Our philosophy is simple: all our products combine, with charm and harmony, the active discovery of the Alentejo’s heritage and landscape with the pleasures of a good wine and local gastronomy.

Our team is special: we believe in what we do. Our guides are specialists and multi-skilled, experienced and determined, careful and thoughtful. They know how to be there for you, they’ll make you feel safe and they’ll make sure you’ll have fun, relax and enjoy.

We believe in sustainable tourism, local partners, top quality services.

We believe in tourism as a powerful source of peace, friendship and understanding between people and as a mean of sustainable local development and preservation of the natural and cultural heritage.

We feel privileged to have this job and to be able to discover and share with you the beautiful and bright side of our world.

Our mission is to share this privilege, proudly offering our guests the Alentejo with its clean air and endless landscapes of land and sea. No stress, no worries!

With this philosophy and team we organise tours, cycling holidays, walking holidays, expeditions for families and friends and outdoor events, which promote team building for company groups.
We have also written several guidebooks promoting our region, creating an important footprint of tools and information to help to a better understanding of our region.

MORE ABOUT US

Since 1994, we have been producing activity and travel guides to help you discover the wonders of our Alentejo region.

In 2007, we opened up our guesthouse Monte do Serrado de Baixo, a beautifully restored traditional farmhouse located in a natural paradise, and only 8 kms from the World Heritage Site of Évora.

In 2018, we open our first house rental in Évora, the charming little house Casa dos Apostolos, and in 2019 the boutique house Casa da Padaria, with 2 bedrooms.

You can expect personalized treatment and passionate guides with high knowledge of the region’s culture and heritage.

Turaventur’s events are organized complying with the measures demanded by the Tourism of Portugal in terms of health and safety. We will cater for yours and our safety at all times. Our suppliers do the same. Travel safe with us. See further information in Clean&Safe.

To keep it short, we can only say... it's been 31 years. It's a long time!

Oh, and let’s not forget! We are obsessed for excelent food! You can rely on our famous gourmet luxury picnics, the internationally awarded Alentejo wine, and the surprising world famous and awarded Mediterranean gastronomy to keep your palate happy.

The best of our company is our staff.
Come and meet them and see for yourself!

Teresa Vilas Boas

general manager and guide

Teresa has been the soul of Turaventur and Monte do Serrado de Baixo for the last 20 years. The first adventure she recalls was trekking after her father in the mountain of Gerês, when she was 5 yo. She has practiced several outdoor sports and loves to travel by bike. For two years, she traveled in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Laos, India, and Nepal. She finally came back to Portugal and started our Portugal Bicycle Tours. With endless energy, she will guide a cycling tour as well as a canoeing trip or set up an original outdoor event for a company meeting.

Pedro Vilas Boas

founder

Pedro is a nomad and has itchy feet. Traveling is his passion. He is a true adventurer and has taught us the wonders of discovering the world and going off the beaten track. Pedro has done several expeditions in Africa on a jeep, descended several rivers on a kayak, and climbed the Island Peak in the Himalayas. His wish for the 70th anniversary was to spend it climbing the Aconcagua in Argentina, and there he went! The weather was too bad so Pedro had to turn back but that is part of mountaineering and adventure and he sets new goals all the time! He is an inspiration to all of us!
He was the “father” of the off road driving in Portugal and now he moved this passion to classic cars.

Ana Barbosa

consultant and partner

Ana is our “brain”, and the mother of the company. She is an expert on the Alentejo and the real ambassadress of our beautiful region. Ana wrote several travel guides about the region and knows every hidden church, artisan or village. She can draw the perfect tour sitting on her desk. Ana loves traveling and trekking is her favorite sport. She has trekked in Portugal, in the Himalayas, and in Peru, to mention some. Ana’s last author work was the digital book “From – Farm – to Table”. Following her advice or one of our tours, you may experience wonderful flavors straight from the producer.

Mário Pinto

guide and maintnance

Mário is super easy going, apparently shy but in reality very sociable and fun to be around.
He has an archeologist degree and you will love to visit the megalithic monuments with him. He loves trail running competitions and is super fit. He has his own vegetable garden and loves the outdoors.
He is a great bike guide, very friendly and caring. You will meet him if you book a guided tour.
He is also in charge of all our websites, design, bike maintenance and outdoors. So we keep him pretty busy!!!
He has just been a father!

