I've found the private driver information I promised on the Ports/Ideas for Lisbon thread: The private driver who gave us such a wonderful day in Lisbon is Artur Joao Bravo Marianito. His phones and e-mail are: Mobile -- 96 905 89 23; Tel. -- 351 21 474 24 83; E-mail address -- amarianito@pthost.com

When I posted this information on CC a while back I e-mailed Artur to tell him I had done so but never heard back from him. I don't know if that bodes ill for trying to reach him by e-mail. As a last bit of information for locating him, we found him through some new friends on our cruise who were staying at a Radisson hotel near the Lisbon airport. The concierge at that hotel recommended Artur. In my opinion, he is worth searching out. He does not deliver a set tourism speech (in fact, his card lists him as a "tourism driver" rather than a guide) but has suggestions of where to see, offers quite a bit of information and answers all questions (which he was clearly pleased to be asked). He is a Lisbon native, I believe, and obviously loves the city.

In about eight hours Artur took us to the Castelo hill with the remains of the castle/fort where Lisbon began (Castelo de Sao Jorge, I think it is called; spectacular views of the city from there), an interesting old Lisbon church with an archeological dig going on in the nunnery, Belem Tower, Monument to the Discoveries, Jeronimo's Monastery and an attached museum, the most famous of Lisbon pastry shops (I'll write another post about that), an English-type garden overlooking the city from opposite Castelo, the national tile museum, an ATM machine and, finally, to the airport in plenty of time despite traffic jams obstructing two main roads. A whirlwind tour, obviously, but the most enjoyable day possible. As a tourism driver rather than a guide, Artur stayed with the car and watched out for us when we came out of a site; he did not go inside the sites and take us through them. But he prepared us for what we would see.

I can't remember the exact cost, but it seemed quite reasonable to us, maybe around 60-75 Euros per person (we were four traveling together) but don't hold me to that. Nice car.

Let me know if I can answer anything else about our day in Lisbon.

Thanks for the info! Anyone else on VJ7 that might be interested in sharing a day or 1/2 tour with Artur?

We ended up booking our private guide through another recommendation: www.toursforyou.pt

The guide we had was named Josue (he said to call him Josh). The cost for our van (6 of us) was 270 euros and so worth it!
We spent the morning in Sintra (great town!), ate lunch at a nice restaurant there and the afternoon in Lisbon. I'd highly recommend this wonderful young man (although from what I understand all of their company guides speak perfect English). Lisbon and the surrounding area is a fantastic city to visit.

Hi Marcie,
So glad that you enjoyed the Tours For You tour of Sintra and Lisbon. We traveled with Josue to visit Sintra and Lisbon in May and loved this tour. You are correct that all of their guides speak excellent English and this company is first class. Welcome back!

Cruiser et al.

I sent an e-mail to the address your posted for Artur Joao Bravo Marianito and got it returned as undeliverable. Does anyone else have his e-mail or a fax number? Or another good choice for private guide in Lisbon?
Donna

Donna,
We did an all day private tour there in June with a great guy. He was about 27 and just as nice as can be. We spent the first 1/2 day in Sintra (actually ran over a 1/2 day) then spent the afternoon in Lisbon. There were 6 of us in his van. Our guide Josue (he said to call him Josh) had a lot more energy than we did and was going strong. I'm sure he thought we were a bunch of wimps but he was very understanding and let us modify things along the way. Olivia's daughter really wanted to shop so he took us to a fabulous shopping area in Lisbon which is 100% pedestrian walking and no cars around. If you want to use the company we used you can look them up on www.toursforyou.pt. We also ate some delicious pastries in Sintra. Josue took us to a very nice restaurant for lunch (not the cheapest place but it was very nice). He's receptive to do what you want to do.
Toursforyou originally wanted us to wire them $$ as a deposit but I said that this wasn't possible. I promised them that I was a person of my word and would not stand them up etc. so they let it slide without any deposit. If you decide to use them, be sure and mention me (or Maurice)as a reference and they'll probably let it slide for you too. Josh is the same guide that Maurice (med4bike) used a couple of weeks before us!

We paid 270 euros for the entire day (not per person).

I'd highly recommend him and his company. Judy and John also have him lined up for later this month.

Thanks,
I had gotten the web site, but now that I have more information, I will contact them using names, prices etc.
Donna

We used them too and they were great!

We were quite pleased with this touring company.
Josh was terrific but if he is not available they have others who are fluent in English.
Great company and wonderful tour.