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About
Honest Routes

Real Portugal, Real Stories.

Where there’s a tale, there’s a way

Sometimes life makes us pause. It slows us down just enough to look around and ask: Is this the life we want to be living? Is this the world we want to be part of?

A country is much more than its big cities. Tourism can be much more than gentrification and mass occupation of the public space. To offer Portugal to our visitors doesn’t have to mean losing it ourselves.

From two different hearts in love with this country, a common path was drawn: to show Portugal through its culture, traditions, and people. From North to South, from the countryside to the coast, creating stories from its history.

We want to share the story of who we are, seen through the eyes of our own people. We want to share with you what makes us unique, what makes us memorable, and what makes us Portuguese.

We want to experience the real Portugal.

We are the travel agency for curious travelers who want to go deeper in exploring Portugal. We offer the roots behind the routes — not just another tour company, but one made to discover the genuine Portugal beyond the postcards.

We plan and develop every experience to be unique, surprising, delicious, and unforgettable. We create cultural and historical tours hand in hand with our team of guides — each with their own story, background, and way of seeing the world. What unites us is something deeper: a shared love for Portugal.

Come along — where there’s a tale, there’s a way — we will show you that way.

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Thoughtfully Designed Genuinely Delivered

Every experience we create is made with care, heart, and professionalism. Whether you travel with friends, family, children, or grandparents, we start by listening. Then we craft each tour to your pace, your curiosities, and your most unexpected desires — always with a local touch and deep respect for the culture.

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We guide you. But… what guides us?

Curiosity

Always learning and exploring.

Our curiosity never stops — we’re constantly reading, researching, and walking new paths to uncover places and stories still unknown. We believe there’s always more to discover, and we bring that sense of wonder to every tour we create.

Authenticity

Real stories in our own voice.

Yes, we have scripts — but they’re our own. Each guide writes their own, shaped by their background, voice, and lived experience. We don’t recite; we share. What you hear is a personal journey, not a rehearsed performance.

Connection

Creating bonds.

We build meaningful connections — not just between guide and traveler, but between people and place. We listen, we adapt, and we care about who’s in front of us. Every guest matters, and every experience is made with them in mind.

Care

For those we guide, the partners we trust, and the land we love.

We care deeply — about the comfort and safety of our travelers, the well-being of our partners, and the preservation of the communities and landscapes we step into. This care guides every decision, big and small.

Integrity

Our word is our bond.

We take our word seriously. No overpromising, no shortcuts — just honest, transparent work. We do what’s right, even when no one’s watching, and we treat our travelers’ trust as the privilege it is.

Meet the People Behind the Routes

Our team is made up of storytellers, historians, artists, philosophers, and curious minds, all passionate about sharing what makes Portugal truly special. Each of us brings a unique perspective — and together, we transform travel into bonding.

Rita

From actress to historian: Rita’s honest route

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Gonçalo

A restless soul who finally found his place

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Jaime

A diplomat of words, a nomad of thought

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Raquel

A gamer at heart, a history geek by passion

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Manuel

The Indiana Jones of Iberia

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Carlos

A seeker of legends, landscapes and local wisdom

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João

He left checkmates behind to unlock history’s enigmas

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A group of three people stand on a grassy hill with trees, facing a colorful historic building with domes and arches under a clear blue sky.

Want to travel differently?

Explore tours crafted to lead you beyond the familiar — off the beaten path and straight into the heart of Portugal.
Where there’s a tale, there’s a way.

Explore Our Routes

João

He left checkmates behind to unlock history’s enigmas

Tour Guide

Languages: English; Portuguese

João spent most of his childhood and adolescence playing chess. He also spent most of his adulthood trying to escape from it while searching for something that gave him the same adrenaline he felt at the chessboard. He was in for the long haul.

The melting pot of his somewhat curious, geeky side and his sociable side was found in showing around his native city of Porto and engaging people in its stories, geography, and history. It was also the way to put his territorial planner eye into practice.

Carlos

A seeker of legends, landscapes, and local wisdom

Tour Guide

Languages: English; Portuguese

His life has been mostly dedicated to academic research, leading him to obtain a PhD, which was far from being the product solely of hours spent in the library, but also from many intense travels. His areas of interest range from literature, culture, and archaeology to anthropology and ethnography, and these lines of research have led him to discover and visit the most fascinating places.

Many of those places are located in Portugal, which has a rich traditional culture and history hidden throughout its regions. As Carlos has learned profoundly, the soul of a country and its people is only truly understood when you gain knowledge of its traditions, myths and legends, its cultural treasures, hidden in its several regions, and its history.

But this knowledge can only be truly attained by visiting the villages of the country and meeting and talking to the people about their culture and traditions, by engaging in experiences such as tasting the local foods or walking through the historical sites, and by getting to participate in activities which allow one to appreciate the natural wonders which materialize into the beautiful scenery of the country.

