Portugal Master Thread

[ethana]

Has anyone ever been to Portugal? is there any kosher food or Jews?

[moish]

i daytripped in summer 2009. at the time there was no chabad

[PlatinumGuy]

There's an old lady in Lisbon that sells meals but from what I hear it's inedible

[Dan]

i daytripped in summer 2009. at the time there was no chabad

There is Chabad now. Former classmate of mine.

[ethana]

Thanks. Do you know if they have a minyan on Shabbos? Any way to get in touch with him? He doesnt seem to be answering his emails.

[Dan]

PUTPAC?

[smart brit]

He answered his email last week!

[smart brit]

A short TR from a few weeks ago
I had to attend a 2day business conference in the UK but was in the mood for some sun and beaches so I recommend it should be in Funchal Portugal, they came back it can be only within a hour from Lisbon Airport, so I obviously jumped on the idea!
So from one minute to the next I searched for tickets and the best itinerary I came up was lga phl lis with us airways, so I booked Monday afternoon to PHL then had 2 hours until departure 8:45 pm to Lisbon.
I actually enjoyed tsa pre (thanks to global entry) and really like phl airport (compared to JFK and LHR) the AA lounge next to my gate was small but empty with some kosher snacks and drinks,
Time for boarding the flight, those small 767's that us airways fly to Europe without flat beds in business or video monitor's in coach, reminds me of the 90's but for a night flight I really didn't care that much.
The meal served was from broenstein absolutely disgusting (I'm actually wondering how come no one has taken him on and opened a competing company)
I took a few shots of Scotch and went to sleep on those angle flat seat's sleeping on and off every half hour because It was extremely uncomfortable to put it mildly (just the thought of the guy next to me shelling out 5k for his ticket was nauseating) about an hour before landing the lights went on and they served a breakfast from the same caterer I just took the drinks and didn't bother to eat anything else and we are almost ready to land the view out of the window was absolutely gorgeous. Landed a few min early 8:30 am (same time zone as the UK)
Lisbon Airport is a total mess, queues all over that didn't move anywhere, luckily I have a new  gb passport with a chip so I basically just went through straight away skipping the lines, but had to wait a while for my luggage (a box of food from Pomegranate) to come out.
I waited for one of the other guy's that flew in from London in the morning to show up and we took out a car with National served by Europe car (renting in Portugal is expensive and automatic transmission is even more expensive) but we got a brand new BMW 5 series and off we were.
I went to Lisbon to visit the sharei tikva shul a stunning breathtaking old shul and we prayed there.
We were on our way to the hotel that we arranged Marriott paria dei ray it's located in obidos a hour drive from Lisbon,
More to follow

[ethana]

Here’s a trip report from my trip to Portugal in January.
We left on Saturday night on a United flight out of Newark. The trip was there actually pretty quick. Landed on Sunday morning in Lisbon. Before we left I had been able to find a reasonably priced automatic car rental. I didn’t realize that most of Europe drives manual. The company was a local one called Drive On Holidays. The shuttle picked us up from the airport and took us to the rental office. It was in very industrial area, and on the way back we had a lot of trouble finding the actual location. Aside from that, the car worked out great. We had booked two nights at the Sheraton Pine Cliffs resort which is in the south of Portugal. It was around a two hour drive from Lisbon. The roads were empty and there was nice scenery along the way. As it was the winter, southern Portugal was very quiet and kind of dead. We were told that during the summer it is packed with vacationers. The resort is a massive property with numerous pools a golf course and a private beach. Being Starwood Gold, we were upgraded to a junior suite which had two floors, two bathrooms, and a balcony. There were very few other people in the hotel and the staff was very accommodating, gladly heating up our frozen kosher meals.
Day 2
We went to a town called Faro which is pretty much the main city in the south. They have a Jewish museum and cemetery which was very interesting. They also have a room located behind a church that is covered entirely in monks’ bones which was creepy but cool. That night we went to town called VillaMoray which was a nice seaside city to walk around in. Again, as it was the winter everything was pretty quiet. They do have a large casino there.

To be continued...

[yoelygb]

A short TR from a few weeks ago
I had to attend a 2day business conference in the UK but was in the mood for some sun and beaches so I recommend it should be in Funchal Portugal, they came back it can be only within a hour from Lisbon Airport, so I obviously jumped on the idea!
So from one minute to the next I searched for tickets and the best itinerary I came up was lga phl lis with us airways, so I booked Monday afternoon to PHL then had 2 hours until departure 8:45 pm to Lisbon.
I actually enjoyed tsa pre (thanks to global entry) and really like phl airport (compared to JFK and LHR) the AA lounge next to my gate was small but empty with some kosher snacks and drinks,
Time for boarding the flight, those small 767's that us airways fly to Europe without flat beds in business or video monitor's in coach, reminds me of the 90's but for a night flight I really didn't care that much.
The meal served was from broenstein absolutely disgusting (I'm actually wondering how come no one has taken him on and opened a competing company)
I took a few shots of Scotch and went to sleep on those angle flat seat's sleeping on and off every half hour because It was extremely uncomfortable to put it mildly (just the thought of the guy next to me shelling out 5k for his ticket was nauseating) about an hour before landing the lights went on and they served a breakfast from the same caterer I just took the drinks and didn't bother to eat anything else and we are almost ready to land the view out of the window was absolutely gorgeous. Landed a few min early 8:30 am (same time zone as the UK)
Lisbon Airport is a total mess, queues all over that didn't move anywhere, luckily I have a new  gb passport with a chip so I basically just went through straight away skipping the lines, but had to wait a while for my luggage (a box of food from Pomegranate) to come out.
I waited for one of the other guy's that flew in from London in the morning to show up and we took out a car with National served by Europe car (renting in Portugal is expensive and automatic transmission is even more expensive) but we got a brand new BMW 5 series and off we were.
I went to Lisbon to visit the sharei tikva shul a stunning breathtaking old shul and we prayed there.
We were on our way to the hotel that we arranged Marriott paria dei ray it's located in obidos a hour drive from Lisbon,
More to follow

