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.