Super Day - Jeep Tour + Arade River Cruise

A TOP quality trip. From the moment our driver/guide picked us up at our hotel until our return a good 8 hours later we were treated to #1 hospitality. The river tour was fabulous, followed by a great jeep safari that ensured that we didn’t miss anything of the fauna, flora and history of the area. The restaurant and meal was equally enjoyable. Finally, a stop at a distillery with lots of interesting information. This trip proved to be the highlight of our holiday. Thank You ‘Chicken George’ xx

Our guide, Luis, was very experienced, knowledgeable, an expert driver, great fun and fluent in English. We felt lucky to have him. The tour itself, which included a delicious lunch (complete with wine), was excellent and gave us an unforgettable off-road driving experience and a fun time at sea. Thank you Luis. This tour is highly recommended and earns it's 5 stars.

Very enjoyable excursion. Learned about the fishery changes in Portimao and the surrounding communities on the river cruise. The boat ride was less extensive as was taken during low tide. I would consider this poor planning as the river is basically an inland waterway fed by the ocean. The Jeep excursion exceeded my expectations. From the moment we were picked up from our hotel, our guide Vitor was very entertaining and informative. We had conversations about Portugal in general as well as specifically about the area in the Monchique mountains. Vitor was very knowledgeable answering our questions the best he could. The views were amazing. The orange groves beautiful. Vitor took time to stop and pick some wild lavender, lemon scented plants and others. The honey farm we visited with the distillery was a welcome addition. Our lunch stop in the mountains provided a delicious and generous chicken 3 course meal with many beverages. This truly was a SUPER DAY!!

HORRIBLE experience. Jeep driver was 20 minutes late and then complained about traffic and other issues and drove horribly the whole way to the boat. I had a little disagreement with the Jeep driver as I was departing his vehicle and so then he went to the boat tour guide and instructed him in Portuguese to give me a hard time on the boat ride. That tour guide singled me out twice once to look me straight in the eye and say to me and everyone there how horrible immigrants are for Portugal, knowing all the while that I am an immigrant. He also bitched a lot about tourism and the decline of fishing in the Algarve as a tourist and actually caused the decline and fishing which is not at all true. I sat there just minding my own business never said a word even after he made those nasty remarks right at me about immigrants. When he wasn’t able to get a rise out of me with those comments several minutes later, he came over and sat down right next to me and asked me what was wrong with me. I asked him if he really wanted to know to try to warn him that he wasn’t gonna like what he heard and he said yeah yeah I wanna know. When I told him I didn’t appreciate his remarks about immigrants and tourists, he spent the next several minutes bitching his little ass off at me and also threw in a very inappropriate comment about Americans coming to the Algarve and buying houses and ruining things for the Portuguese. I have reached out to the company about getting a refund and they are just ignoring me. There are plenty of tour companies in the Algarve. Do yourself a favor and choose another company.

A great fun filled day. Ricardo the guide was very knowledgeable and kept us entertained all day. The views from the mountains were spectacular. The three course luch was tasty with unlimited wine. A great day and good value for money.

The two driver’s George and George were fantastic. Communicated very well and were good fun. Me and my wife had an excellent day and would highly recommend. Lorry man

Friendly guide, with nice knowledge of the flora, we were allowed to smell all the herbs. Still, the tour was not what we expected: little jeep experience especially a lot by road, the parts off Road were fun! Especially the part on the boat was very disappointing, we expected to really go over the river inland. We actually thought we'd go by jeep and back across the river by boat. But we first had to go by road to the harbor and there we went for a quick tour through the harbor. We did not go swimming and we were back much faster, we were happy with that because it brought little on the boat, we literally fell asleep. Lunch was fine, a kind of vegetable soup, chicken with fries and for dessert: an orange you had to cut yourself. Expected to see more about the cork process and learn more from the bees/liqueur making. This was really less than 5 minutes explanation and then mainly tasting to buy it. The three stars are already a bit too much but well, friendly guide.

We had an amazing day! From the moment Riccardo picked us up at our hotel we did nothing but laugh all day! Great company, a wealth of local knowledge and beautiful views and experience. Well worth every penny. Thank you so much for lovely memories made. Helen Coxon and Karen Spilman

Our tour guide was fantastic. Fun and informative! We loved the bee keeper and distillery stop. Countryside was beautiful.

Our guide Louis was very friendly and informative. The boat trip was exhilarating and fun. We were a convoy of three jeeps. The ride bumpy at times took us zigzagging up the mountain. Stopping now and then to admire the view and learn about the flora and fauna. The lunch piripiri chicken was a bit basic but as it was the included in the price it was just about okay. The interaction between the drivers was great, it’s clear they’re all good friends. We enjoyed the firewater and honey stop. All in all a great day out.