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!
not sure what you mean? review the name of the trip? Fine! A varied selection of walks around the island. 3 out of 4 hotels were excellent - the second one was a bit dark and cold. Length of walks were good - about 7 miles. Pace for me was a bit slow. One of the walks (high up near the tops) was frustrating as there was no view over the hedges. The replacement walk as the highest peak was closed was in fact my favourite (on the Friday)
An adventure around every corner, beautiful scenery, amazing food and a real feeling of getting away from it all. Met so many people walking their pilgrimage to Santiago which was amazing and made us feel part of something bigger than just a cycle trip.Some long days in the saddle and a good variation of surfaces to mix things up. The variation in landscape was also great. One day would be zipping down mountain roads listening to cow bells, the next mile would be in vineyards, another day you could cover plenty of miles along smooth cycle paths alongside the mighty Minho river looking across at Spain, the next bumping along cobbles and tracks in fragrant eucalyptus woodland or dodging joggers along the boardwalks next to the Atlantic. Awesome trip!