Most visitors drive straight past Foz do Tua on the way to somewhere more famous. We spend a lot of our weekends there, and we think it is one of the most interesting corners of the valley. It is a tiny place where the Tua river meets the Douro, with an old railway story and…
Most people arrive at a Port tasting knowing two words: ruby and tawny. By the end they usually have a favourite, and it is rarely the one they expected. This is the short version of what we explain at Quinta da Levandeira. First, what makes Port “Port” Port is a fortified wine from the Douro….
Lists of “best Douro hotels” are easy to find. What they rarely say is that the choice of town changes your trip more than the choice of hotel. Here is how we would choose, as people who live in Alijó and drive these roads every day. Pinhão: in the middle of everything A small riverside…
The harvest is the most romantic time of the year in the Douro, and also the most misunderstood. Here is what it is like from the inside, for people who live here and know the families who work it. When is the harvest? These days, usually from late August into September. White grapes and lower,…
It is the question we get most often, usually from people with three or four days in Porto. Our honest answer: a day trip works, but only if you get the transport right. And if you can spare one night, the valley gives you much more. What a day trip really looks like Pinhão is…
Most guides say “May to October” and leave it there. That is true, but it hides the most useful part: the valley changes a lot from one month to the next, and the right month depends on what you want from the trip. Here is how the year looks from Alijó, where we live. The…
