Portugal, Sicily, Greece and the Balkans

[Scash]

Just under 6 weeks to go until we head off on our next adventure. An early start to my report I know but I figured I would get the background of our trip out of the way while I have time before the trip gets underway.

Mrs Scash has always wanted to go to Portugal, Sicily and Greece (I call this part 1 of the trip) and I’ve long had an interest in the Balkans (part 2). Part 1 mainly came about as I was looking for reward flights to anywhere in Europe (the joy of being retired and flexible) but could not find anything to the main ports (ie CDG, LHR, FCO etc). I then kept widening my search parameters and stumbled across 2 x J seats with Emirates BNE-DXB-LIS. Perfect!

Planning then got underway with the following itinerary for part 1:-

• Lisbon 4 nights
• Porto 3 nights
• Palermo 3 nights
• Catania 4 nights
• Athens 4 nights
• Milos 3 nights
• Santorino 4 nights
• Paros 4 nights
• Thessaloniki 3 nights

As we were going to be in Greece I thought why not then head to the Balkans (part 2). The plan was to go there and do our own thing, however the more I researched, the more I came to realise the difficulties in travelling between the various countries (lack of trains, unreliable buses, border crossings). I know that others on this forum have managed to do the Balkans on their own, but we bit the bullet and booked an Insight Vacations Treasure of The Balkans 16 day guided tour (Treasures of the Balkans Guided Tour | Insight Vacations AU). We are not normally guided tour people but in this instance I think this will work well for us.

The Balkans tour doesn't include Slovenia so we will head there afterwards, staying in Ljubljana for 5 nights. The final piece will be 5 nights in Edinburgh to see our son and future daughter in law (they are planning the wedding for March 2026 in either Malta or Cyprus so hopefully another trip report to come!) before heading back home.

All up our trip will be 2 months departing BNE 6 May 2025 (EK431) and returning on 10 July 2025. At this stage we only have return flights LHR-DXB-SIN, as there are no rewards flights to Aus at that time. We are currently booked on BA F to DXB and then EK J to SIN, but this may change if seats open up direct to BNE. Otherwise we will look at paid flights from SIN to BNE, or even go to Bali for a few nights then fly DPS-MNL-BNE (maybe stop over in MNL) with PR as they have J seats for around $850.

TBC…….

 

[I love to travel]

Sounds really interesting. Looking forward to your TR

 

[Flyfrequently]

Am on board @Scash
We loved our time in Portugal in September 2023 (apart from # metatarsal on arrival in LIS - Uber became our best friend!) and hope to go back!

Interested to hear your plan for Lisbon to Porto.
Happy travels

 

[Scarlett]

Sounds like a great trip and I especially like that you’re planning a number of add-ons to the main trip to see even more.

 

[jkbaus]

I did that insight tour in 2019 but at that time it was a couple of days longer ending in Budapest.

Small group, good accommodation, great tour leader, really interesting stops/sites, quite a bit of free time.

I had extra time solo prior to and after the tour in other countries.

Enjoy your wonderful trip

 

[Scash]

Am on board @Scash
We loved our time in Portugal in September 2023 (apart from # metatarsal on arrival in LIS - Uber became our best friend!) and hope to go back!

Interested to hear your plan for Lisbon to Porto.
Happy travels

Thank you @Flyfrequently. I do remember reading about you injury in your trip report! We are getting the train from Lisbon to Porto. Would appreciate any tips that you would like to share about your time in Portugal. Thanks.

 

[RB]

Thank you @Flyfrequently. I do remember reading about you injury in your trip report! We are getting the train from Lisbon to Porto. Would appreciate any tips that you would like to share about your time in Portugal. Thanks.

Many years ago but you might find something useful in this Parts of Portugal & Spain and then the Fasa Valley of the Dolomites | Australian Frequent Flyer

I don't see much mention of Ponte De Lima but I thought it was a great spot at the time

 

[Scash]

Many years ago but you might find something useful in this Parts of Portugal & Spain and then the Fasa Valley of the Dolomites | Australian Frequent Flyer

I don't see much mention of Ponte De Lima but I thought it was a great spot at the time

Thank you @RB. I was thinking of searching through the trip reports for ideas.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Thank you @Flyfrequently. I do remember reading about you injury in your trip report! We are getting the train from Lisbon to Porto. Would appreciate any tips that you would like to share about your time in Portugal. Thanks.

