Guimarães & Braga Tour

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.

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.

We throughly enjoyed this terrific Douro Valley wine-tasting tour with Jose. Jose picked us up in a very comfortable Mercedes-Benz minivan in downtown Porto, drove us to the Douro Valley, and guided us through visits to two nice vineyards/wineries. This tour had everything — quality table wines and port wines, a pleasant boat ride on the river, a delicious luncheon of Portuguese fare, and beautiful scenery at every turn! The tour is very well-designed, and Jose is an expert tour guide. First, we visited the Quinta de Santa Eufemia, a family-owned winery where they still process the harvest in the traditional way, by stomping the grapes in large, granite tanks. We tasted their red and white table wines and two port wines — delicious! Next we visited the picturesque village of Pinhão and enjoyed a 50-minute boat ride on the Douro River in a vintage cargo boat, now powered by electric engines. We finished the tour with a visit to Casa Dos Barros, another family-owned winery, in the village of Sabrosa. We enjoyed a lunch of Bacalhau à Brás and a pork dish with red and white table wines, followed by chocolate cake and a 10-year tawny port for dessert. We tasted the 20-year and 30-year tawny ports in their shop after lunch. We also were surprised to learn that Sabrosa is the birthplace of Ferdinand Magellan. The home in which Magellan was born still stands, around the corner from the winery. We enjoyed spending the day with Jose, and we especially enjoyed conversing with him over lunch. We think Cooltour Oporto is a top-flight company. We learned that the other couple in our small-group tour cancelled at the last minute, due to an illness, but Cooltour Oporto still honored our reservation — essentially giving us a private tour. Wonderful tour guide, wonderful tour, wonderful tour company! Highest recommendation!