This is my review of the EF Ultimate Break trip for the Portugal Getaway (essential).

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

Ever since I studied abroad in South Korea in the summer of 2024, I’ve been trying to write blog posts for the little things I do, even if it’s going across town for a fun little day. When I was studying abroad in Busan my Korean teacher would show us these Naver (a Korean search engine) blogs random people would make documenting visiting parks or bakeries, and I loved that energy.

I think the Internet is a cluttered place, so even if no one reads this at the end of the day, it’s a cute little time capsule for as long as we have electricity—or my credit card stops paying for this domain. I recently started a job, at the time of typing this, and I’m finding one of the ways that I’ve continued to stay sane is by going on little side quests here and there.

Today’s blog post is an overall review of a trip I went on relatively recently. I’m typing this less than a week after getting back, so I’m fresh off the memories (and currently yearning for some pastel de nata as we read these words together). I booked EF Ultimate Break for the second time because I had a really good experience with the Germany, Italy, and Switzerland trip, plus the Portugal fit perfectly into my PTO plan.

So off I went! I paid about $3,100 with flights for the essential version of this trip. After souvenirs and finding my way to Dulles Airport, which was a bit far, I think I spent about $4,100. If I had just backpacked during this trip, I think I would have spent more like $3,500 for food and all.

Let’s get in my review! I feel there’s a lot of ground to cover.

Portugal can be a pretty inexpensive international trip—for European standards.

What I initially liked about this trip, along with the shorter length because of my PTO situation (I only just had a enough for this trip), was the fact it was a cheaper trip. I spent about $5,100 for the Germany, Italy, Switzerland trip, and I would say food overall was more abundant and cheaper in Portugal.

You could get a glass of wine for five euros, which felt like a steal, and if you headed out of Porto and Lisbon things got even cheaper. One day in Porto I had a free evening, so some other girls and I ended up getting an Uber and heading to a town by the ocean. The Uber was only like $9 alone, then I spent $15 on drinks and dinner.

The most expensive thing I spent money on during this trip was going to the Bad Bunny concert in Lisbon. I snagged one of the partial view seats, which meant I couldn’t fully se the casita, but I found this to be so worth it. I paid $125 with ticket protection for that seat.

Obviously, this is still more expensive than if you went on your own, but I find most EF trips to be worth it. If I went back to Portugal though, I think I wouldn’t end up booking through a tour group unless I was going to the Azores.

The Portugal Getaway itinerary is a highlights reel of northern and central Portugal.

I would say during this tour you really get a highlight reel of Portugal. You start in Porto, see that town, and I did the optional wine valley excursion. We stopped in the town of Amarante there, then headed deeper into the wine valley to go to a local man’s winery in his home.

After Porto, we got on the bus and headed to Lisbon, but stopped at Nazare on the way. I really liked Nazare and the vibes there, and the waves were pretty rough. We then headed to Lisbon for the last leg of our trip.

From there, we also had an optional Sintra excursion. Unfortunately we got caught in awful traffic, so we could not go into the town of Sintra, but we did get to go to Pena Palace and Cascais. I think it was not worth it though with the traffic—I want to go back to Sintra on my own.

This definitely was one of those trips where I didn’t have to think too hard about what I was doing while I was there, and that’s something else I really enjoy with groups like EF Ultimate Break.

Portugal is truly a place where you can just relax.

I think what appealed to me most about this trip was that if you think you want a certain kind of vacation, you can have a plethora of options. Lisbon and Porto both had more artsy and checklist items, as well as shopping, but we got a lot of beach time in as well even if you didn’t head out to the beach near Porto.

I found though that even in Lisbon that there were plenty of moments to just chill and live in the moment. I personally perceived Portugal as a place where you could simply not be running through massive checklists of things to do. You could, instead, just enjoy a cafe by the street and watch people—while also feeling like you didn’t miss out.

EF Ultimate Break trips can be worth it for the social and group element.

I like booking through EF because of the social element it brings along. During my last trip, everyone got along so well and would hang out with each other. Both times my tour guides have been really cool and awesome—if you have Tomas, you’re going to have a great time in Portugal overall.

I did feel that my Portugal group was very clique-like and that there was an element of being excluded if you were not in the clique or into partying. Everyone was really nice on their own, though. I just wasn’t a fan of the dynamic at certain points with groups because of how judgmental and exclusionary it felt.

The group really does make or break the trip, so if you’re booking, I hope you have a sweet and kind group!

That’s all for this blog post, honestly. I find that this trip, which is actually five days, goes by really quickly. In the future, with more PTO, I’ll be back for Lagos, the Azores, and to head to Lisbon again. There’s some more I want to do in Lisbon for sure.

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