About Us
This Lisbon Hotel Booking Service is owned by Milu, and run by Virginie and Isabel, of Saga Travel. Based in Lisbon, let us organise your stay here in Lisbon and Portugal. Whether you need a special featured hotel, or a typical restaurant to experiment the famous Portuguese pastry, 'Pastel de Belém', or have a drink in a nice local café ...
... we will be happy to guide you through our city, from which started the Discoveries of New World.
Opened in 1991, SAGA TRAVEL is a self-owned 'family type' agency, meaning that we take care of our clients as our own family and friends, either when welcoming them here in Portugal, or sending them abroad.
Meet the Team!
Virginie and Isabel run the incoming department, which means they are the ones who will organise your stay here in Lisbon and Portugal. Isabel will give you the best advice and quotes for your stay. Virginie manages all business matters, including choosing and contracting hotels and services which best represent our country.
Saga is owned by Milu, an expert in tourism, with her speciality in sending clients abroad to experience their dream holiday. If you need a flight to the Portuguese Islands of Madeira and Azores or inside the country, our outgoing department will be able to help (please note that we can only provide good deals on inbound flights, international flights must be checked in your own country).
Although sustainable tourism has not yet taken off in Lisbon, the team are committed to learning as much as they can, and trying to influence the local tourism community through its affiliation with WHL. For a good example in Portugal, check out the recovery of an old village in the North of Lisbon called Aldeia da Mata in our Budget Accommodation section.
Saga Travel Lisbon is happy to announce that Rock in Rio Lisboa 2010 will happen again next spring - check our ‘Local Events' page. We are always ready to give the latest information about what's going on in our city: a very friendly, colourful, warm city set on the Tagus River, where the Portuguese started their journeys to discover the world in the 15th Century: Brazil, Cape Verde, and Timor-Leste among them. Lisbon was discovered by Ulysses and known as Olissipo by the Greeks. Learn more about it by taking a Lisbon walking tour, discovering its old legends.
Born in Paris, Virginie started to travel at a young age and was able to start to experience the joy of discovering new countries, new ways of living, new ways of eating, and new cultures. After Interpretation and Translation studies in English and German, she started her training in a Greek Tourism company in Paris and never looked back. From here she became a GO at Club Med going from one country to another every 6 months. In Marbella she encountered the South American soul through her first husband: a Carioca, (inhabitant in Rio de Janeiro). She moved to Rio where she lived for 6 years.
She then met her second Carioca husband in Rio who took her to his adopted city in Portugal (Brazil's brother country) - the city of Lisbon. It was here that she started a family and continued her life's work of welcoming foreign guests to see the beauty of her new city and country. It was always one of her greatest dreams when living in Paris that one day she would live near the sea. When she discovered Lisbon for the 1st time in 1984 she was astonished to find a country which seemed to have stopped in the time. She was struck by the gentle welcome of the people who opened their house to her to ensure a more comfortable stay just through the recommendation of some friends. The Portuguese at this time were slowly recovering from years of dictatorship and most of them had 2 jobs to survive. 8 years after - in 1992; when she arrived in Lisbon to settle, Portugal was a completely different country, a new and young nation ready to compete with any other European cities.
Nowadays, with a wonderful family in Lisbon and her work with Saga Travel, she doesn't have a lot of time to travel, but enjoys reading historical romances about Ancient Egypt, Africa, Europe etc. At 2.00pm she goes out for lunch with a book in hand, much like the French walk with a baguette under the arm! Much of the rest of her spare time is spent with her family - her favourite hobby! Another favourite activity is enjoying the famous pastry "Pastel de Belém" when visiting Jeronimos Monastery. The shop there is also a piece of art.
Since 1999, Virginie has been involved with internet businesses, operating various sites as local agent for hotel bookings and land services, always looking for new opportunities to sell Portugal.
Thanks to her former Brazilian connections and relationships in Portugal, Saga Viagens, Lda became a proud member of WATA (World Association of Travel Agents), allowing more visibility thru (http://www.wata.net/) a site exclusively targeted to the tourism sector. Saga is also a member of ASTA and IATA (all international associations); as well as APAVT (the Portuguese Association of Travel Agents) and ATL (Tourism Board of Lisbon) national associations.
Why choose us? The Internet nowadays offers millions of choices, but individually tailored vacations are no longer easy to find. Most people do their online booking but the experience might sometimes turn into a dreadful nightmare, such as no booking on arrival, the wrong room allocation upon arrival, double charges by the hotel because the front office never heard of your booking, failure of a guide or driver to assist you at the airport or around town, etc. We can take care of all of this for you! For more information about us, visit us at Saga Viagens
As a Worldhotel-link provider, we offer much more than the run-of-the-mill automated non-human and unsigned emails of confirmation! Our the ground, our local presence enables us to suggest a list of Budget, Mid Range or Top End hotels in Lisbon and Portugal. Of course, if you have your own suggestion, this list is not exhaustive, and we will be happy to book exactly what you wish. We don't also take any money from your credit card online: this will be done after you agree with all the services you wish to confirm.
Try us! It only costs an email for a start. We will make your stay in Portugal one of your best travel memories!
