Hello! We are planning our trip to Portugal, and need some help deciding on whether to visit the Douro Valley. We will be spending 3 nights in Porto, so we're debating whether to take a day trip to the Douro Valley given our short time in the city. We enjoy wine, however are not wine aficionados by any means. We would mostly be interested in the natural beauty of the valley and some good food! That said, we have two questions: (1) Is the Douro Valley a "must see"? and (2) if so, do you have any recommendations for tour companies to book the trip with? There seems to be an endless amount of them, however we love to find one that is more unique. Thank you!
Posted by
Fairfax, VA
763 posts
When will you be in Porto? The time of the year affects how pretty things are, how hot it is (and it can be very hot), and before you can decide whether or not to go, it would be helpful to know your goals/must-do's for Porto.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Great clarifying question! We will be in Porto in late-September this year.
Posted by
11159 posts
We took a boat from Porto up the Douro, then took a train back. The scenery is pretty at first but it does not change so becomes very monotonous. You can look at terraced hillsides with grapes growing for just so long. We did not visit nor stay in a Quinta, a different experience.
Posted by
Washington, DC USA
349 posts
It sounds like you may be there during harvest time which might make it an especially interesting experience. A number of the smaller family run Quintas stomp their grapes, or at least some of the by foot. What we were told on the tour I went on (which was not at harvest time) was that the more mechanized production ends up crushing in seeds which can affect the taste and is later counteracted by additives whereas the human feet are supposedly more sensitive to what they are crushing.
The tour company I used was called Cooltours Oporto a few years ago. It now seems to be called just Cooltours and seems to have expanded beyond the Porto region. The reason I chose and liked them among the many day tour options was that it was a small group van tour limited to about 8 people. That seems to have been a better experience than what I read and heard from people who went on the bigger bus tours. Our tour went to one quinta that produced red and white wines as well as honey and another that produced port as well fruit jams. It also included lunch at a fairly nice restaurant and a one hour boat tour. I think this is fairly typical of many of the tours. Since I went pre-covid, I do not know whether there are mask requirements in the van, which might be a concern. In both quintas, our tour was led by people whose families had been in the business and on the property for several generations.
There are also opportunities in Porto to visit the port lodges and taste port without taking the whole day. That too is an interesting but different experience from a Duoro trip.
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1676 posts
I also used CoolTour but it was a number of years ago. I’ve also used them in Lisbon to visit Sintra. I was pleased with both trips. It’s gives you a nice taste of the Douro with minimal effort on your part and they seem to be one of the more reasonably priced.
Be aware the harvest may well be over by late September due to the extremely hot summer this year.
All this said, with only three nights in Porto you might be better served with just visiting the port lodges in Gaia. Several of them also do table wine tastings in case you don’t like port. And, the Douro is not nearly as lovely this year because of the heat and drought. A lot of the vines and nearly all of the other vegetation is brown rather than it’s usual lush green.