This conference, prepared as part of a 3-years research project on the “Overall Rural Tourism Experience” (ORTE) inthree Portuguese villages, offers an in depth discussion of the “rural tourism experience”, its manifestations, meanings, impacts and evolution. It intends to significantly contribute to current reflections on the potential and limitations of rural tourism as a development tool as well as to the identification of ways to maximize this potential in certain circumstances, through a more profound understanding of the dynamics of the “overall rural tourism experience”.