Over the past 15 years I've taken a lot of walking tours, both free and paid, in many countries across Europe and Asia, and I would describe the attitude that good tour guides have as "passionate" or "enthusiastic". Sara's attitude could best be described as "sardonic". The first few stops of the tour were pretty good, but after Sao Bento station it went downhill. Even when information was being conveyed, it was delivered with an unhelpful amount of sarcasm – for example at Rua de Flores, she was describing how the goldsmith shops preferred to be on the side of the street lit up by the morning sun, but the food shops preferred to be in the cooler afternoon sun, "like this famous Portuguese ice-cream shop" (pointing to Haagen Dazs). At the next few stops after Rua de Flores, we got barely any information about Porto and seemed to instead get more details about Italy and hating on Spanish people. We cut our losses and left after just one hour (which I have never done in any of my dozens of other tours ever!) and giving a nominal 10€ courtesy tip. We were really disappointed because we fell in love with Porto when we arrived (and I had experienced an amazing tour with guide Claudia from this company, Take, in Lisbon) but we will have to look for another tour guide who can convey their genuine love and appreciation for this wonderful city.
