Beautiful region, great walks and wine The Douro Valley is a spectacular region to discover with stunning views and lovely walks. On either side of the Douro River terraced vineyards cover the landscape - this is the only area in the world where Port wine is produced and on this holiday we learnt about the Portuguese history and culture surrounding the process. Several of our walks ended up at a local Quinta (wine farm) where we had the opportunity for wine tasting with a lunch on the terrace which everyone enjoyed. It was a very relaxing and interesting week of walking, with varied routes each day. We barely saw another walker on any of the routes so it felt as though we had the region to ourselves!
Tour very well organised, ebikes were excellent and had two rear packs and one off front. Easy to navigate with the downloads to phone and no internet needed once downloaded. Also provided with paper tour guide books. Hotels were very nice and very central to towns. Breakfast and dinner meals provided either at the Hotel or restaurants near by. Highly recommend this tour. Roads in Portugal mostly cobble stones. A few hills but bikes able to climb hills easily. Average day 50km.
First, a couple of days in Porto before the trip - what a fantastic city! Great energy, diverse people and buildings, fascinating and quirky places - and brilliant music, food, shops and markets! The riding was gentle, with so many changing views of the Atlantic, sandy beaches, rolling fields, cliffs, woodlands and grassy swamps. Someone once likened cycling as being like a meditation - I definitely was there! And cycling with such a bunch of lovely people was a joy - despite our varied backgrounds from so many different locations, there was a commonality in our outlook and spirit and humour - we made some great friendships and had such fun! But it all worked so well due to three amazing group leaders - Armando, Ines and Marianna. Due to them, everything was so well organised - daily briefings, food snacks in beautiful locations, full scale lunches with amazing salads, lots of chats, gentle banter and laughter! Lisbon was beautiful, we should have had longer - but then we have another excuse to revisit this wonderful country! All in all, it was a Belter of a Trip!