Click here to read what my clients said about this tour In Autumn 2022 I escorted three groups on tours to the Douro Valley. This is a lovely time of year to visit – our visits were broadly conducted under glorious sunshine, with rain only once or twice hardly interrupting play. On each tour we …
The sun was shining brightly as we loaded our cases into the coach and departed, with regret, from Vila Real. Through the stunning landscape for a last time, then the outskirts of Porto, and we arrived in Vila Nova de Gaia, and Graham’s. After a few minutes admiring the huge table in which were displayed …
A luxury – a 12.20pm start that allowed us to catch up on strolling round the town, yomping along the boardwalk, or checking out our favourite pasteleria. With such a late start one might think that this would be a short day, but this is a Tim tour, and a full agenda awaited us. First …
With a very relaxed 10.30am start, our first visit was to Quinta do Beijo, in the north of the Cima Corgo, the middle region of the Douro Valley and home to the many of the most prestigious vineyards. We arrived a bit early and had time to admire the sparkling pool in the front of …
Baixa Corgo is the most westerly of the three main Douro regions, closest to the coast, though still protected from extreme maritime weather by the coastal mountain ranges. The protection was insufficient today, however, and we embarked at 8.30am on the coach in pouring rain. Our views of the Douro landscape were therefore obscured, but …
How time has flown – just five months since we started our first tour in Greece we are now on our last tour of 2022, in the Douro Valley. Fliss, Tim’s wife is writing this blog. Our group assembled very efficiently in Porto airport on Wednesday afternoon, and the coach trip inland to Vila Real …
Our final day took us to Grahams Port Lodge in Vila Nova di Gaia. Grahams is a legendary Port house that was acquired by the Symington group in 1970 but remains an independent brand and is very highly regarded. The Lodge is very impressive – very elegant décor and utterly spotless. Nuno Silva hosted our …
Luis at Casa do Romezal is a tour de force! Our first visit on Saturday unleashed all the passion of a small family business and delivered a wonderfully concise treatise on the Douro and family history, an insight into the complexities of the terracing and vineyard development and showed us yet another aspect of this …
We had a leisurely start to the day with a 10.30am departure as we headed east towards the town of Sabrosa, a key town for the production of table wines and close to our first visit – Quinta do Beijo. This estate is family owned and the Monteiro family has been growing grapes for Port …
Beautiful blue sky greeted us on Thursday morning for our first full day in the Douro Valley. Our first stop was Terrus – a tiny family owned estate about half an hour from Regua in the village of Barro. It has a wonderful location overlooking the river. An amazing sense of tranquility prevails. Maria Foy …