It is this experience that Carlos would like to invite everyone to enjoy with him.

Manuel

The Indiana Jones of Iberia

Tour Guide

Languages: Spanish

Like many historians, Manu grew up dreaming of becoming Indiana Jones. He began studying History at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, and it was there that a professor invited him to join a teaching adventure overseas at Trinity College. That journey gave him something unexpected — the travel bug. Since then, his passion for exploring has taken him across Scotland and Portugal, where he found a way to combine his two greatest loves: history and travel.

Today, Manu spends his days guiding others through fairytale-like palaces, ancient ruins, and hidden caves, mostly in Portugal and Spain. He may not have become Indiana Jones, but he came pretty close — sharing the thrill of discovery with every traveler who joins him.

Raquel

A gamer at heart, a history geek by passion

Tour Guide

Languages: English; Spanish; Portuguese

Raquel was born in Lisbon when ZxSpectrums were still around. Games, computers, and gadgets were Raquel's favorite things for many years. That and traveling! The history, culture, and food in other countries were her reasons to live too.

She was divided between these two loves, so she asked her mother for advice on what career path to choose: "Games or Tourism, mom?". Her mother replied that she should've been a dentist!

Still undecided, she graduated in International Affairs, did a Master's in Management with a focus on Tourism, Religious History, post-graduate studies in Theater, a few courses in game and experience design, writing, etc.
All over the place, really, in studying and literally as she decided to travel to as many places around the world as possible.

Since then, Raquel has been creating experiences and telling stories, both in the form of doing tours around Portugal and making games and immersive experiences.

While Raquel is thrilled with the way things have turned out for her, Mom still secretly hopes she one day will find a real job like, say... a dentist!

Jaime

A diplomat of words, a nomad of thought

Tour Guide

Languages: English; Spanish; French; Portuguese

Jaime is a lawyer, a political scientist, and a language enthusiast. He feels his life has been an unexpected journey that keeps bringing him back to Lisbon.

His love affair with Portugal started years ago. Probably even before setting foot in the country for the first time, he already felt deeply attracted to it. It might have been his grandfather’s old tales about his heyday. He still hears his voice as he repeated the old saying: "Quem não viu Lisboa não viu coisa boa!" (Who hasn't seen Lisbon hasn't seen anything good!).

When asked to describe Lisbon, Jaime puts it this way: "Lisbon will always remain a dream city for the genuine flâneur, the romantic wanderer, and the professional people-watcher. A city deeply in love with itself, built to look at its own reflection from endless perspectives. In which other city can you feel the light rays dance with wave-shaped cobblestones? Lisbon must be discovered step by step, following a river of intoxicating beauty, and listening to the voice of its inhabitants, sometimes wild and fierce, some others, mild and smooth."

Gonçalo

A restless soul who finally found his place

Co-founder and Manager

Languages: English; Spanish; Portuguese

Gonçalo started out working in politics and consulting, and even ventured into the food industry — but none of it ever felt quite right.

What truly changed him was the decision to drop everything and travel the world for over a year, chasing the raw, the unknown. He wanted to connect with people whose lives were nothing like his own, people he could never have imagined crossing paths with. Sitting on the floors of street stalls in Southeast Asia, sharing food, laughter, and stories with strangers in Latin America — even when words failed, the big hearts and genuine smiles made the world feel smaller.

Back in Lisbon, he took charge of a well-known music bar. His passion for music found a new purpose there: curating the cultural and musical programming, inviting artists he admired, and creating an atmosphere where people could make memories, or at least pretend to remember the night.

Then, after the pandemic, came the shift he didn’t know he’d been waiting for. Becoming a tour guide was the perfect excuse to finally put his lifelong passion for history and books into practice. He explored the country from top to bottom, sharing stories with guests — or, as he likes to call them, “new friends”.

Eventually, he co-founded Honest Routes. And it clicked. This wasn’t just another chapter. It felt like this was it, the chance to welcome people into his world, into his Portugal, and finally do something that felt just right.

Rita

From actress to historian: Rita’s honest route

Co-founder and Tour guide

Languages: English; Portuguese

Born and raised in Lisbon, Rita fell into the rabbit hole of Portuguese history and never got out.

She was an actress for over ten years in the Portuguese theatre and television before she sold all her stuff to travel the world in a blink of an eye. After almost two years, the world was still too big, and tiny Lisbon called her back to real life.

When she got back, with her eyes open from the distance, she realized Portugal was an old, beautiful tale, still waiting to be sung to the world. She started studying Portuguese history and became a guide, working for different companies in Lisbon since 2015.

In 2021, with the pandemic the world cannot forget, she co-founded Honest Routes because it was time to share the story of Portugal. The story behind the scenes. Rita wants to become the storyteller of Portugal.