You might also remember our WTH (what the heck!) moment where we spent €600 to go from Lisbon to Porto with a private driver @Scash !!
But we did get to visit Nazare and Fatima which were both on my bucket list.

 

[Scash]

You might also remember our WTH (what the heck!) moment where we spent €600 to go from Lisbon to Porto with a private driver @Scash !!
But we did get to visit Nazare and Fatima which were both on my bucket list.

LOL! Yes those moments do happen. Our Balkans tour finishes in Belgrade and we then need to get Ljubljana. Options were flights with Air Serbia, bus or driver. Buses are unreliable and Air Serbia gets bad reviews (mainly for luggage going missing). Also the time it takes to get to the airport, wait for your flight etc we had a WTH moment and organised a private transfer. Trip is about 5 hours and cost is €400 to Zagreb and we’ll then train to Ljubljana. My thoughts are we can stop along the way and get to see more of the country.

 

[RooFlyer]

Wonderful trip. I might pass you in Montenegro or Bosnia Herz as I'm doing an Exodus tour there in the first week of June.

Romania is absolutely fabulous; I did it with a private driver as I had been tipped off that getting around, esp parking securely (ie with all gear in the car) at tourist sights would be very dodgy, so I think your choice of doing a tour is good (as I did through Bulgaria and Nth Macedonia another time).

If you are into wine, might like to see if this place in Brasov is still there.

Post in thread 'Nice wines I have drunk recently - Red or White'

Jul 8, 2014

At the risk of emphasizing the ‘W’ in ‘WP’, I’d like to share a fantastic wine experience I and some friends had in Romania recently. In Brasov, Transylvania to be exact.

Brasov is a city of about 350,000 people and will be described further in my Trip Report - when I catch up in a few days. It has a great Old Town, very much pedestrianized and on our first night’s rambles we came across ‘Terroirs’ and decided to come back the next evening.

What a treat. It’s a compact wine bar, no smoking inside (rare in Romania), but you can have a drag outside (and many did ) We...

• RooFlyer

• 

 

[Scash]

Wonderful trip. I might pass you in Montenegro or Bosnia Herz as I'm doing an Exodus tour there in the first week of June.

Romania is absolutely fabulous; I did it with a private driver as I had been tipped off that getting around, esp parking securely (ie with all gear in the car) at tourist sights would be very dodgy, so I think your choice of doing a tour is good (as I did through Bulgaria and Nth Macedonia another time).

If you are into wine, might like to see if this place in Brasov is still there.

Post in thread 'Nice wines I have drunk recently - Red or White'

Jul 8, 2014

At the risk of emphasizing the ‘W’ in ‘WP’, I’d like to share a fantastic wine experience I and some friends had in Romania recently. In Brasov, Transylvania to be exact.

Brasov is a city of about 350,000 people and will be described further in my Trip Report - when I catch up in a few days. It has a great Old Town, very much pedestrianized and on our first night’s rambles we came across ‘Terroirs’ and decided to come back the next evening.

What a treat. It’s a compact wine bar, no smoking inside (rare in Romania), but you can have a drag outside (and many did ) We...

• RooFlyer

• 

Thanks @RooFlyer. I have just googled it and it appears to still be there. We also like our wines and will try and get there. Our tour starts the 9 June and we'll be in Montenegro around the 17th and Bosnia Herz a few days later.

 

[Cruise Luxury]

Look forward to hearing how this goes, @Scash.

In Lisbon I rated the Time Out Market for a casual dinner (high end food hall with lots of stalls) and catching the train one hour to the sea side town of Cascais. Sintra also worth a visit.

 

[Scash]

Look forward to hearing how this goes, @Scash.

In Lisbon I rated the Time Out Market for a casual dinner (high end food hall with lots of stalls) and catching the train one hour to the sea side town of Cascais. Sintra also worth a visit.

Thanks @Cruise Luxury. Sintra is on our list.

 

[RooFlyer]

Often you'll have free time on these tours, so you might get some ideas from these TRs:

Bulgaria, Kosovo and Macedonia

Romania (pictures have gone, sorry)

And, I'll be checking out your Sicily, where I'm going next year.

 

[ellen10]

Sounds like a great trip!
I enjoyed reading your last trip report.

We are heading to Portugal at the end of august for 13 nights. We will also be heading to Sicily for 13 nights on the same trip.

Slovenia is a wonderful country, so much to see and beautiful countryside and wonderful people.

We are not bus tour people, but we did do an Insight tour of southern Spain , it ticked lots of boxes and got us tickets and fast track into so many wonderful places.