Small-Group Douro Valley Guided Tour with 1-Hour Pinhão Cruise, Traditional Lunch & Wine Tastings

This tour to the Douro Valley was unique in that we could visit and see the the surrounding areas of Porto. It included a Van ride with eight passengers with two in the front, two in the middle and three in the rear seat. We visited one winery where they provided a wine tasting. Then we hopped back in the van for a tour at a second winery including a lunch. Afterwards,we also did a boat tour. We would suggest that before hopping on the boat tour, it could be helpful to grab some kind of refreshment at the nearby store because sitting on the boat was rather warm and they offered a small sample of port, but no water or refreshments were provided. Just a warning that if you happen to be subject to car sickness, this might not be the tour for you. It's a very long time in the van about two hours up and two hours back with some driving in between so you're in the van for a long time. The roads are rather curvy with the nature of a Van. You don't have the opportunity to roll down a window. The highlight is probably just seeing the surrounding area and the views of the Vineyards from the road and the river however, if you don't have nine hours to invest, this might not be the tour for you.

Carlos,our tour leader did a great job. Lunch was ok,not exceptional. Coming from a wine industry background, the cellar door staff were ok too, but were out of their depth when asked questions about wine making specifics. Overall though, it was a fun day.

I really enjoyed the trip overall, I think it is worth the value and absolutely worth booking. I'll start with the positives: The driver, Daniel, was very nice and attentive. He really cared about the people and was helping everyone engage on the journey to Douro Valley and back. The convenience of pick up and drop off is a plus given it is a long day. The multi layer view you get of Douro, from the landscape, to the river and within the wineries is like no other. The wines in the organic winery were very nice, interesting set up. Bruno on the boat tour was especially a highlight, knowledgable and humorous. Sadly, the negatives: Not picking up at my hotel even though it was a one minute drive, emailed to ask but apparently not possible. The quality/quantity of the wines was not the best, not expecting anything crazy naturally but was literally 1/4 a mouthful in each glass. Albeit some of the staff in the wineries were so nice and helpful, they could do with maybe some extra presenting skills just to make it easier for the people to understand. Another note on the staff in the second winery, super pushy for sales to a point of it being aggressive, threatening that you won't get them if you don't buy today and apparently knowing everything about Irish alcohol laws was a bit tedious. Very cocky and made it uncomfortable to be honest, even as Irish people but it did affect the American people with us. We did feel a bit unwell after the food, probably a bad day in the kitchen as the others we remained in contact with said the same. As I said, overall definitely worth the trip for experience but needs some touching up and maybe some considering on the wineries they work with to polish the tour up, as after all, it is a wine tour supposedly.

Our guide Rui was great. The lunch and its setting was fantastic. Vey much enjoyed thd whole day.

Learning the history and friendly folks willing to answer questions! Carlos Silva was great!