Douro Valley Suggested 6 day Wine Tour
We believe this to be the best Douro Valley Wine Tour (especially at Harvest time, mid-September)
Tour starts at 8pm on a Sunday in The Yeatman Hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia, near Porto and ends after breakfast the following Saturday at 10am in The Vintage House Hotel in Pinhão.
–
“I never imagined that it was possible to have so much fun,”
-said one member of our tour on the final day. We’d been treading grapes for a short while at one of the larger ‘Quintas’ in the Douro Valley. This must be one of the highlights of a September Harvest Wine Tour in the Douro.
–
To offer you greater flexibility, our Scheduled wine tours have evolved into Suggested wine tours whereby you are free to choose the dates to run from a Sunday evening through until the following Saturday morning. We need a minimum of six participants to make this wine tour viable and plenty of notice (minimum of 90 days) to secure hotel accommodation.
The best times weather wise are probably between April to June or from September to November. Normally, the wine harvest in the Douro starts around the middle of September, when all Quintas are busiest. Your chosen dates will enable us to send you a quote, which largely depends on your chosen time of travel.
This Douro Valley Suggested 6-day Wine-Tour starts off with a welcome dinner at 8pm on a Sunday in the Famous 5* Yeatman Hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia, near Porto. Our wine tour guests can check in from 2pm on your chosen Sunday to make good use of the spa and other hotel facilities. We spend the night at The Yeatman, walking in the morning to Taylor’s Port Lodge next door, for a guided tour and Port tasting.
From Taylor’s we are driven to the Upper Douro, passing by Fafe in Vinho Verde country where we visit Vinhos Norte winery and have lunch before carrying on to Foz do Tua, staying at an hotel with stunning views of the Douro’s river banks. We spend the next day with our wine producer friend Victor Marques, usually enjoying a magnificent barbecue overlooking his vineyards.
The following morning, we leave Foz do Tua in a private boat and cruise down the Douro River to the famous winery, Quinta Nova, where we have a tour, wine tasting, and lunch. There is another winery visit in the afternoon, before we are driven to the charming country hotel, Hotel Rural dos Viscondes da Varzea near Lamego.
We visit two quite different types of winery the next day. In the evening there’s a special treat in store subject to availability and weather – a sunset sail on the Douro River with supper on board.
On the last day (if your chosen dates are during the harvest, usually mid-September) we have the “Piece de Résistance” of our 6-day wine tour – a full “Douro Valley Wine Harvest Experience” at the Quinta da Pacheca. For a short while you join the workers harvesting the grapes. We have a traditional picnic in the vineyards for elevenses, and later enjoy a tasting and tour of the winery before treading grapes in the traditional way. A gourmet lunch follows in front of the vineyards, where there are great views of the Douro Valley, then with more wine tasting and chatting, how time flies. This is really an experience to remember!
We end up at the Vintage House Hotel, the famous 5* hotel in Pinhão. Those ending our Douro Valley Suggested 6-day Wine Tour the next day at 10am on Saturday morning, take a picturesque train journey back to Porto from Pinhão railway station, a short walk away.
Or you could join us in travelling to Spain for our next Suggested wine tour [Portugal/Spain two country 3 day Wine Tour] via a boat cruise to Barca d’Alva, near the Spanish border and then travel to Salamanca for a night and another on the way to Logroño, in the centre of Rioja for our Suggested [3-day Rioja wine tour], based there.
Douro Valley river cruise on a Rabelo
What’s Included:
Within the tour start and finish points included are: All accommodation, meals, which include wine (except at breakfast), winery visits and tastings, any other visits, transport, any boat trips that we organize and your tour guide.
What’s not included:
Flights or other transport to the tour start point and from the tour end point. Any discretionary tips. Any additional bottles of drink that you might wish to purchase for personal consumption later.
Relaxing with a glass of Douro Valley red
From 2024 onwards – bookings, costs, and wine-tour itineraries will be handled by our chosen close associate operatives in Portugal and Spain respectively, who will later liaise with you on a direct basis.
