Fabulous Portugal, Disappointing Airlines | By the Sea Communications

One of many gorgeous beaches near the southwest corner of Portugal.

So many people have been asking about my recent Portugal trip, I decided to write about the highlights as well as some travel issues I encountered so you might learn from them.

Portugal itself was lovely, but the journey was a lesson in resilience. As someone who has been to more than 40 countries and traveled more than 99.9% of the people I meet, I can say with some authority that customer service levels of the airlines and rental car companies (in this case Icelandair, TAP Air Portugal and Hertz) have gone way down.

Soaking it Up in Reykjavik

My adventure, and adventure it was, started with a day in Reykjavik, Iceland. I flew in at 6:00am and went straight to the famous Blue Lagoon for an 8:00am reservation to soak in their hot springs. They ask that you book three months in advance and they charged me $90 for the cheapest “Comfort” reservation. I booked a FlyBus bus ticket with them as well, for an additional $45 or so, and took the bus from the airport at 7:30am and arrived on time.

Then we got the bad news that all the computers were down and they had a digital wristband system for everything, including lockers. Ugh.

This delay lasted a lengthy two hours and the place kept getting busier and busier as people with later reservations arrived. They gave us free water, coffee, cookies and ice cream, but all we really wanted was to soak in the lovely and huge pools we saw outside in the glorious sunshine.

In the Blue Lagoon with my new-found friends.

I met some wonderful people in line, the Blue Lagoon finally got their computers online again, and we all sunk into the fabulous warm pools and had a delightful time. Besides roaming the large pools, we could rub silica on our faces and even order a beer from an in-pool bar. Much needed at this point.

I still give the Blue Lagoon five stars and highly recommend it. I could have soaked all day in there. And their customer service team has since told me they will refund my money (at least the entry-fee, not the bus) for the inconvenience.

After dragging myself out of the pools, I took FlyBus (part of the bus reservation) to Reykjavik. The town of Rekjavik was lovely, not too crowded, cute storefronts and restaurants, and a tall and interesting modern looking church called Hallgrímskirkja. Fish and chips, salad and tap water for dinner for $25 USD.

Another brightly painted home in Reykjavik.

The next morning I marveled at the gorgeous sunrise at 4:15 am (yes, it was safe on the street in the middle of the night) as I was taking the FlyBus to the airport for my flight to London and on to Lisbon. The scenery I saw in Iceland was stunning and other-world-ish. The people were friendly and helpful; not quite tired yet of the huge influx of tourists they have been getting from the Icelandair “free stopover” marketing success. I liked the county and may go back to explore for a week or so at another time.

Airlines That Need to Get Their Act Together

My travel experience to Lisbon was a debacle to say the least. It combined a long Icelandair “technical issue” flight delay, tarmac sitting, unloading, re-loading, TAP Airlines cancelling all four of my flights that week because I missed the first leg in London, having to pay $425 for a new roundtrip flight to Lisbon, seven (!) unexpected hours at London Heathrow (LHR), numerous incompetent “customer service” people (including those for Icelandair and TAP Airlines), a 30-minute cab line at midnight at the Lisbon airport and finally arriving to my hotel at 1:30am (nine hours later than planned).

I swear I was close to tears especially when all the service people at Heathrow seemed so completely numb to a traveller in distress. What the heck happened to the travel industry? I finally looked the TAP Airlines woman at Heathrow in the eye and said, “Doesn’t anyone have empathy for me?” That finally struck a cord and she helped me book a new, albeit $425, flight to Lisbon, which by the way was delayed as well.

I could go on and on with stories about that particular day, but, suffice it to say that my respect for the travel industry went down a few notches in those 24 hours. Both Icelandair and TAP Airlines make it so difficult and confusing to get any kind of compensation for all the troubles they caused. Labyrinthine customer service phone lines, multiple unanswered emails and they wasted lots of my time. Not fun. Emphasizing how much I dislike how they managed all of this, especially TAP Airlines, is possibly my only recourse.

Before I talk about Portugal, I want to say how much I liked the four separate hotels I stayed in. I have listed all four at the bottom of this blog along with their websites. They were all trendy, in great locations, provided good service and were reasonably priced for what they offer. And sending hugs to the middle-of-the-night check-in man (I think his name was Juan) at the Hotel Convento do Salvador for giving me an upgrade to a room with a river view when I arrived frazzled at 1:30 am.

Portugal’s Southwest Tip is Wonderful, Go Now

I liked Portugal every bit as much as I anticipated. Sagres, the small town I stayed in at the southwest corner of the country, is a fabulous surfers hangout. It is in the Algarve region and is much like the small towns I used to visit when I was in my twenties (10 years ago, ;)). Quiet, sunny, great beaches, fun coffee shops, little beach cafes, surfers (or people pretending to be surfers) everywhere. It was incredibly charming and I fear the mass tourists will discover it all too soon.

