Several years ago, I had the good fortune to spend 3 nights at Agriturismo Marciano just outside Siena in Tuscany. It was one of the highlights of my Italy trip, and one of the best travel experiences I have ever had anywhere. It was worth planning the rest of the trip around in order to spend time there. Now in the early planing stages of a trip to Portugal. My question is, are there any accommodations in Portugal that are worth planning an itinerary around, in the same way that Marciano was worth planning around? I am interested in comfortable rooms, a location close to an interesting town, a working farm, and amazing meals with opportunities to meet other travelers.
Posted by
82 posts
Hi,
You might want to consider making a trip to Portugal’s Douro Valley, which is home to many vineyards producing port wine. Most of the quintas there are actually working vineyards. I recently returned from a trip to Portugal where we spent several days at a Quinta in Douro Valley. Our Quinta was a port producer, family-run, with several guest rooms in the facility. We had a delicious farm dinner, winery tour and tastings. If you are a port connoisseur, this is the place to visit! A number of neighboring vineyards also offer wine tastings- the area is between the towns of Pinhao and Peso de Regua- approximately 70 miles east of Porto. We stayed at Quinta de Marroccos, about 2 miles east of Peso de Regua- highly recommended!
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1826 posts
I agree with the other poster about the Douro valley. If that doesn’t interest you, there are a number of places in the Alentejo region that are wineries and have rooms also.
I’m not certain any will be quite like the agritourismos in Italy, as I’m not aware of places being required to serve a percentage of food from their farm.
If you are coming in early fall, I would choose the Douro as it’s during harvest and quite special. Don’t even think about Alentejo in the summer as it’s too hot! But, other parts of the year would be lovely as there is a ‘dark skies’ area and some wonderful megaliths outside of Evora that are amazing!