Douro Valley

Hi Kstee,

In the Douro Valley, The town of Pinhão would be your best option. It's one of the most important villages in the Valley, as it used to be one of the many river ports from where Port wine was shipped to Porto. Plenty of wineries and accommodation out and about, and the train from Porto stops there. You should be able to day trip to Pinhão.

Since you won't have a car, to tour the valley itself and some of the wineries you'll need a taxi or a local company that does these tours.

I did a small group (8 in a van) day tour with Cooltour Oporto. We went to two smaller family run vineyards, lunch in a small town, and a boat ride. I would highly recommend. To me, the boat ride was the least interesting part but relaxing.

We also did a day trip with CoolTour and were very pleased with it. It gives you a taste of the Douro without renting a car or trying to find your way around. At the time we did the tour, it was also very reasonable in cost for what we got.

You can take the train from Porto up the river valley. The tracks run on the north side of the river.

We stayed in Porto and took an OportoShare day tour to the Douro Valley. The tour was private, reasonably priced and lasted about 8 hours. We stopped at a vineyard, toured the Douro Valley, had a nice lunch and went on a boat ride. Julio is the owner/guide and is very easy to work with. He picked us up/dropped us off at our B&B in Porto. We took a second tour (Minho) with Julio and it was very good too.