Private days in Portugal, designed around you.
YES Experiences Portugal was born from a very simple belief: travel should feel personal.
Not like following somebody else's itinerary. Not like ticking places off a list. And certainly not like having to adapt yourself to a tour that was designed for everyone.
We believe the experience should adapt to you.
But that idea didn't begin in a meeting room or with a business plan. It began much earlier.
A love of travel. And a love of home.
When I started YES Experiences Portugal, I never planned to build a travel company.
In fact, I never imagined I would work in tourism.
Travel, however, had always been part of my life.
I travelled from childhood, lived in different countries from a young age, and grew up fascinated by other cultures, different ways of life and the people you meet when you step outside your own world.
And the more I travelled, the more I realised how extraordinary my own country was.
Portugal may be small, but it carries an incredible richness of history, culture, traditions and gastronomy.
History was my favourite subject at school. But some of the stories I remember most didn't come from books.
They came from my grandparents.
I loved listening to them talk about people, places, traditions and the way life used to be. They taught me, without ever calling it that, that the history of a country doesn't live only inside monuments.
It lives in families. In villages. In recipes. In expressions. In traditions. And in stories passed from one generation to the next.
Perhaps that is where the storyteller in me began.
Showing friends "my Portugal"
Whenever friends from abroad came to visit, I loved showing them Portugal.
Not simply taking them to the places they were supposed to see.
I wanted to show them the places I loved. Tell them the stories behind them. Take them somewhere they might never have found by themselves. Introduce them to our food, our wine, our people and our way of life.
The more I travelled outside Portugal, the more I understood that we had things here that were genuinely unique.
And I loved sharing them.
I just never imagined that one day it would become my profession.
Then tourism found me
That happened almost completely by accident.
A friend who was already a tour operator once needed some help and asked me to do a tour.
He explained the itinerary to me, gave me the basics I needed to know, and I went.
I fell in love with it almost immediately.
Suddenly, so many things I had always loved came together in one place.
People. Travel. History. Culture. Gastronomy. Storytelling. And the opportunity to share my country with people from all over the world.
I loved listening to guests. I loved understanding what interested them. I loved the conversations, the questions, the unexpected stops and the way every group could experience the same place completely differently.
Something clicked.
One car. A couple of tours a week.
As a single mother, I wasn't dreaming of building a large travel company.
I started on my own, with one car and a very simple goal.
If I could have a couple of tours a week, doing something I genuinely loved, it would be enough to support us.
That was the plan.
Then something unexpected happened.
People started coming.
One booking became another. Guests recommended their experiences to other travellers. Reviews appeared. A couple of tours a week became more tours, more guests, more places and more ideas.
And almost without realising it, I was building YES EXPERIENCES PORTUGAL.
But I never liked standard tours
Not as a traveller.
And, eventually, not as the person creating them either.
The more guests I met, the more obvious it became that people didn't all want the same thing.
One person could spend hours talking about history.
Another wanted wine and long conversations around a table.
Someone wanted the ocean.
Someone else wanted local markets, hidden villages or gastronomy.
Some wanted to see everything.
Others wanted to see less and actually have time to enjoy it.
So why should all of them have exactly the same day?
I was already changing and adapting experiences naturally depending on the people travelling with me.
And gradually, one question became central to the way I thought about travel:
Why should the traveller have to adapt to the tour?
Why couldn't the tour adapt to the traveller?
That idea became part of the DNA of YES.
From an idea to the YES Studio
Years later, technology finally gave us a way to take that philosophy much further.
The YES Studio was born from the same idea I had experienced with guests for years: instead of choosing a standard tour and trying to make it fit, travellers should be able to shape the day around themselves.
What interests you?
What would you rather skip?
Do you want wine, history, food, the ocean, a local market, a slow lunch or something completely different?
The experience begins with the person.
Then we build the day.
The technology came later.
The idea came from people.
And then one day became an entire journey
The same thing happened naturally with longer trips.
Guests began asking us not only to design a day, but to help them experience Portugal over several days.
And the principle remained exactly the same.
We don't believe the perfect Portugal itinerary exists before we know who is travelling.
A couple celebrating an anniversary should not necessarily travel like a family discovering Portugal for the first time.
A wine lover shouldn't experience the country in the same way as someone fascinated by history, crafts, food or the ocean.
So our Travel Designer begins with you.
Your interests. Your pace. Your reasons for travelling. Your idea of a perfect day.
And from there, we create the journey.
YES today
Today, YES EXPERIENCES PORTUGAL creates private day experiences, tailor-made itineraries, full journeys, celebrations, proposals and experiences for private and corporate groups across Portugal.
The company has grown considerably since those first days with one car.
We work with guides, local producers, wineries, restaurants, boats, artisans and trusted partners throughout the country.
Technology has become an important part of what we do.
But technology isn't what defines us.
People do.
Our role is still to listen, understand and create.
Because behind every booking there is a person who has chosen to spend something incredibly valuable with us:
their time in Portugal.
And we never forget that.
The Portugal that feels right for you
There are countless ways to discover this country.
Ours begins by asking who you are.
Sometimes the most memorable moment isn't the famous monument.
It is the conversation nobody planned.
The family-run place you almost drove past.
The story behind a village.
A long lunch that lasts longer than expected.
A glass of wine with the person who made it.
Or simply having enough time to stop somewhere beautiful because you want to.
That is the Portugal we love sharing.
Not a country reduced to a checklist.
A country experienced through its stories, flavours, landscapes and people.
And shaped around yours.
Portugal is the stage. You write the story.
Licensed, insured and personally accountable.
Registration
RNAAT nº 31/2023
Registered Portuguese tourism operator (Registo Nacional dos Agentes de Animação Turística).
Guest protection
Civil liability
Vehicles, guests and operations covered under Portuguese tourism law.
Guest reviews
4.9/5 · 1,000 guest reviews
Verified guest reviews across established travel platforms.
Clear before you book
- Signature cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the experience.
- Custom travel: Cancellation terms are shown clearly before checkout or confirmation.
- Read our terms and privacy policy.
Talk to us directly
NIF PT 518210910 · Av. 25 de Abril, Sesimbra, Portugal
info@yesexperiencesportugal.com
WhatsApp +351 911 889 992
Based in Sesimbra, designing private journeys across Portugal.
Private by design. Personal by nature. Portuguese at heart.