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Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 6:59 pm
by Kelly Maurer
Hello,
My husband and I are planning on spending our honeymoon/1st anniversary in the Douro Valley but want to have an intimate experience that isn't too touristy. We would really enjoy to "live" there for a week or two so are not seeking inclusive hotels or pre-planned trips with a group or anything like that. We are thinking that it would be fun to rent a cottage/home but also see the appeal of going with a Bed & Breakfast or boutique hotel.
Things we would like:
Romantic
Scenic
Nice rooms/accommodations
Near wineries
Near amazing food/restaurants
At least some level of housekeeping
Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences to share as we start our research?
Thank you so much in advance
Best,
Kelly
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:08 pm
by Eric Ifune
On the Port Harvest Tour, we just visited Quinta de la Rosa who have recently opened some very nice rooms. Part of a working quinta with views overlooking the Douro. I'd love to stay sometime.
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:53 pm
by Kelly Maurer
Thanks for the great recommendation!
The more we look at places, the more we are thinking the boutique hotels/villas are the way to go. While we like the coziness of the cabins/houses we are finding, we aren't willing to completely abandon certain level of luxury/pampering for our honeymoon. If we could find a smaller hotel or B&B with more traditional (instead of modern) architecture that would be ideal.
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:36 am
by Daniel Jewesbury
Quinta de la Rosa has some lovely, very private separate holiday lets - have a look at the 'Amarela' house on their website. These are self-contained. There are also two great suites next to the family's own house. There's another separate house too, which is further up in the vineyard and a bit more secluded. This is an excellent place, and Pinhao is a perfect location for getting around the Douro. But if you have to spend a night in Porto at the beginning or end of your trip, spend a night in the Yeatman. It's fantastic.
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 1:15 pm
by Moses Botbol
Quinta Portal has a lovely hotel on their property that is quite lovely. Excellent restaurant is also attached. From that as a home base, you should be able to check out several quintas.
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:54 am
by Andy Velebil
Quinta do Tedo is awesome. A small Quinta on the Douro. It's basically 5 rooms converted from the old winery on the property. It's a real working quinta and it's nicely situated between Pinhao and Regua. That makes getting around a whole lot easier. They have various things you can do like kayaking, biking, pool, etc.
Otherwise, a bit bigger B&B is Quinta Nova. But it's really out of the way and not easy to visit other wineries without a long drive (about 40 minutes to Pinhao).
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 9:43 am
by Kelly Maurer
Thanks for all of the great suggestions... I have sent out some inquiries on the places you have suggested.
Also hoping for some input: The plan is to spend two weeks in Portugal sometime in April or May: 1 week-ish in the Douro Valley, 1 week-ish in Lisbon. Do you think that there will be enough to do in the Douro Valley to keep us entertained for a week? We want relaxation but still want to be able to do something almost everyday.
Thanks again!
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:53 am
by Miguel Simoes
Suggest you stay in Porto 1/2 nights. The Yeatman is gorgeous/fantastic and would be a real treat!
Am not a Douro Valley expert, but would guess you'd be able to enjoy it for the remaining 5-6 days :) TAP Portugal (the airline) has an overview of where to stay in the Douro Valley in their last on board magazine edition. You may find it useful.
Would recommend May over April. It rains a ton more in April and temps are def nicer in May wo being hot.
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Sat Nov 30, 2013 7:01 pm
by Kelly Maurer
Hey guys!
I just thought I would come back and fill you in on our official travel itinerary! We wound up working with a travel agent because the options were too overwhelming. She didn't
quite get the "small boutique" idea we were going for, but it's our honeymoon and we were sold on the "living it up" aspect. I've never been to Europe before, and I am so unbelievably excited!
May 8
Casa Do Visconde de Chanceleiros, Pinhao, 4 nights
May 12
The Yeatman, Porto, 2 nights
May 14
Olissippo Lapa Palace, Lisbon, 5 nights
If anyone has any tips, must-sees, favorite port wineries, or suggestions of any nature for our itinerary please let us know!!
On another note, we had a GREAT Thanksgiving with some fantastic ports. See the pic

We had the 1994 Vintage Sandeman after dinner, saving the 1985 Vintage Dows for Christmas.
Happy Holidays everyone!!
Kelly

Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 8:53 am
by Miguel Simoes
Sounds wonderful! Pls let us know how it turns out.
Thanks for sharing :)
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:27 am
by Glenn E.
Looks like a great trip! You're going to have a great time in the land of Port. :)
In and around Pinhao:
Vintage House Hotel - worth a visit even if you aren't staying there
Quinta de la Rosa - you might have to arrange a tour as I don't think they take drop-in visitors
Quinta do Noval - you'll need a cab, but the estate is iconic and worth the trip. Call to arrange a tour.
