gentle pace | 8 nights | from $2,690 per person
Douro Valley Vacation Package: 8 Nights at a Gentle Pace
You unpack once. The valley comes past the window, and the walking you do each day is the walking you choose.
What the days ask of you
This trip is filed as gentle. Everything below is measured, not adjectives.
- Walking on an average day
- under a mile on the average day, and every step of it optional
- Longest stretch without a seat
- about thirty minutes between the mooring and the first shade
- What is under your feet
- cobbled quays, one steep ramp at two of the six stops
- Climbing
- none worth the name, and a minibus covers the one hill
- Altitude
- river level throughout
- Heat
- warm from June, genuinely hot on the terraces in July and August
- Times you move
- none. You unpack once and the vessel does the moving
- Who this is not for
- nothing about this trip rules anybody out, which is the point of it
What is included
- Eight nights aboard a small river vessel, outside cabin, two beds or one
- All meals aboard, and the table wine poured at lunch and dinner
- Six shore excursions, each with a shorter and a longer option published in advance
- One quinta visit with a tasting, reached by minibus rather than on foot
- Port transfers at both ends of the sailing
- A local representative reachable by telephone for the whole sailing
What is not included
- Flights to Porto and home again, which we quote separately once your dates are fixed
- Any night before or after the sailing, and there is usually a reason to want one
- Drinks outside meal service, and the bar aboard is not cheap
- Gratuities for the crew, which are handled at the end of the sailing
- Anything medical, including seasickness remedies
- The optional longer walk on two of the excursion days, which carries a supplement
What it costs
from $2,690 per person, on two people sharing.
That is the lowest figure we have actually placed this trip at in the last season. It moves with the month, the room or cabin grade, whether you travel alone and how far ahead you book. Flights are not in it unless this page says they are. The figure is confirmed in writing, with the operator named, before you commit to anything.
When this is worth doing, and when it is not
The vessel sails from April to October. May and late September give the valley its best light and its most comfortable temperatures. July and August are hot on the terraces and the shore excursions get moved earlier in the day to compensate.
This is not the trip if you want to move around a country. You will see one valley, thoroughly, from a boat. People who want three cities in eight nights are consistently disappointed by river sailings and it is better said now.
What gets settled when you confirm
The cabin deck, which changes the price more than anything else. Whether your two shore days take the shorter or the longer option, because the operator needs the count. Any dietary requirement, which has to reach the galley before departure rather than at the first meal. And the exact sailing date, since departures run weekly and the published figure is for the least expensive week in the season.