Hello from Boston!

Hi Susan!

This discussion forum is about dead.  If you do FB I'd suggest joining the Women of Road Scholar FB page for lots of input, many of them solo travelers.

Meanwhile, I've done 13 RS trips solo, 8 of them international.  I've not been to Portugal so no specifics on this particular trip.  IF there is free time, do some research ahead of time on what looks interesting to you to do.  If there are meals on your own, I also do some looking ahead of time to see what looks good wherever we will be so I have a restaurant in mind ahead of time.

As a solo, I usually try to sit with different people at meals and rotate around so I get to meet and talk with everyone.  Tour members are very friendly and welcoming as a rule.  I usually wear my name tag for a few days until people learn names and then take it off.

Road Scholar is very good with solo travelers and also with travelers who are fairly inexperienced with International travel.  Some group members need a lot of hand-holding although I suspect you will not, lol.

I pack light so I can handle my bag myself.  RS usually porters bags but on my trip last April to Belgium and Netherlands both the hotel in Ghent and the hotel in Amsterdam did not have staff available to assist so tour members had to get their bags out to the bus on the transit day and into the hotel.  Some packed in huge cases and had difficulty so keep this in mind.  One poor soul didn't understand the instructions and left her bag in the hotel lobby so was without it for 4 days (holiday weekend).

Any specific questions I didn't touch on?

~Pam

Hi Susan!

This discussion forum is about dead.  If you do FB I'd suggest joining the Women of Road Scholar FB page for lots of input, many of them solo travelers.

Meanwhile, I've done 13 RS trips solo, 8 of them international.  I've not been to Portugal so no specifics on this particular trip.  IF there is free time, do some research ahead of time on what looks interesting to you to do.  If there are meals on your own, I also do some looking ahead of time to see what looks good wherever we will be so I have a restaurant in mind ahead of time.

As a solo, I usually try to sit with different people at meals and rotate around so I get to meet and talk with everyone.  Tour members are very friendly and welcoming as a rule.  I usually wear my name tag for a few days until people learn names and then take it off.

Road Scholar is very good with solo travelers and also with travelers who are fairly inexperienced with International travel.  Some group members need a lot of hand-holding although I suspect you will not, lol.

I pack light so I can handle my bag myself.  RS usually porters bags but on my trip last April to Belgium and Netherlands both the hotel in Ghent and the hotel in Amsterdam did not have staff available to assist so tour members had to get their bags out to the bus on the transit day and into the hotel.  Some packed in huge cases and had difficulty so keep this in mind.  One poor soul didn't understand the instructions and left her bag in the hotel lobby so was without it for 4 days (holiday weekend).

Any specific questions I didn't touch on?

~Pam

Thanks for responding to me, Pam. Sorry for not getting back sooner. Your tips were very helpful. I have started to do some of those things like looking at restaurants. Being down to the wire and finished with other US travel, I will now focus on Portugal. Obrigato as they say in Portuguese.