Jantar de Fado & Tour Noturno

Enjoyed a great trip through the Douro Valley on our way to the two different wineries. The landscape is stunning, and our tour guide Marcel knew exactly the best places to stop and take photos, taste wine and eat. The wine and port wine we tasted was very good, so good in fact we had to bring some bottles of vintage home from both places. Looking forward to tasting them in 80 years (or weeks, or days). What I really enjoyed was learning more about how production is done, and seeing with my own eyes how such a winery operates. It's a lot of hard work, skills and patience. A little break in the middle of the day with a boat trip and a very good lunch in a small re-purposed schools a few miles beyond nowhere was very welcome. I think the format of the trip is excellent. We were 7 people in a spacious and comfortable Mercedes van with working aircondition and big windows so we didn't miss the view. I guess the wine helped a bit, but the whole group was in a really good mood at the end of the trip.

What a fantastic day out - to die for for wine-lovers. Helped by a very sunny day (particularly as it was the blackout day) and a great driver/ guide, Alex. The scenery in the Douro is epic. The two boutique wineries were great and the lunch was very tasty. The emphasis is on the tasting of wine, so stick to Porto for port tasting. We were in a van of 8 people but we travelled in a convoy with two other eights.

Our tour guide Philip was excellent, he made our day so very enjoyable. He is very knowledgable with the history and geography of the region, as well as the vineyards that we visited. The first winery that we went to they were very generous with the tastings. We stopped for a lovely lunch that we enjoyed. The Duoro River cruise was so scenic and the temperature was just right. We finished it off by having port tastings at another vineyard. Philip has a great sense of humour and was exceptionally helpful and pleasant, I would highly recommend him.