A long Porto weekend, and the beauty of Portugal

We decided to take a trip to the Douro Valley at the end of May, as we’ve been told it gets very hot there in the summer.  

Joe had just read about it when a new Six Senses opened there, and it looked beautiful so I thought “why not?”

We flew into Lisbon and drove up to Porto (about 3 hours), which sits at the mouth of the Duoro River. The drive is easy, I’d highly recommend doing this instead of bus/train/etc.  We stopped for a delicious lunch at Praia da Luz, their indoor dining menu is superb and they also have beach dining.

After lunch we drove into downtown Porto and did some sightseeing.  It’s a very walkable city with an “Old European” feeling.  We arrived in downtown Porto around 2:30/3-ish and the traffic in downtown Porto is horrendous (old, winding one-way streets that were jammed) with many parking garages full, I’d recommend flipping what we did, sight-seeing in the morning and taking a later lunch.  We had a good time, anyway, and enjoyed the old architecture.  

After sightseeing in Porto we drove just under an hour to Casa da Calçada, a Relaix & Châteaux hotel on the Duoro River with a Michelin-starred restaurant in Amarante. The hotel was built in the 16th century as a palace for the Earl of Redondo and has lovely pools and gardens. We started our evening with cocktails on the terrace overlooking the river and old town followed by a wonderful dinner at their restaurant, Largo do Paço.

The next two days I hired Ecotours Portugal to show us around the Duoro Valley and its quintas (wineries).  Our driver was good and knowledgeable.  The drive up the valley was absolutely stunning.

We stopped at the small, picturesque town of Pinhão to visit their historic railway station that has traditional blue and white painted tiles called azulejo.

The first quinta we visited was Quinta do Bonfim – a beautiful Quinta just outside Pinhão.    We got their regular tasting and then ordered s few vintage tastings along with the lady running the tasting room’s favorites.  Delicious and glad we weren’t driving!

After lunch we went to Quinta da Roêda, who makes Croft’s Port.  I wasn’t to say that this was the most picturesque of the quintas, but they were all so gorgeous that it’s hard to compare!  We had a great time tasting here, outdoors with a very laid-back atmosphere, and the port was fantastic. Our last stop was at Quinta do Seixo, which serves Sandeman port.  The views are as good as the port there!  The main image at the top of this blog post was taken here.  We had their traditional tasting plus a few extras we wanted to try.

After a long day of port tasting we headed back to Casa da Calçada and took a dip in the pool before heading out to dinner at Restaurante A Eira in Amarante.  It is a highly rated restaurant near our hotel, we didn’t want to go too far after long day.

The next morning we drove an hour and checked into the Six Senses Duoro Valley.  It is a gorgeous property located in the heart of the valley with a scenic trail that goes by the river and through vineyards.  You MUST stay here if you visit the area.  We spent most of the day lounging around the hotel and enjoying the pool.  In the evening we enjoy a port and local wines tasting in the hotel’s wine library before having an amazing dinner on the terrace – it was one of those meals that, despite ordering 3 rounds appetizers I just couldn’t live without two main courses  and still somehow found room for dessert!  To end the evening perfectly, we followed dinner with digestifs while listening to some mellow live music at hotel lounge.

We spent the next morning relaxing, wandering the scenic trail, and lounging by the pool at the hotel. For lunch we went to D.O.C., an amazing restaurant on the Duoro River recommended by Michelin.  The food was amazing.

After DOC we went to Quinta de Santa Eufémia, a small family-owned winery situated high in a valley overlooking the river.  We were greeted by the 4th and 5th generation of owners, who showed us around the winery and taught us about the rich history of port wine.  It was a perfect stop and we left with several delicious bottles.  You must contact them in advance for an appointment, as it is still a small family-run business so they only open their quinta when they are expecting guests, but it is definitely a stop worth planning into your trip.

We also stopped at Quinta Do Vallado, but they were going to make us wait 45 minutes for their hourly group tour and wouldn’t let us taste their port without attending the tour (we generally prefer not to do the tours) and were a bit unfriendly, so we skipped them and decided to head back to Six Senses relax for the evening before our 3-hour drive back to Lisbon in the morning.

The drive back to Lisbon was scenic and pleasant.  We used Waze to navigate and saw there was a decent-sounding local restaurant on the side of the road about 15 minutes past where I was starting to get hungry.  Most of the road stops are fast food, but this one was good, local cooking.  Not amazing but good by road-side stop standards.

When we got to Lisbon we checked into our hotel, a chic boutique hotel located on the posh Avenida da Liberdadenamed Hotel Valverde.  It’s in an historic city mansion with a pool and bar/lounge in the back courtyard. The staff were very helpful and the room was decorated elegantly.  

We had dinner at AdLib across the street, which is modern gastronomic fare.   The presentations were “interesting” but somewhat detracted from the food, which was delicious and fresh.

Afterward we stopped by Sommelier wine bar, about a black and a half away down a side street.  

It’s stylish inside with comfortable seating and a lot of wines “on tap”.  We tried a few wines and ports that the sommelier (hehe, sommelier at Sommelier) and had a sinfully delicious creamy dessert.  We were planning on stopping by Red Frog Speakeasy after that, but were too exhausted so we headed back to the hotel, also about a block away.

Following Belém we took a taxi over to the Alfama neighborhood, visiting 18th century Santo António à Sé Cathedraland the ancient Castelo de São Jorge, whose first fortification was built in 48 BC with additions made through the 17th century.

From there we walked around the Baixa-Chiado shopping district, which was very touristy, but we found a hip rooftop restaurant/bar for lunch at the Hotel Do Chiado.  The views overlooking Lisbon were amazing.

On our walk back to the hotel we decided to take a detour, passing through the Praça Marquês de Pombal and having some fresh-made ice cream at The Four Seasons Hotel.  The Four Seasons was the other hotel we had considered staying at, we were glad we were staying at the Hotel Valverde – the Four Seasons was a bit dated and the service a little “off”.  It clearly wasn’t cared for as much as some of their other locations, but still a nice stop for an afternoon snack on their terrace.

I then had a crab soup and Joe had a salad (as usual) – if I was to do it again I’d have skipped these.  They were OK, but the neighboring table’s prawns looked better and the main course was really the showstopper!  We split a gigantic lobster – not sure how we finished it but we did!

Then we shipped out early the next morning, back in New York City by lunch time!