My five days in that region consisted mainly of “beach hunting.” Almost every day I would get in the tiny Fiat 500 I had rented and search out the next best beach. The western coastline was full of them and I quickly became addicted and wanted to see more and more of them.

People on another beautiful beach on the west coast of Portugal.

The second day of my beach searching was hampered by a slow-leaking tire that happened as I swerved off the road to avoid an overlapping oncoming truck on a narrow road near Sagres. I carefully, and finally, made it to the nearest Bosch auto/tire repair shop in Vila do Bispo 10 km away where, after two and half hours, they sent me on my way. The people at that shop were kind and helpful, and very patient with me.

Hertz, on the other hand, made me endure six calls to their “customer service” lines and their “customer service” was pathetic at best. They never really accomplished anything and I finally paid $180 for the new tire out-of-pocket despite my comprehensive insurance with Hertz for that rental. It felt like they were trying to outdo the bad service I got at TAP Airlines. And there was no spare tire in the back of the car, which would have helped the whole process immensely.

A fun and active surfing beach.

So back to the beaches of the western coast of the Algarve…they were spectacular! One after the other gorgeous as can be. Cliffy ones, ones at the ends of rivers, ones that were secluded, ones that were packed with people and had cute sandy cafes with bad hot dogs and ice cream. And heaps of likable surfers everywhere, many traveling via camper vans. To get to some of the beaches required time and patience on dirt roads, but, more often than not, the reward of an awesome beach was there as I rounded the last dusty bend. Wildflowers were out in abundance (it was May), the air was fresh and the interior scenery beautiful as well.

Stunning coastal cliffs, this one in a nature preserve.

It was also nice to see massive wind farms dotting my journey. Apparently Portugal is ahead of the curve with clean energy. Cheers to them for that.

I stayed out of Lagos and other tourist madhouses in the Algarve. Natural beauty is what I was looking for and I found it in droves. There are all sorts of other things to do in the southwest tip as well. Lighthouses, forts, cycling, coastal walks and, of course, lots of surfing lessons everywhere. All good fun.

After several lovely days in the Algarve I took the A2 back up through the interior of Portugal. In the middle of the day on a Monday, I was traveling an average of about 85 mph on this beautiful, well-maintained, super quiet freeway. It was the fast way to get back to Lisbon. I hear the curvy route up the west coast is gorgeous, but I had seen a lot of the west coast already and this quick drive sure was pleasant.

Alfama is Awesome in Lisbon

The hilly coastal city of Lisbon book-ended my Algarve adventure and I had a total of about two days there. It has a good feel to it, similar to many European cities. My favorite part was the old town area of Alfama where I stayed the first part of my trip. Lots of meandering cobblestone streets, tiny cafes where you could have a glass of wine or an authentic Portuguese fish dinner, viewpoints over the city, the requisite fort on top of the hill. It had it all.

I enjoyed a glass of Vino Verde with this nice guy in Lisbon.

On the way home through the city, I stayed near Praca da Figueira an area with some typical lively European squares with lots of nearby cafes and little shopping streets. And I found a nice respite from the late-spring tourist onslaught at the wonderful Oceanario do Lisboa, their aquarium. It’s a little out of the way, but worth it if you are into ocean creatures and ocean conservation like me. It has an impressive huge central tank with sharks, rays, groupers and much more.

Great aquarium with some good marketing as well. They also had this mascot sticking his head up in their little bay.

The Long Slog Home and Lessons Learned

I decided to pack my return trip into one day (Lisbon > London > Reykjavik > Seattle), which was a marathon, but I eventually made it. We experienced super stormy conditions in Reykjavik and by then I was questioning this whole “free stopover” concept as it added a lot of time and difficulty to my travels. (I was, however, very proud to have secured the roundtrip flight to LHR in the middle of May, with a free stopover in Reykjavik, for a $500.)

After all the travel hassles on this trip, I thought I might never want to travel again. But after being home a few days, I was ready to head out again. Life is short. The world has so many interesting places to explore. And as a new Delta Airlines ad campaign says, “Good things come to those who go.”

The trip did teach me about resilience though. The mishaps almost started to become amusing there were so many of them. In addition to the problems mentioned above, I stepped on my sunglasses, left my phone charger in Lisbon and nearly got dangerously stuck on a steep hilly cobblestone road in my little car in the Algarve.

But, like most travels, I met wonderful people, saw amazing scenery, experienced some very fun things and got away from the day-to-day routine at home. I felt rejuvenated, more creative, happier and livelier. It was all worth it.

View from my room at the Memmo Baleeira in Sagres. I was tipped off to this hotel by an article on the Algarve in Conde Nast Traveler.