Douro Valley by Rail
Five days from Porto up the river on the Linha do Douro, through the oldest demarcated wine region in the world.
Rail Journey · 5 days · May, Jun, Sep, Oct
The Douro is usually driven or cruised, and both miss the line: the last seventy kilometres of the Linha do Douro run at the water's edge, below the terraces, on a track that has no road equivalent. Porto for two days, then the train to Pinhao, then the Tua branch and a quinta stay. The region was demarcated in 1756, which makes it the oldest protected wine appellation anywhere, and the terraces cut into schist by hand are why it is a World Heritage landscape rather than just a pretty valley.
Day by day
- Day 1
Porto
The granite city above the river, on foot and mostly downhill.
14:00Sao Bento station and the Clerigos tower
Twenty thousand azulejo tiles covering the station hall with scenes from Portuguese history, and the tower gives you the whole river bend.
The station concourse is free to walk into. The tower is 240 steps and the queue moves quickly.
17:00Livraria Lello and Ribeira
A 1906 neo-gothic bookshop with a crimson staircase, and then the medieval waterfront below it under the Luis I bridge.
The bookshop requires a timed ticket which is redeemable against a book. Ribeira is steeply downhill from it.
- Day 2
The lodges
Across the river to where every bottle of port in the world was aged until recently.
10:00Vila Nova de Gaia port lodges
Wine was required by law to be aged on this bank until 1986, which is why every famous name has a lodge within a few hundred metres of the others.
Book at least one tasting ahead. Tawny and colheita are the styles most people have never had properly.
15:00Serralves and the Casa da Musica
Alvaro Siza's contemporary art museum in a 1930s estate, and Rem Koolhaas's concert hall across town: modern Porto is worth a day of its own.
The art deco villa and the eighteen hectares of park are as good as the Siza museum.
- Day 3
Up the Linha do Douro
Two and a half hours on the line, the last hour of it right on the water.
09:15Porto to Pinhao by train
From Regua the track runs at river level below the terraces the whole way, with no road on that bank: the view exists only from the train or the water.
Sit on the right after Regua. Regional services are unreserved and cheap; the historic steam service runs summer weekends only.
13:30Pinhao station azulejos and a quinta tasting
The station platform is tiled with panels of the harvest as it was worked a century ago, and the quintas above it are still working the same terraces.
Most quintas need a booking. During the September harvest some still tread by foot in granite lagares and will let you join.
- Day 4
The upper valley
The Tua branch, the Sao Salvador viewpoint, and the rock art at Coa.
09:00Miradouro de Sao Salvador do Mundo
The Valeira gorge from 500 metres above it, where the river was impassable until the rock was blasted out in 1792.
A short walk between seven chapels along the ridge. The road up is narrow.
13:30Coa Valley rock art
Palaeolithic engravings on open-air schist, up to 25,000 years old, saved when a dam that would have flooded them was cancelled in 1995.
Access to the engravings is by booked four-wheel-drive tour only, in small groups, and the best viewing is in low sun.
- Day 5
Down the river
The train back, or the boat as far as Regua, and one last Porto evening.
10:00Rabelo boat, Pinhao to Regua
The flat-bottomed rabelos carried the barrels down to Gaia before the dams; from the water the terraces stack up on both banks at once.
Two hours downstream through the Bagauste lock. Departures are seasonal.
20:00Dinner in Porto
The last meal is the one to spend on the still wines, which is where the valley's best growers have put their attention for the last twenty years.
Vinho verde and Douro reds rather than port with dinner; the region makes both.
Questions
- How long is the Douro Valley by Rail itinerary?
- The Douro Valley by Rail itinerary runs 5 days and covers 10 stops across Porto, Peso da Regua, Pinhao, Vila Nova de Foz Coa.
- When is the best time to do the Douro Valley by Rail itinerary?
- May, Jun, Sep, Oct is the best window for the Douro Valley by Rail itinerary.
- What happens on day one of the Douro Valley by Rail itinerary?
- Day one is porto: The granite city above the river, on foot and mostly downhill.
Sources
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