João Branco

João and the team have done an excellent job from the planning stage to our trip completion. They planned the trip well taking into account our preferences and all the experiences and hotels were great. They helped us during the trip addressing any issues, such as unexpected restaurant closures, in advance and at no cost to us. João was always alaivalable and answered many questions timely and thoughtfully.

It felt good to be working with professionals such as João.

We would highly recommend João's services and expertise to anyone wanting to explore Portugal.

Activity Reviews

Porto's Historic Odyssey on a Private Walking Tour

Porto

The guide was excellent and very friendly. She knew history and spoke English very well. Highly recommended when in Porto.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

The guide was excellent and very friendly. She knew history and spoke English very well. Highly recommended when in Porto.

Scenic Voyage along the Douro River aboard an Exclusive Boat

Douro Valley

This was a highlight of our trip. Both because of the superb views but also because of the boat crew great service.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Our driver for the day did everything right. It was a pleasure.

Transport

Excellent mini van

Panoramic Boat to the Ponta da Piedade Grottoes

Portugal

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Farewell

Lisbon Int. Airport (LIS)

Excellent transfer service.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Our trip to Portugal to celebrate 15th wedding anniversary was well planned with in-depth conversation with Joao from Across Portugal. With ongoing conversation we were able to settle on points of interest and hotel arrangements efficiently and we really appreciated timely responses from Joao, which made us feel more comfortable in dealing with a travel agency we were not familiar with.

Even before our arrival, Joao texted and guided us, laid out detailed information on what to expect at the airport upon arrival. Upon arrival we were greeted with a Welcome Package of bottles of Porto and cookies and champagne! Each day he checked on us and reminded us of our upcoming schedule for the next day. Our drivers were on time and drove us in clean cars and Nelson, the driver we had the most, even got us a bouquet of flowers and a box of delicious chocolates on our anniversary date! Every hotel we stayed at also welcomed us with a celebratory bottle of champagne and fruit to help celebrate our wedding anniversary. What a way to make you feel special!

Our walking tour guides were also excellent too! Thank you to Margarida and Andre (Porto guide) were fantastic, engaging and very informative.

Thank you to Joao and his team at Across Portugal! We have travelled extensively around the world but Across Portugal's personal touch and services left us with wonderful memories of Portugal and unforgettable experiences throughout our journey across Portugal! Muito Obrigada!

Hotel Reviews

Heritage Avenida Liberdade

Lisboa

Great location, clean and quiet. Breakfast could have more variety; otherwise, service was fantastic!

Authenticity & Character

Clean boutique hotel

Location

A short distance to the major tourist sites and restaurants.

Staff

Very responsive to our requests and questions. Very helpful!

Cleanliness & Comfort

Nice firm bed. No odours. Very clean!

NH Collection Porto Batalha

Porto

Amazing location, clean but the room could have been slightly bigger.

Authenticity & Character

Nice boutique hotel but it uses strong fragrance in common areas.

Location

Walkabout distance to all areas. Fantastic location.

Staff

Staff working the breakfast was very efficient and helpful.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Clean and well kept hotel

Cascade Wellness

Lagos

It's location was amazing! Close vicinity to walks around the cliff side...very quiet. If you wanted to go into town then you had to take an Uber but otherwise, excellent location for hiking and long walks.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Grande Real Villa Italia

Cascais

Beautifully decorated hotel with large rooms. Needs slight updates but otherwise, excellent location and quiet.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Very responsive to requests. Thank you.

Cleanliness & Comfort

The room was clean and tidy. The bed was so big :)

Activity Reviews

Unveil the Fairytale Villa of Sintra with a Private Driver Service

Portugal

The villa was beautiful and very interesting on the exterior, especially when the fog rolled in and covered the whole villa. The village around the villa was also very quaint and interesting but what we enjoyed the most was the services provided by our private driver, Nelson. We had the opportunity to ask Nelson questions about Portugal and what it is to be a Portuguese and he also provided a lot of interesting information about Sintra. Thank you Nelson!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Porto's Historic Odyssey on a Private Walking Tour

Porto

Our guide, Andre, was very proud of Porto. As we walked through this beautiful town he explained the history and its different areas.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Indulge in Elegance on a Guided Winery Tour Infused with Tastings and a Delicious Lunch

Douro Valley

Excellent private tour and delicious lunch at the restaurant. The food was delicious and the service was spectacular! What a beautiful winery!!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Farewell

Lisbon Int. Airport (LIS)

We were picked up and dropped off at the airport without any delay or issues. Much appreciated ample space in the car.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

The Flavors of Port Wine - Sip & Discover

Porto

Always interesting to try sip and discover tours of a well known winery. Wine tasting afterwards with cheese board made the experience even more memorable!

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Seamless Discovery - The Ultimate Douro Valley Experience with Private Driver Service from Porto

Portugal

Driving through Douro valley to look at it's unique scenery was great.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Panoramic Boat to the Ponta da Piedade Grottoes

Portugal

It was a private boat tour so we had ample space to relax and enjoy the ride. Also we felt safe and well protected.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

We are very glad that we used kimkim for our first time to Portugal! kimkim connected us to João, and kimkim's platform made it very easy to communicate with him as he assisted and advised on the itinerary for our trip. João was fantastic - very prompt in answering our many questions, provided options to accommodate our specific requests, and was all around super pleasant and friendly. We also didn't feel like he gave us any pressure, which was really appreciated.

