Douro Valley tour not wine-centered? Does anyone know of a small group tour of the Douro Valley that is not focused on wine and wineries? I'm not a wine drinker and have visited wineries in Italy so I'd like to try something else. Thank you!
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
5649 posts
If you are on Facebook, there is a great group, Travel Portugal. I got lots of help there. There are typically reviews of tours and many of the participants provide tours. Also, look for Julie Dawn Fox'x website.
We went to Douro, its beautiful. If you want to rent a car, you could drive on your own. Many of the wineries have beautiful views and some serve meals. We stayed at Quinta do Tedo. They have a restaurant with exceptional views.
Posted by
OP
USA
19 posts
Thank you!
Posted by
North of NY
5 posts
We visited the Douro Valley in May and booked a driver for a custom tour which included the archeologic site of Foz Coa and lunch at Michelin-listed restaurant DOC in Folgosa. We also visited one Port winery but as we're not really wine drinkers either we could easily have foregone that part. We had a beautiful drive through the valley, with several scenic stops.
We booked through Viator because it was the only one with the Foz Coa offerings. Our driver told us that Viator was going to discontinue this particular tour, so you may want to look elsewhere for a private tour/driver.
You need to book the Foz Coa tickets by yourself well in advance as access to the sites is strictly limited. My understanding was that the tickets are available only to private individuals, not tour companies. At any rate, we were lucky to obtain the tickets and very much enjoyed our visit there.