Itinerary for Portugal

We are staying in Porto for several days, and planning two trips from there. One an almost full day up the Douro Valley including a one-hour boat ride on the river, several tastings and lunch (lunch is at our expense). In addition we are taking a half day tour to Guimaraes from Porto. We will be renting a car only to go from Lisbon to Porto. The rest we are doing with small tours.

Thanks for your input! You’re doing it the right way. My husband doesn’t like tours so that idea won’t work for us. We’re probably going to drive through the Douro region from Guimaraes on our way back to Lisbon. I want to see some of the nice landscapes of the Douro area. Not big drinkers!

Suggest staying a couple of days in Porto, its wonderful.

If you want to see the Douro Valley in the best way, take a river cruise.
You can take the train up the river, the rail road tracks run alongside the north side of the river. If you go all the way up the river, you will almost be in Spain. We did a day trip to Salamanca and it was great.

I’m going to mull this over now—the river cruise.
Thanks for your thoughts.

We did a wonderful week long river cruise on the Douro (fantastic).
You probably don't have time for that. You have other choices. There are short cruises up the river from Porto or you can take the train, which runs right alongside the north bank of the river. You could take the train up the length of the river or half way to Pinhao.

https://www.getyourguide.com/porto-l151/around-the-douro-valley-all-included-t73660/?referrer_view_id=f2e35e026aaee7888637f6a2378d59b4&referrer_view_position=1

Thanks again for mentioning the cruises, but we have a car and a tight schedule. All the cruises out of Porto are of 9 hours duration.
We are spending one night in Pinhão after Porto, and there are shorter cruises that leave from there. That’s probably what we will do. Then we’ll drive back to Lisbon. Thanks again! KW