Waiting for the follow up

Here’s a trip report from my trip to Portugal in January.
We left on Saturday night on a United flight out of Newark. The trip was there actually pretty quick. Landed on Sunday morning in Lisbon. Before we left I had been able to find a reasonably priced automatic car rental. I didn’t realize that most of Europe drives manual. The company was a local one called Drive On Holidays. The shuttle picked us up from the airport and took us to the rental office. It was in very industrial area, and on the way back we had a lot of trouble finding the actual location. Aside from that, the car worked out great. We had booked two nights at the Sheraton Pine Cliffs resort which is in the south of Portugal. It was around a two hour drive from Lisbon. The roads were empty and there was nice scenery along the way. As it was the winter, southern Portugal was very quiet and kind of dead. We were told that during the summer it is packed with vacationers. The resort is a massive property with numerous pools a golf course and a private beach. Being Starwood Gold, we were upgraded to a junior suite which had two floors, two bathrooms, and a balcony. There were very few other people in the hotel and the staff was very accommodating, gladly heating up our frozen kosher meals.
Day 2
We went to a town called Faro which is pretty much the main city in the south. They have a Jewish museum and cemetery which was very interesting. They also have a room located behind a church that is covered entirely in monks’ bones which was creepy but cool. That night we went to town called VillaMoray which was a nice seaside city to walk around in. Again, as it was the winter everything was pretty quiet. They do have a large casino there.

To be continued...

[sky121]

Here’s a trip report from my trip to Portugal in January.
We left on Saturday night on a United flight out of Newark. The trip was there actually pretty quick. Landed on Sunday morning in Lisbon. Before we left I had been able to find a reasonably priced automatic car rental. I didn’t realize that most of Europe drives manual. The company was a local one called Drive On Holidays. The shuttle picked us up from the airport and took us to the rental office. It was in very industrial area, and on the way back we had a lot of trouble finding the actual location. Aside from that, the car worked out great. We had booked two nights at the Sheraton Pine Cliffs resort which is in the south of Portugal. It was around a two hour drive from Lisbon. The roads were empty and there was nice scenery along the way. As it was the winter, southern Portugal was very quiet and kind of dead. We were told that during the summer it is packed with vacationers. The resort is a massive property with numerous pools a golf course and a private beach. Being Starwood Gold, we were upgraded to a junior suite which had two floors, two bathrooms, and a balcony. There were very few other people in the hotel and the staff was very accommodating, gladly heating up our frozen kosher meals.
Day 2
We went to a town called Faro which is pretty much the main city in the south. They have a Jewish museum and cemetery which was very interesting. They also have a room located behind a church that is covered entirely in monks’ bones which was creepy but cool. That night we went to town called VillaMoray which was a nice seaside city to walk around in. Again, as it was the winter everything was pretty quiet. They do have a large casino there.

To be continued...

What was the January weather like?

[ethana]

In the South it was in the low 60's and in Lisbon it was high 50's

[ethana]

Day 2
We went to a town called Faro which is pretty much the main city in the south. They have a Jewish museum and cemetery which was very interesting. They also have a room located behind a church that is covered entirely in monks’ bones which was creepy but cool. That night we went to town called VillaMoray which was a nice seaside city to walk around in. Again, as it was the winter everything was pretty quiet. They do have a large casino there.
The next morning we headed out of the south and began to make our way back north towards Lisbon. Along the way we stopped in a quaint village that was dominated by a medieval Moorish castle. We took a tour of the castle which was interesting in that it detailed the Moorish history of the area. There were great views from the top.  The village was like going back in time as there were gypsies still riding around on their horse drawn carts. We continued our drive stopping at more castles along the way. It was pretty cool to see the contrast between these ancient castles and these modern towns that had sprung up around them.  Many of the castles have been turned into hotels called pousadas. They offer luxury accommodations while allowing you to really experience what it must have been like living in a castle-minus the tv’s.
We arrived in Lisbon and checked into the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel.  The hotel is very centrally located as it is in the middle of the business district of Lisbon. As there were some problems with our room, we were upgraded to a suite on the 28th floor. ( That was one heck of a walk on Shabbos)

[Emkay]

Thanks. Do you know if they have a minyan on Shabbos? Any way to get in touch with him? He doesnt seem to be answering his emails.

ever got in touch with him?
anyone here ever there for shabbos?

[ethana]

He actually wasn't there that shabbos but he got us in touch with a couple that lived there. Shabbos was nice there although they barely got a minyan

[Emkay]

He actually wasn't there that shabbos but he got us in touch with a couple that lived there. Shabbos was nice there although they barely got a minyan

What did you do about food?

[ethana]

On shabbos we ate at the couple. There's also a kiddush in Shul. For during the week we brought food with is that the hotel heated up.

[Srsy]

Anyone ever fly TAP?  How was your experience?

[ethana]

Flew them in coach. Was fine

[Luvtotravel]

anyone have any more recent data points to add?