Porto and Douro Valley Portugal Recap
- Only A Plane Away
- Mar 20, 2019
- 5 min read
We arrived in Porto via train to the Campanhã train station. We hopped in a quick (and cheap) Uber to our guesthouse in the Boa Vista neighborhood. This was our first time staying in a guesthouse and overall, it was a great experience. The best way to describe a guesthouse in Europe is basically a cross between a hostel and a hotel. It really offered the best of both worlds...great price, some fun communal spaces (and free port wine in our case) but a private room and bathroom.
After check in, we were ready for some grub, and decided to grab a Francesinha, a famous local sandwich made with lots of meat and cheese and then covered in a tomato beer sauce. We got ours topped with a fried egg too, because at that point, why not?
After lunch, we headed to the historic center to check out Livraria Lello, also known as the Harry Potter book store. There is a 5 euro entrance fee, but that is credited toward a purchase if you choose to make one. The bookstore has a truly magnificent staircase at its center and offers books in many different languages.
We then walked around a bit more and made our way by Clérigos Tower, however, we did not go in because we had other sites to see.
Our next stop was São Bento train station to take in the beautiful tile mosaics.
Then we headed to walk across the Luis I bridge and catch some spectacular views of the city and the Douro River.
The bridge connects Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia, or simply Gaia, the area where most of the port wine is actually aged in caves. There are several stories as to why this is the case, from avoiding city taxes to the cooler temperatures on the shady side of the river. Whatever the reason, we were ready to head there and try some of the famous port wines.
To give you a little background, Porto wine (or just Port) is a fortified wine and its grapes are exclusively grown in the Douro Valley near the city of Porto. (We'll talk more about that later) Our first tasting was at the oldest Port house in Porto, Kopke. We tried several regular (non-fortified) wines and then moved on to the Port wines, which come in three varieties: White, Ruby, and Tawny (Recently, they've even started making a Rosé version). Both the Ruby and the Tawny are made from red grapes, but the process differs and creates totally different flavors. The Ruby tastes closer to a red wine, while the tawny is more like a cognac. We had a cheese plate to go along with the tasting, so we didn't get too tipsy before our cave (or cellar) tour.
We toured the caves at Calem, one of the larger produces in the region. We learned about the wine making process and was followed by another tasting and a Fado show. Fado is a type of popular Portuguese song, usually with a melancholy theme and accompanied by guitar. The show was very beautiful and a great way to cap off our first day in Porto.
For our second day in Porto we decided to head to the Douro River Valley and see the vineyards that provide the grapes for all that Port wine. It was a small group tour with just seven of us in total. We really prefer small group tours for a more personalized experience. You can check out the tour here.
Our first stop on the tour was a small town of Amarante. It was quite picturesque right along the Tagus River. We stopped in a little bakery for a bite to eat and then headed back on the road to the Douro valley.
The next stop was at Quinta do Portal (quinta means estate in Portuguese, so you will see that word a lot in the Douro Valley). Quinta do Portal is at the higher elevation in the valley, where the hills are not as steep and do not have to be terraced like they do closer to the river. The main building at Quinta do Portal is actually quite modern and has a lovely rooftop deck with astounding views. We also toured their facility and, of course, did more wine tasting. They are known for their Moscatel wine, another fortified wine made from Moscatel grapes and grape brandy. Our tour guide told us that it is common to mix this with beer to make a drink that tastes similar to a radler.
Our next stop was lunch in the town of Piñhao. Our tour guide arranged for us to try to the Moscatel and beer combination with our lunch. Lunch was served family style, and it gave us a chance to speak more with our guide and the others on the tour with us. This was actually one of our favorite parts as it really gave us an opportunity to get to know one another and talk to a local about their life in Portugal.
After lunch, it was time for our cruise along the Douro River. It was quite nice that the seven of us got the boat all to ourselves. Since it was off-season, the river was very quiet and peaceful and offered a unique vantage point of the valley and surrounding vineyards. We cruised the river for about 40 minutes before heading back to Pinhão and on to the next vineyard.
The last vineyard we stopped in was Croft. They exclusively grew grapes to make port wine and had some vines that were nearly 100 years old. The winery was founded over 400 years ago. We had a guided walking tour around their grounds that were some of the most beautiful we'd seen. We tasted a few of their ports before heading back to the city.
Once we got back in the city we decided to get a light dinner and tried some bacalao (salted cod) the Portuguese are so known for. We opted for Bolinhos de Bacalhau which are delicious traditional fried fish cakes.
For our last day in Porto we found a cute little breakfast spot that actually had soy milk so Josh was very excited to have a latte instead of just espresso. After breakfast, we walked around the Boa Vista neighborhood near our guesthouse. Probably the largest tourist attraction in Boa Vista is the Music Hall which is a very interesting modern building. We walked around it a bit but didn't have time to do the full guided tour. After walking around a bit more, we headed back to the guesthouse to check out of our room. With our luggage in tow, we headed to Gazela Cachorrinhos da Batalha for some "hot dogs". These were very different from American hot dogs and were more like sausage or salami covered with cheese and served on a crusty roll pressed in something like a panini press. It was weird and delicious all at the same time.
After lunch we walked around a bit more and stumbled upon a little square with a beautiful church called Igreja de Santo Ildefonso.
Then it was time to head to the airport and off to Paris for our do-over vacation from last year...more adventures to come.
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