Your Guide to get from porto to the Douro valley
After arriving to Porto - The worlds Capital city of Fortified wines - you want to find your way to the Vineyards and explore Portugal so you can taste all those wines yourself. The wineries that make these beautiful wines are all located in the Douro Valley and that’s quit the drive from Porto city center: It will take you up to about 2 hrs to the hearth of the Baixo Corgo - Penso da Regua.
There are multiple ways of getting from Porto to the Douro. Our personal preference we will show below, as we’ve done many trips to the Douro already!
Means of transportation
Wether you want to travel by car, train, boat, or take a organized Tour, all trips will excite you because the scenery is stunning in all kinds of transport.
by Train
One of those unique ways of traveling through the country is by train. The train outside from Porto is a regular train ride, but once you enter the Douro region, you will not believe what you are seeing. The train tracks is mostly situated next to the wide Douro River, that is meandering through Spain all the way West to the city of Porto to finally reach the atlantic ocean.
The sighting of the river to your right hand side and the views through the valley are really breathtaking. Not for nothing this region was declared a UNESCO World heritage site many years ago.
We’ve created for you an easy guide to help you get from A to B by writing a detailed train guide so you won’t have to spend all that time figuring out your travelplans.
by Car
So, this is our favorite. Take your car. Not only does this allow you to drive off the standard roads, but you get to enjoy the peaks of the Valley, you can catch breathtaking sunsets and moonrises, and you are also flexible to drive to more wineries then you can imagine. Another plus is that, because the rail road and the river are similar to each other, you can visit a lot of village’s and natural parks in and outside the Douro region, such as Amarante and Viseu
Here are some of our favorite pictures from Amarante, Viseu and the Douro
Guided Tours
This is a very good option - if your time is limited and you want to get the most out of it. Mostly booked by American citizen and West-Europeans and Asian Groups, these Tours can guide you through the best wineries, showing you, when traveling in the right time, the harvesting and even let you tread the grapes in the so called Lagares.
Tours can also include exclusive restaurants, dinners and portwine tasting of the best Vintage port wines and Colheita’s from the best years.
It’s quit the view from a douro river boat, to chill and have a wine, gazing at all the winery’s around the steep slopes of the douro valley. Stopping at one of the smaller cities and being surrounded by everything that this very old wine region has to offer such as: The best Wine Shops, The Best Restaurants, The best Bakeries and of course the Best Wineries with their Quinta’s for an exclusive experience into the World of Wine.
Some of the tour operators can be found here:
