Algarve Charms - 7 Hours (Barrocal or Serra De Monchique)

There was lots of really interesting tactile activities throughout the trip and gave you a very inspiring insight into the culture and nature of the Algarve. Absolutely loved it.

We absolutely loved this trip! Pedro, our guide, was very knowledgeable about the rural areas of the Algarve, and you could tell he really enjoyed showing us around. The highlights of the tour were just finding treasures along the way, such as medronho fruit straight from the tree, local wild herbs and plants, and even gem hunting! The trip was a great sensory experience - taste, touch, smell and wonderful sights. The section where we learnt about the Cork plantations and how it is harvested was fascinating to listen to, I'll never look at Cork the same way again! The 4x4 drive was great fun and even though I get travel sick I didn't feel poorly at all, it was just fun! There is opportunity for buying souvenirs but absolutely no pressure. Lunch was lovely too and had a great view. Very accommodating for vegetarians. Honestly we just loved this interesting, calm, beautiful trip. Great to see what the Algarve has to offer other than the coast. Thank you!

Having been to the Algarve many times we have missed the last 3 years (Covid etc etc) and asked locally about anything new. The excursion office on our site recommended this. It was brilliant!! We were picked up at 8.45 by Pedro in a Land Rover. During the drive to the next pickup (one more person so only 3 in total for the trip) Pedro explained what we would be doing during the trip. We told him about things we had done previously so he spent a few minutes working out what we liked, what we were happy to go back to and what could be new for us. So we got a good amount of off road tracks, an excellent visit to Monchique which is one of our favourite places, a call to a farm distillery to sample fire water, up to Foia for the best views on the Algarve and lunch at a local restaurant. Good simple food well cooked and well presented. Pedro was passionate about the Algarve and spent the whole day educating us (in the nicest possible way) about its wonders and attractions - which are plentiful. We really like people who are passionate about their homeland and are happy to pass that knowledge on to others. We speak no Portuguese, the other passenger spoke no English. But Pedro moved between the two languages seamlessly and was a font of knowledge (both from practised presentations and off the cuff stuff) so that we ended the day feeing that we had learned, been entertained and certainly had value for money. As I said at the beginning, we have been here many times and we honestly feel this is our joint number 1 experience on the Algarve. We would seriously recommend the trip to anyone wanting to do more than lie on a sunbed and soak up the rays. That is a worthwhile thing to do but this will add so much more to your holiday.