Tours are great. Except when you can’t hear the guide because there are too many people in the way. Or when you can’t see what the guide is talking about because… well, all those people in the way.

In Lisbon, we obtained a cab voucher from the booth run by the Lisbon Tourist Office. Our affable driver, Hugo Gonsalvez, offered to take us on an all-day tour to Estoril, Cascais and Sintra. He ...