Douro Wine Tour

I recently did a day tour from Porto of the Duoro Valley on June 23. I booked it with Cooltour Oporto. After looking at what seemed like dozens of roughly similar descriptions of comparable tours, I chose this one because it had been independently recommended by someone on the RS Portugal forum and, separately by the expat Portugal travel blogger Julie Dawn Fox. The group size is limited to 8. We traveled in a van with one driver/tour guide. The guide was very good as both a guide and impressive as a driver negotiating narrow turns. The scenery was very beautiful. We visited the small town of Pinhao long enough to see the train station tiles, walk around a little, have a coffee, and use cafe or public restrooms. We toured and tasted at one vineyard before lunch and another one after lunch and the boat ride. The first was Quinta Jallota for red and white Duoro wines (not Port), olive oil and honey. We were met and guided by a family member of this family run vineyard. The second was Quinta de Marrocos for Port wine. This was also a family operation. In both cases, we were the only tour group there during our visit, which made it feel private and unrushed. I enjoyed the fact that we went to smaller, lesser known, family producers that still used some traditional methods and that we would probably not have found on our own. Lunch was at a nice restaurant in the town of Tabuaco. The boat ride was pleasant but a little boring in my view. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this tour.

I also have used CoolTour Oporto and was very pleased. It was four years ago, but the day was very similar to the previous poster. I’ve used them in the Lisbon area (tour of Sintra) and recommend them for both locations.