Food Tours · Tour

Two Quintas, Six Wines, and a Van Booked for You Alone

The private version of the full Douro day: an air-conditioned minivan for up to eight people from your own party, collected from your hotel in Porto or Gaia, with nobody else in the vehicle. What that buys is control of the day. The guide talks through Portuguese history on the drive inland, stops for coffee halfway, and adjusts as you go rather than to a coach schedule. The first estate is at Sabrosa, where you learn how the wine is made and how the region got here, taste several wines, and then eat: a full traditional Portuguese lunch, starter, main and dessert, poured with Douro red or white. The Douro was demarcated in 1756, before any other wine region anywhere, and UNESCO listed the terraces in 2001. After lunch the road winds towards Pinhão with a stop at one of the better viewpoints, then a fifty-minute cruise on a rabelo, the flat-bottomed boat that carried barrels downriver before the dams. The N222 along the south bank comes next, and the second estate is at Folgosa, where a winery guide takes you from the vines to the bottle and finishes with three more wines. Six tastings across the day, wines and port. Lunch is included; vegetarian and gluten-free versions need notice before the day. Pick-up from any hotel in central Porto or Gaia, or from the operator's office next to São Bento station. Bookings must be confirmed by email at least forty-eight hours ahead, and cancellations inside that window are charged in full. Guided in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish. A free Porto walking tour is included from the following day. The operator donates a meal to people in need for every tour booked.