I wonder what his son will say when he finds out daddy guides 7 day trips!!!

Dina Carrasco

hotel manager and back office

Dina is what we call in Portuguese a “pau para toda a obra”, a “stick for all jobs”! The expression describes someone who fears no task. Dina never says “I can’t do that, don’t know how to do it”. Sometimes I ask something from her and I can feel her reaction is not the usual enthusiastic “off course”, and then I know she doesn’t know how to do it. But she will say nothing. And on the day after she comes with clever doubts, of someone who has been studying the matter. Giving up is not for her. She is also, and above all, responsible for your money! She is in charge of our houses in Évora and our farm Monte do Serrado de Baixo, where she welcomes our guests as family.

Catarina Filipe

back office and guide

Catarina is one of those people who you will automatically love. She has a sweetness in her that immediately attracts everyone. She is a hard worker and never says no to a challenge. But under that sweet loving face there is a strong and determined women! She likes to have her work in order and well done. She takes excellent care of her clients. Since she started working with us we already did some adventures together and seeing her hanging on a rope rock climbing with the same tranquility she outs in everything was a fantastic surprise. Don’t underestimate this woman!

Manuel Marchante

Marketing and guide

Manuel is good fun, committed, honest and extremely positive. He gets the job done and he is very competent. He thinks with his heart a lot, which makes him very empathic. He is very focused on our mission and if a client or a member of the team needs him, the world stops. He has a child inside him who hopefully will never grow up. He has a dog who is really his son, who goes to school every day! He wants the boss out of the office and we are still trying to understand why! 🙂

Miguel

guide, the future

Miguel has been guiding almost since he was born. It started with simple tasks, as helping out on a check in at the farm house. It went on to serving drinks at the picnics, helping with the cooking, biking with small groups and big groups, taking luggage to the rooms and taking the most funny pictures. He grew up and now he is ready to be a guide. We are proud to have him to have witnessed his path.

Paulo Rente

guide

Paulo in an independent man. He likes his freedom and has been a free lance for many years. He has been many places and lived many lives. You will find it super interesting to spend time with him. He is very service minded and focused on client’s satisfaction. He adores cycling and he is either guiding (by bike) either biking. I think his body probably things the bike is part of it and he is most likely on of those that sleeps with the bike in the tent and puts the wife outside!

Proud member of

Tourism of Portugal License: RNAAT. 17/2002, RNAVT 3409 and RNET 597
Member of APECATE (Portuguese Association of Companies Organising Congresses, Activity Tourism and Events)
Member of ARPT (Regional agency of touristic promotion of the Alentejo)
Member of NATURAL.PT, a trusted brand National, and Internationally recognized as a symbol of quality and excellence and supporting the development of locally based companies, with a great focus on the biodiversity and culture of Portugal.

PUBLICATIONS

Over 15 titles that we have either authored or co-authored, including the following:

Viagens na Nossa Terra (Journeys in Portugal), publ. Reader’s Digest
Cinco Olhares (Five Views), publ. RTs do Alentejo
Percursos de Natureza no Norte Alentejano (Nature Excursions in the Alentejan North), publ. RT de S. Mamede
Guia Turístico da Planície Dourada (Tourist Guide to the Golden Plain), publ. RT da Planície Dourada
Passeios entre o Xisto e o Mármore (Excursions Among Schist and Marble), publ RT Évora
30 Dias no Norte Alentejano – Guia de Sugestões (30 days in the Alentejan North – Suggestions for your Visit), publ. RT de S. Mamede
O Melhor do Alentejo (The Best of Alentejo), publ. Turismo do Alentejo
From Farm to Table, publ. Turismo do Alentejo

Turaventur has the honour to detain the Quality Seal!

We are proud holders of APECATE’s Quality Seal, which is audited and guaranteed by SGS, the world’s leading independent certification company.

APECATE’s Quality Seal guarantees high operating standards along five key dimensions:

Transparency and accuracy of the information we provide to our customers;
Feedback – in every trip we ask our clients to complete a comprehensive evaluation form that we use to improve our performance;
Environmental performance – we strive to minimise our environmental footprint, and whenever possible, to improve the places we visit;
Safety – all our team members were thoroughly trained to follow our comprehensive health and safety procedures and all our tours include at least one first-aid qualified guide; and
Human Resources – all our employees are regularly evaluated on both the hard and soft skill relevant for each sector .

About us