Mark Whiteley

Portugal Insider Travel Club

I’ve spent my life telling stories — first as an actor, then as a writer and theatre producer, touring the UK with original plays that explored life, love, and the absurdities in between. Eventually, my passion for storytelling led me beyond the stage and across borders. I travelled throughout Portugal, searching for the perfect place to call home — a place where history, character, and community meet. Along the way, I worked in Porto as a tuk-tuk driver, sharing the city’s secrets with curious travellers, and later as a tour guide in Faro and Lagos, uncovering the Algarve’s hidden stories of pirates, explorers, and saints. Each stop added another layer to my understanding of Portugal’s past — and its people. For the past two years, I’ve made my home in Tomar, the former stronghold of the Knights Templar, where history lingers around every corner. It’s here that I’ve combined my love of performance, writing, and history to create immersive walking and audio tours that bring the stories of Portugal vividly to life. As I like to say: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you always got.”