much appreciated!

 

Sue

[wwinfl91]

Thanks for the thanks Sue.

 

Here was what I wrote about the company in their guest book.

 

I want to strongly recommend Tours for You as a company to use for tours in Portugal. I was on a transatlantic cruise in May 2005 which was going to be in Lisbon for only one day. Through the internet I had found Tours for You and arranged for a full day tour for a group of 14 people from RCCL's Jewel of the Seas that included a morning trip up the Estoril coast, then to Sintra for a visit to several of its famous sites and finally time back in Lisbon in the afternoon to visit several of its noted places of interest. Our guide, Orvil, spoke excellent English, has a wide knowledge of the places we visited and of the history of the region and of Portugal and did an excellent job throughout the tour answering our questions and pointing out what we were seeing. The Mercedes minibus the company provided for our group had plenty of leg room for even the tallest among our group. The driver did an excellent job of navigating the narrow roads in the countryside and crowded highways around Lisbon. I would strongly recommend contacting Tours for You if you are going to be visiting Portugal whether it is for a day off a cruise liner like we did or for a longer stay in this beautiful and interesting country. Hopefully my wife and I will be able to return and spend more time seeing even more of Portugal and Lisbon.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[glenneagle]

we used them in july and they were fabulous.our guide was knowledgeable, and really helpful . he took us to his favorite pastry store on the way back to the ship.we had a great day and would highly recommend them.

[Dbedros]

Check this company http://www.sunnytours-pt.com/ as they did not require a deposit when we used them in August 05. We had an excellent tour of Lisbon, Estoril and Sintra. The price was less than what Tour for You wanted to charge.

[Bru92]

Another vote for tours-for-you. We used them for a private tour to Fatima.

 

The deposit is just assure you are not a no show. You may change your plans with notice and my understanding is that you would not be charged if the ship is diverted for any reason.

 

Mike in Ohio