After we decided to go with kimkim, we trusted João to arrange and book everything for us. He made everything super easy! While we were in the country, João set up a WhatsApp chat and sent daily check-ins with the plans for the next day. It was reassuring to know we always had a lifeline in case there were any issues (and there really weren't any - except for rare bad weather which is NOT in their control of course!). João's network of private transportation and guides were top notch - everyone was prompt, super friendly, knowledgeable, and very willing to share their personal/local experiences and opinions. That really made a huge difference in terms of our overall experience. Special shout out to our drivers - André, Ivo, Ricardo, and Fernando!

We loved our Portugal trip and went everywhere we wanted to go: Lisbon/Sintra, Porto, Douro Valley, and the Algarve. We highly recommend João and his team without hesitation!

A comment about the price - yes, you will probably pay more with kimkim than if you were to book everything on your own, but we felt it was worth it for the convenience, flexibility for 100% customization, level of service, and the high quality of the experiences.

João contacted both of us once or twice daily on Whats App. He sent a schedule for the next day on the prior evening. All communication was detailed and very helpful. Any questions we had were answered quickly. We were never without support, if we needed it. As it was, everyone in the schedule was on time, completed their roles very professionally and went above and beyond our expectations! "Pepe" picked us up from the airport and was our driver and tour guide for the first part of our trip. Ivo carried on with driving for the next couple days and finally Sandre (sp) drove us back to the airport. All drivers were excellent as they provided comprehensive information on each place that we passed or stopped at. Without their expertise we would be looking at places and have no real understanding of the history or what we were seeing and experiencing. A big thanks goes to all three!

We took walking tours with Margareta (sp), Bernardo and Daniel. We learned of history, architecture, culture, politics and social norms. All guides were very well educated and readily shared their knowledge and enthusiasm for their local areas. We came away inspired and awed by how much we had learned! We recommend that everyone who goes to Portugal tries to get a walking tour with one of these guides!

We had two winery tours and 3 tastings from which we learned a lot about the individual winery and we developed an appreciation for the excellent wines and ports in Portugal. Another truly wonderful experience!

Our hotels were all wonderful and unique in their styles and architecture. João picked excellent places to stay and recommended wonderful restaurants close by. Every detail was anticipated and planned for by João.

We rented a car for 3 days and both the pick up and return was smooth and had wonderful service. The vehicle was so much better than anything we expected to find as a rental! Thanks to Marta who was especially wonderful! Everyone assured us that driving in Portugal was easy and we found it to be true. Of course we did not challenge rush hour in Lisbon!

We hope that we did not miss thanking anyone for their excellent services for indeed everyone did an excellent job! The people of Portugal were kind, courteous and we highly recommend having João and the whole team set up your vacation experience! Thank you!

We had 3 nights in Lisbon, 3 in Porto, 2 in Evora and 1 in Cascais. We travelled to Sintra and toured the Pena Palace and Park, Obidos, and their walled medieval town, Nazare, Porto with a walking tour and a tour of Sandeman Winery, Douro Valley and Quinta da Pacheca (both restaurant and winery), Coimbra, Fatima, Evora (walking tour).

We connected with João Branco through KimKim, and we were so fortunate to have done so! From our earliest planning inquiries through to our final flight home, João was tremendously responsive, helpful (and patient, as we did often have trouble making decisions!). Every detail that he arranged, from airport greetings and guided tours to reservations at hotels and restaurants, was top-notch and perfectly executed, surpassing our expectations (and we travel a lot!) -- and if at any point we had encountered a glitch, we knew that he was right at hand to help us sort things out, because he used WhatsApp to check in with us regularly and find out how we were doing. Even someone as outstanding as João cannot control the weather, but he had given us a very accurate sense of what to expect in the Azores in March (i.e. Expect the Unexpected!) and was incredibly helpful in communicating with us and providing alternative suggestions when bad weather meant we had to cancel some planned water activities. Having someone so willing to facilitate for us, especially when we do not speak Portuguese nor know the area, made our entire trip so much more relaxing and hassle-free. We would absolutely use him again if we travelled in Portugal!

Joao is excellent. He goes above and beyond to help coordinate all your activities . The tour guides and drivers were amazing. All the activities that he helped choose were great. I can’t recommend him enough. We especially enjoyed our tour guide, Elsa in Lisbon. There were some changes I made right before the trip and even one we canceled the day of and he worked with us. You can’t go wrong using their service.

Hotel Reviews

Maison Albar Hotels Le Monumental Palace

Porto

That was a wonderful hotel. Service and location are great.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

MouraSuites Hotel

Largo da Porta de Moura, 7000-647 Évora, Portugal

Really lovely hotel

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Review

The Flavors of Port Wine - Sip & Discover

Porto

Our tour guide was Anna period. This tasting activity was great.

Quality of Experience

Joao did a great job organizing everything for us. All went according to plan and Joao was available on very short notice to provide additional guidance. We would strongly recommend using Joao and his team.