Porto

Porto

Porto has recently hit the scene of places to go in Europe. Lisbon has been trendy for a few years, but Porto had a breakout year in 2017 when it was named #1 Best European Destination. It's like a smaller version of Lisbon that's cheaper and a launch pad to explore the Douro River Valley. The place was packed with tourists given that its August. The malecon along the river was extremely crowded. Given its size, city is quite walkable. 

This was the Port a wine shop owner recommended to us. We really enjoyed it as well as a white wine by the same company. Port wine is quite strong at 18-20% and is usually enjoyed as an aperitif or digstif as it is quite sweet. 

If you come to Porto, you have to do a day trip to the Douro River Valley. You have two options;
1) Pay about 110 euros for one of the many guided tours on TripAdvisor that will take you in a van and shuttle you around different wineries with the masses
2) Pay 60 euros to do a self-guided tour going in a train that passes along the Douro River and choosing your own itinerary and avoiding the masses.

Needless to say, we chose the latter. It took a bit of research, see below, but it wasn't that hard. It also inspired me to make my first ever Wikitravel contribution to the Porto article. 

Douro River DIY wine tasting tour. Steps:
1) Take 9:20 am train to Pinhão (about 2 hours 15 minutes). You can buy your tickets at Sao Bento Station round-trip for 20 euros. I recommend buying the tickets in person early as there was a long line near the departure time. Ticket office opens at 6:40 am or buy the day before. Sit on the right side of the train so that you have a view of the Douro River for the second half of the train ride. Bring a good book.
2) Here is link to Google maps for walking tour of three wineries we planned on visiting. Visit them in any order you like. I recommend lunch after the first winery since it will be around 1pm. We had an excellent low-key lunch at Segredos de Douro. For something more upscale, the restaurant at Quinta de la Rosa is quite good. In the end we made it to just two wineries because we stopped for a coffee in the restaurant at Quinta de la Rosa. We were able to walk in to Quinta das Carvalhas and get a 12 euros tasting flight with no reservation. Quinta de la Rosa is more crowded and you could make a reservation here. We weren't interested in a winery tour so we opted to go to the terrace with a view of the Douro River and have a Porto Tonico instead.

3) At 6:20 pm Take the train home (about 2.5 hours). Train will be crowded if you are travelling in August. Also keep in mind that train will come on the same side of the tracks that you arrived. They also serve flights of Port and Porto Tonico at the train station for 5 euros if you still want more.

This was the port flight from Quinta das Carvalhas. From left to right: white wine, rosé, ruby port, tawny port. Tawny and ruby are they flavor most people associate with ports. The white and rosé were dryer and less sweet and essentially tasted like higher proof versions of white and rosé wines. The total cost for these bottles was 52 euros, which is funny because we paid 48 euros for 4 flights of tasting. We could have just bought all four bottles!




Pinhão train station

Crossing bridge from Pinhão to Quinta das Carvalhas.

Panaroma of Pinhão waterfront.

At 6:20 pm we took the train home. It was quite hot (about 90 degrees) so everyone was scrambling for the shade from the light post.

I was shocked by the beauty of the Douro River Valley. Everyone talks about Napa, Tuscany, Bordeaux, but I've never heard anyone mention Porto. We went there because it was close by, but I was amazed at how beautiful it was. The second hour of the train ride we saw endless hills of grape vines in neat rows on the hills rising up from the river. There were humble homes as well as huge estates atop the ridges. Unfortunately, our train window was too dirty to take pictures, but believe me it was breathtaking (although we saw a tourist cleaning his window before departing). I plan on taking Sandra to the Douro River Valley as it is a 3-hour drive from Salamanca, which is doable as an overnight trip. The Quinta de la Rosa had a great looking hotel with views of the river valley. The Douro Valley was also affordable. Good bottles of port are only 10-20 euros and there were tasting flights from 5-20 euros at the wineries. I know that tastings in Napa are much more than this. 

Next stop Lisbon!