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You can’t go to Porto without taking a wine tour! The city has its own wine named after it- port!
We selected this tour, which conveniently picked us up right at our hotel. This did of course mean, that we had to pick up a few other guests before we could begin the journey to our first stop.
The scenery was beautiful, but as per usual, I spent most of the ride over completely unconscious. There’s just something about bus rides that put me right out!
Luckily, I was able to grab a coffee when we took a quick pit stop for snacks and bathroom breaks. That brought me back into awareness just in time for our first stop at Quinta dos Castelares.
It was pretty windy out, so we headed directly to their wine cellars. Their enormous wine casks each hold hundreds of liters of wine. If you look closely, you can spot the tiny door through which a professional can squeeze through to clean and maintain the barrels. We had a few samples of wine here before moving upstairs to a different area of the winery.
We were shown where the grapes were squeezed, while being plied with another sample of wine, along with a tasting of the vineyards homemade olive oil poured over fresh bread.
Now a little tipsy and pleasantly fed, we had a very lovely tour of the original house that ended in the kitchen, where we were brought four different samples of honey to try.
While we finished our tour, the wind had stopped blowing so aggressively, so we were able to spend some time outside enjoying the sunshine and the view before we had to move on. We did inquire about shipping some of the wine home, but despite the low cost of the wine itself, the shipping cost was pretty painful. We did end up picking up a bottle to enjoy at our hotel after the tour.
One of the things that I liked about this particular tour is that it included a cruise down the Douro River. We made the unfortunate decision to sit at the front of the ship so there wasn’t a lot of protection from the wind, and we had to twist awkwardly in our seats to see the views- but at least they were unobstructed!
There is a pre-recorded audio guide that plays over the speakers, but it was hard to hear from our seats- indoor seating may be your best bet.
After we wrapped up the cruise, we headed to a local restaurant about 20 minutes away for lunch.
The options were extremely limited- I believe it was fish, beef, or tripe. Needless to say, I was struggling a little with my lunch. I hoped that options would be made available for those with dietary restrictions, but those requests must be made in advance- they weren’t able to do much for me last minute.
Our last stop was a port tasting at Quinta Santa Eufémia. Suddenly, the included lunch was making sense!
Port wine is a fortified wine (meaning stronger!), that originated in the Douro Valley. Port typically has an alcohol percentage closer to 20%, compared to 12% for regular wine. Our tasting included five different samples of Port wine, each with a pairing of chocolate, crackers, and cake.
I’m not a huge fan of port, as it turns out, but it was still a cool experience and it was nice to see where such an iconic regional alcohol gets made. I did eventually learn to enjoy port, but only when in a mixed drink!
Pleasantly buzzed, I was very happy to pet a cute dog before we were all herded back to the shuttle bus for our ride home. Luckily, no one got too rowdy so we had a nice ride back to the city, where we were dropped off in the city center this time, rather than outside of our hotels.
Despite learning that I didn’t enjoy port, I did truly enjoy this tour! The wine and port samples were plentiful, and the extra offerings of honey and olive oil were a generous surprise. Add in the boat tour, and it was pretty much a perfect day.
You can take this same trip here!
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