Stop 2 of our Portugal road trip was to the Douro valley region. It is only a couple hours from Porto. It is super common to take a day trip, but when planning our trip we decided we wanted to spend a few days in the area.
The highlight for sure was some of the drives. Everywhere we looked was just absolutely incredible! The rolling hills, Douro river, and vineyards on every corner. This video I think highlights the incredible views!
Our first day included beautiful drives and a private boat ride down the river with a glass of wine. We thankfully made it just in time for our boat ride, but we made so many stops at views along the way that we were almost late. Below you can see Ryan eating a super quick grocery store sandwich for lunch. Look at the views though on the side of the road! I think my favorite area was around this viewpoint- Miradouro Barqueiros.
For our second day we went to Quinta de Sao Bernardo winery for a tasting. It is mostly a hotel, but they have incredible views and a restaurant. Hotel rooms are like 500 a night, but you can go for the day to a wine tasting and lunch for a lot lot less.
While in Duoro we stayed at the Lamego Hotel & Life. We paid a little over 100 euros a night with my savvy hotel searching, advance booking, and a good Booking.com discount. It had 2 beautiful pools, hot tub, sauna, and steam room so every night we got to enjoy relaxing after a hard, long day of drinking wine.
For our second full day we went joined a Harvest tour at Quinta de Pacheca. September is harvest season so it was such a fun time of year to be in the Douro region. In our tour we got to cut grapes off the vine, stomp them in the traditional way, and enjoy a great dinner and lots of wine. Enjoy the pictures and videos 🙂
After the amazing time at our tour, we weren’t quite done yet and still had time to swing by 2 more wineries 😝 We stopped at Quinta de Popa and Quinta de São Luiz. I hope you like photos with beautiful views, wine, and Ryan & I.
What an incredible place! It was equal parts relaxing and adventuring someplace we haven’t been before. So lucky to live the life that we do !
❤️Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 