Are you interested in traveling to Portugal?   I can help you make that happen.

My love for travel, as shared in an earlier post No Yesterdays on the Road, has taken me to lovely places and allowed me to spend time with wonderful people, meet and learn from locals, engage in the flow of local daily life, build self-confidence, and broaden my worldview.   My global travel started in India in 2005, where I have returned 9 times,  and has since included travel to Thailand, Britain, Ireland, Spain, Scotland, France, Italy, and Portugal.   India definitely captured my heart but I realize as I age that I no longer have the energy to make such a long and challenging trip. 

Portugal has easily become my preferred travel destination.  It is a country that is easy to get to and offers everything a person would wish to enjoy easy, safe, friendly, and culturally-rich travel.

Inspired by my counselling work of helping women explore their limiting beliefs and grow in self-confidence as they age, coupled with my travel experience, I decided to start a women’s-only travel business, Inspiring Women’s Travel,  in 2015.   I organized and guided safe, fun-filled travel for small groups of women that included experiences intended to help women break through unexamined self-limitations.  I knew that the benefits of travel were numerous and I was confident that my organizational, time management and people skills would put me in a good position to help other women enjoy inspiring travel experiences.

When traveling we visited destination highlights and immersed ourselves in the local culture, staying in places owned and operated by locals, traveling from one location to another on public transportation, checking to see where the locals were having lunch, and joining them, having fun practicing a few words of the local language, embracing the culture, making new friends and not rushing through our experiences in order to fulfill a “to do” list.  We had so much fun.

I was in Portugal in March 2020 and returned home early as the world was shutting down due to Covid 19.   A wonderful European trip to Portugal, Italy, and Croatia was planned for six women for June 2020.  That trip was very abruptly cancelled much to everyone’s disappointment. Things went from bad to worse, as we all know, and travel became something we could only hope would happen again one day soon.   I decided to put a pause on my business. 

I started traveling again in early 2022 with a trip to Portugal.   This was my fifth visit to Portugal and my second to the Azores, which has become a destination that I now hope to visit annually. 

I have traveled through Portugal on my own, with friends, and I have taken groups of women as recently as March 2023.  Twice I had the good fortune of walking parts of the Camino do Santiago pilgrims’ walk which was a wonderful experience; challenging yes, but so rewarding.

When operating Inspiring Women’s Travel my role was that of planning, preparing, and guiding travel for small groups of women.  Like many businesses post-pandemic, Inspiring Women’s Travel has been revised.    My role now is that of a consultant helping people, especially women, individually or in small groups, fulfill their wish to travel and more specifically to Portugal.  

My approach as a travel consultant is very fluid.  I come in at the point of your trip planning where you need me.  I can help with anything from putting together a full itinerary, part of the itinerary, or filling in gaps where you are not sure how to proceed.

Traveling freely with an itinerary that you have built, rather than being part of a large tour group, affords you the flexibility to move at your own pace and engage in a deeper connection with the location.   Your experience is less structured and your time spent in Portugal will feel more like you have been living the culture rather than observing it.  You will learn more about the place, its people and traditions, and about yourself.  

Having successfully organized dozens of trips, and traveled from north to south Portugal, including the Azores and Madeira Island,  I can help you confidently put together your personalized Portugal trip itinerary.  Whatever stage of travel you might be at I can help with the process.  We can talk and you can decide to what extent you wish for me to be involved.

Portugal has gained significant recognition as an excellent travel destination.  It’s no surprise that it would.   It is a very welcoming, safe country of beautiful vistas, friendly people, delicious food and drink, and relaxed energy.   A trip to mainland Portugal, the Azores, or Madeira Island will reward you with beautiful memories and quite possibly leave you thirsting to return.   It certainly has for me!

Simply click on the Contact button and send me a message if you are interested in having me help you plan your trip.  I would be delighted to hear from you.