We will be in porto in early oct and would like to travel by train to Pinhao. With the harvest will train travel be difficult or should we rent a car?
I wouldn't think that harvest would have an impact on the train schedule, but we were there in May not in the fall. Pinhao is a very small town, so by taking the train you would be limited in exploring outside of Pinhao. Renting a car in Porto and driving to the Douro allows you the freedom to explore. The roads are a bit windy, but we just took our time (not much different than driving hwy 1 along the north coast). Five years ago, we didn't have a GPS, and trying to match the map to the roads was a bit of a challenge, and we made a fair amount of incorrect turns, but that just added to the adventure. We stayed at Qunita Nova and thoroughly loved our two nights there amongst the vineyards
Kevin, thanks for the suggestion, renting may be the way to go.