Description
Personalised Trip Itinerary for Portugal, Spain or Italy (7 – 21 days)
optional 1 hour travel consultation included
Planning a trip to Portugal, Italy or Spain but feeling overwhelmed with the process? You’re in the right place.
I’m an independent travel advisor, itinerary designer and southern Europe specialist. I’ve been living in Portugal since 2016 and traveling to Spain & Italy for more than a decade. My job is to help you cut through the overwhelming amount of information online and make you fall head over heels with the destination of your choice. Most importantly I’ll build you a one of a kind itinerary that matches your travel style and preferences. The itinerary process I practice is 100% human and 100% personalised. Absolutely no AI is used.
If you want no stone left unturned in the quest for your perfect trip – this highly personalised service is for you. If you don’t have the time or inclination to spend hours curating an itinerary, this option is exactly what you need. At the end of the process you will have a complete, one-of-a-kind itinerary, carefully built with you in mind.
This process enables you to remove the stress of planning and logistics and replace it with excitement for whats to come.
During the call I’ll get to know you and your travel style and use that to build a fully personalised itinerary that will create you a memorable and meaningful trip.
What is included in a bespoke itinerary?
- 1 x 60 Minute Travel Planning Call (optional but recommended)
- Destination recommendations, based on your specifications
- A fully personalised, one-of-a-kind itinerary pdf document and Google Doc created especially for you.
- Personalised accommodation, restaurants, activities, walking routes, road trips, tours and experience suggestions based on your travel style and preferences
- Communication and logistic help with tour guides and experience providers
- Custom day tour/ road trip/ hiking itineraries (self-guided or with a tour guide)
- Booking links for hotels, activities, experiences, etc (if needed)
- Help with sourcing special extras
- Unlimited email contact leading up to and during your trip
- A itinerary pdf and live Googledoc with links
Each itinerary is highly personalised for your wants, desires and travel style. No two itineraries look the same. You can expect personalised suggestions for accommodation, activities, experiences, tour guides, self-guided walking tours, restaurants and more.
In addition to these standard elements I will tailor your itinerary to your needs. Looking for a photographer? A private-chef? The best bookshops? Hiking routes? I commit to any extra research needed to finding you something special or unique.
As an independent travel planner based in southern Europe, I am always discovering new corners and treasures in Portugal, Spain and Italy and I have local contacts everywhere. Not only will you have an itinerary full to the brim with everything you asked for, but you’ll also be connected with genuine activities, authentic experiences and the best local providers. I can handle the communication and logistics so that everything is ready to go.
There is no pressure to book anything I suggest. If you have hotels in mind you want to use, or non-negotiables in your itinerary already, I’ll keep those in place for you.
This is an expert and highly tailored service, offering a truly special experience. Due to the detailed work needed to provide this service, I have limited bespoke itinerary slots available each month. I recommended purchasing the itinerary service at least 6 weeks before your trip. If it is within 1 month, please email me.
By purchasing a travel planning call and/or itinerary you agree to the Liability Policy outlined here.
Shorter trip? I also offer a 1 – 4 day personalised itinerary.
Have any questions about the process? Check out the FAQ page.
This page should be set to automatically change to your currency but if it doesn’t do that please email me and I can send you a payment link in USD, EUR or GBP.
Jill Houston –
If you’re considering it, I highly recommend a call with Candy. We were coming to Portugal for the first time and overwhelmed with options, we didn’t know what to prioritise and try avoid the tourist traps. Candy helped us create a trip of a lifetime. We absolutely couldn’t have done this solo.
John and Beth –
Cannot recommend Candy enough. If you want to discover unique spots away from tourists, she’s your person. Candy is a local who adores Portugal and her passion for the country is infectious. Me and my wife did a trip to the Azores, Candy’s knowledge for the islands was brilliant. We were given lots of recommendations of hikes, activities and some delicious local restaurants. Thank you so much Candy! We’ll be back to do another island next.
Laura Gilbert –
Candy is a gem! My daughter and I wanted to independently immerse ourselves in Portuguese culture but were overwhelmed with options. Plus we had a budget. It was so awesome to meet with Candy via Zoom to describe what we wanted (and didn’t want) and to explore ideas with her! The itinerary she created is in our scrapbook. It even includes a bunch of Portuguese phrases we used throughout our trip (more than my DuoLingo did). Candy helped us find incredible places to stay – one in a fun neighborhood in Porto with incredible fresh breakfasts, and one with 2 balconies both with beach views in Lagos. Because of Candy, we drank coffee with the locals, ate at a neighborhood seafood restaurant with true catch-of-the-day, attended an incredible Fado concert in a tiny theatre off the beaten path, and explored restaurants and markets along the beach. Working with Candy made our trip exactly what we hoped for!
Jodie –
Candy has now organised 3 trips for us including Lisbon and surrounding areas, Sicily and the South of France. All 3 trips have been so well thought through, well planned and perfectly executed. The plans have all been tailored to include all of the parts we knew we wanted to see, and lots of extra fun along the way that we certainly didn’t know about! She thinks of everything and you can tell she’s really taken the time to understand what you’re like and what you want from your precious time away! Thank you again Candy, look forward to working with you again soon.
Lisa –
I highly recommend Candy and look forward to working with her on future trips! We just returned from a magical 8-day trip to Portugal and visited Lisbon and Porto. I have never used a travel consultant before – I am a massive planner and didn’t think that I could relinquish all of the research and planning to someone else. For this trip, I had just taken on a new position and didn’t have the time to spend that I normally do. Thank goodness – because we never would have had the same experience without Candy! During the trip planning call she listens carefully to your preferences, answers questions, and offered fantastic recommendations. We changed our travel plans after our phone call to include Porto, and so glad that we did. Her personalized itinerary included several options and all were things that were specific to how we wanted to spend our time. She also connected us with fantastic tour guides. We also have food allergies and she was very attentive to this. She emailed and called restaurants in advance to make sure that they could accommodate us. I can’t recommend her highly enough!
Lisa H (verified owner) –
We just got back from an 8 day trip to Portugal and I can not recommend Candy enough. Normally I plan our trips MONTHS (YEARS?) in advance but this trip was a unique opportunity and had to be done in about 6 weeks. I knew nothing and then happened up Candy. Saying I am grateful for her services is an understatement. She really honed in on what our family (all our kids are now young adults) wanted to do and the vibe we needed for our trip. We did LIsbon, Sintra, Cascais and we had a blast. We did food tours, a wine tour, castles and palaces, a tuk tuk tour. It was all amazing. Her restaurant and beach recommendations were all on point. I can not recommend her enough. Why try to figure it all out when she knows the area better than anything you will read on the internet because she LIVES there! Make the call–you will not regret it!
Cara & Mike –
My husband and I worked with Candy on our 10th wedding anniversary trip to the Azores. She was an incredible resource and so thoughtful in her itinerary-building in order to meet our needs. From the moment we hopped on our initial hour-long zoom call to e-meet, I knew that we had chosen the right travel consultant to work with. Candy is warm, with a zest for life and a passion for helping her fellow travelers make the most of their time in her adopted country of Portugal. She was extremely communicative and responsive and her general tips for navigating in Portugal (eg renting a car) were invaluable. We will undoubtedly seek her assistance in planning future adventures to the mainland and Madeira!