A Day in Douro

It's hard to believe, and frankly, a little embarrassing, that it took us two years after moving to Porto to find our way to the Douro Valley. Since it's so close, we have been delaying it perpetually, thinking we could go at our whim at any time. We finally decided to just go check it out, for what we were hoping for would be a calm and relaxing weekend trip.

We made reservations at Quinta do Tedo for a Sunday night stay. They have a nice website with a lot of information on it, but no online reservations. You need to email them to make one. Probably for the better, because I am pretty sure that they would have been fully booked otherwise. They only have 4 rooms, and only one was available that weekend for Sunday night.

We started driving shortly after our usual morning routine, and we immediately noticed that the Google Maps ETA was longer than we thought it would be. It was showing that N22, dubbed the most beautiful road in the world, was closed on the way to the hotel. We thought about risking it anyway, then thought better and decided to follow the directions as provided. I have to admit, it wasn't the most relaxing drive. It was fairly narrow at times, leading us to question whether it was a two-lane road after all. We have seen worse in Northern Portugal though, and there was barely any traffic. We passed through a few beautiful villages nestled among the mountains, and there were a few vistas along the way. In hindsight, it would have been nice to stop and take some photos, but I'm also not sure how safe it would have been to stop alongside a road so narrow.

We reached Quinta do Tedo shortly after noon. They were nice enough to let us know that the room would be ready before the usual check-in time and asked us to wait for 10 minutes or so. We wanted to grab some lunch instead of waiting idly, and the lady at the reception recommended a nearby place along the river for some snacks. We also asked them about the road closure: Apparently there was a big event that day in Régua, and they closed the road for a running event.

After spending a few minutes enjoying the sights from the quinta, we started driving alongside the river to have lunch at Foz do Távora. It is not a special place by any means, but we enjoyed it. The view is hard to beat, and it was early enough so we could enjoy it pretty much by ourselves quietly. We ordered a plate with cheeses and cold cuts, with a black eyed pea salad, and a couple of glasses of wine. The cheeses were the kind my spouse liked, and the salad was very simple and nice. In fact, we thought it'd be something we could make at home from time to time as well, and in fact, we've had it two or three times since then. The wines were unremarkable, but that is to expect when ordering by glass.

Our room was ready when we came back. It's clean and spacious, and we found the bed to be comfortable as well. We changed to a more appropriate outfit to hit a short hiking trail that loops around the quinta. It took us a little over an hour to finish it. It's very short and easy outside of a few steepish climbs and descents, something you wouldn't mind doing even after a couple of glasses of wine. It has some nice views of the Tedo river, a tributary of Douro, and also what the quinta is named after. I'd recommend you do it, but be warned that there is very little shade, so mind yourself if it's a hot and sunny day.

After resting a little bit, we drove to Pinhao, which is the last stop alongside the Douro train line. It also serves as the starting or ending point for many river cruises. It has a cute small train stop, some hotels and restaurants, and not much else. We don't think it's a place to spend more than an hour or two. We grabbed a couple of ice creams from a riverside café and sat in a small park there. I say ice cream, but I actually grabbed a Calippo after I don't know how many years. It was good in a way that only bad things can be. I don't regret my decision, but maybe not again for a long time.

We spent some more time in and around the property after getting back before hitting the tasting room for the tasting included for B&B guests at 18:00. We didn't upgrade to a more premium selection, so they served us their default selection of 2 Douro reds, an LBV and a tawny. Not that we are experts, but none of them are worth writing about beyond being typical for their varieties. We did, however, learn that Tinta Roriz, a fairly common variety for Portuguese wines, is the same variety as Aragonez used in Alentejo wines, and the Tempranillo. I guess it shows how ignorant we are of Iberian wine, in spite of drinking so much of it. We should do better.

They sat us alongside a German couple that were maybe around 10 years older than us. They were doing a road trip from North to Southern Portugal, with stops in VDC, Porto, Douro, Aveiro, and Óbidos, eventually making their way to the Algarve. It sounded like a fun trip; we wouldn't mind doing that ourselves. It was a fun chat, and I don't think we would have minded spending more time with them. It's also not the first time we thought that we generally get along better with folks older than us.

A bit later, we made our way to Familia Geadas Bistro Terrace for our dinner, which I will talk about more in the next post.

The next morning, we started driving back. We were able to drive on N22 since it was no longer closed. I don't know if it's the most beautiful road in the world, but it's certainly up there. I think it may have been the most impressive one that I drove on since the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia. We took a detour in Régua just to drive around in it and check it out. There are a couple of restaurants there that are on our list to check out. We're not sure yet whether it's worth spending a night in, but since it's also accessible by train, we could also do day trips from Porto to get here.

I'm not sure if we would come back to Quinta do Tedo specifically, but we will definitely come back to this region again. It is difficult to overstate how beautiful it looks. A lot of times, we see amazing photographs of an area, only to be left underwhelmed when we see it in person. This part of Douro was the exact opposite; it's difficult to convey its beauty with photographs. It's just stunningly beautiful, no matter where you look, in a way that is very difficult to capture in frames. Still, I hope you enjoy looking at the photographs here.