I find the best tour guides are good story tellers. I did not find this guide to be a good story teller. While he clearly knows a lot about architecture, I did not find the tour to be a good introduction to the history or layout of Porto.

It’s our first trip to Portugal. We have used context tour guides for tours in other countries in the past and have always been very impressed that they are masters/PhD trained experts in their subjects. We purposely sought out context guides for this trip. Joao was among the best we have ever had. Brilliant. We are here for almost 5 weeks to deeply explore Portugal’s long history…. the age of exploration, navigation, conquests, Estado Novo under Salazar, etc etc. Joao is an architect by training and an AVID historian and among the best tour guides we’ve had. Incredible insights! Highly recommend him.

This was an excellent tour that gave us a very good overall introduction to Porto, where we had never visited before. We received an excellent explanation of many of the significant architectural and cultural developments in the City. Ricardo was very nice and knowledgeable.

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