In and around Porto:
If you can only visit two lodges, make sure Ramos Pinto is one of them. The tour includes their original headquarters which has been turned into a very nice museum. For a second lodge, Sandeman is right on the waterfront and has a very polished and professional tour. If you're willing to venture a little farther, Graham's lodge is on the west end of the river district and has been recently remodeled.
Torre dos Clerigos - if you look at Porto from Vila Nova de Gaia, you can't miss it. It's the tall tower that rises above the city. If you like old buildings, take a tour and climb up to the top for some fantastic views.
Bufete Fase - this is the smallest hole-in-the-wall restaurant you've ever seen (11 seats, and they had to work hard to cram that many in), and it is very hard to find. But they make the best Francesinha in all of Porto so it's worth finding! 1147 Rua Santa Catarina, which is up the hill a couple of blocks past the end of the walking district. Tell them you heard about them on FTLOP.
The restaurant at the Taylor lodge, which is very close to the Yeatman. It's a hike to get up there from the waterfront, but if you get some nice weather have lunch on the patio for the best view of the bridge. Absolutely fabulous. The Yeatman's views can probably rival it now, but the Yeatman wasn't finished the last time I was in Gaia.
That will get you started... I'm sure others will have lots of recommendations as well!
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:20 pm
by Roy Hersh
You are going to love Lapa Palace!!!
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 8:08 am
by Kelly Maurer
Wow! Thanks Glen for such a GREAT list of recommendations. I've just gone ahead and printed out your post to include in our travel binder
We are extremely excited and can not wait for May!
-Kelly
Re: Honeymoon in Douro Valley: Seeking accommodation recommendations
Posted: Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:52 am
by C McArdle
First congratulations on your marriage and on your choice of honeymoon destination.
My wife and I spent our honeymoon in June in Portugal. Also for two weeks and it was also my wife's first time to Europe. It absolutely did not disappoint although I believe it may have spoiled her, as I've traveled often in Europe and Portugal is truly special.
Pinhao
Ditto the Vintage house as a must visit. It’s beautiful and the service is awesome. we weren't staying there and the "concierge" still went out of his way arranging a boat trip for us even walking us down to the dock on to a boat (pipadouro was the company) and introducing us to the captain so we could make custom arrangements. Another thing we really enjoyed was arranging a port and food tasting at the Vintage House you can email Anabela Barata at
wineacademy.vintagehouse@cshotelsandresorts.com and set up any kind of tasting you like. I'm an amateur ham and salami curer and this tasting was one of the highlights of the trip. We stayed in Folgosa so I don't know too much about the vineyards on the north side of the river. If you have time in Folgosa across the street from where we stayed is Restaurante DOC
http://www.ruipaula.com run by a Porto born celebrity chef. We actually never made it over there but it seemed extremely popular. We opted for eating in our hotel The Hotel Folgosa
http://www.hotelfolgosadouro.pt which I would recommend, although not to go out of the way for, the food was very good certainly Portuguese and well priced. Two quintas we enjoyed in that area were Quinta do Tedo and quinta de santo antonio the later also having a ridiculously delicious cured meats plate we enjoyed with a nice chilled rose outside overlooking the Douro.
Porto again Glenn's spot on with visits to Bufete Fase and Taylor. If you decide to visit Taylor ask the bartender at the Yeatman to make the arrangement. We did and he was able to secure us a tour and mid-level tasting for no charge, just because there is a relationship between the Yeatman and Taylor people. The bartender we befriended was a young man who spent a good amount of time in the states and was as professional and polished as they come. We stayed at the Yeatman and it was one of the most impressive hotels I've stayed at. It was our first stop of our trip and it set the tone for opulence. Don't hesitate to request anything from the staff. I did, and would recommend contacting them before hand. You can try and contact Beatriz who is the wine director to inquire about a wine dinner being scheduled when you are there. We were lucky enough to have her join us at our table for one of the wine dinners and she is knowledgeable and fun. It is hard for me to recommend one port house as honestly we went to a LOT of them. Would again recommend the Sandeman's tour for its professionalism and if you'd like they could arrange a tour of their Douro facility while you were out there as well. Also in the evening the square in front is lively and you can get a beer and a blanket when you get chilly is provided (this blew my wife’s mind). We mainly ate what we could get from markets saving the time and money for wine consumption. The biggest market Mercado Bolhao is nice to visit even just to walk around. Another market that bridges the gap between market and restaurant is Mercearia das Flores
http://www.merceariadasflores.com/ on Rua das Flores. We really enjoyed eating there and definitely would recommend it. For restaurants we were quickly recommended going to Matosinhos by locals we met through a mutual friend. We ate at mariazinha
http://www.restaurantemariazinha.com/ it was upstairs and in a strip mall and it was probably a 20$ cab ride at least. It was awesome they spoke no english and the menu is a guy walking up to you with a plate of fish. You don't order what kind of fish you want you point to the fish you want. It was great and the guy understanding that we were struggling with our Portuguese just brought food. (In some restaurants as soon as you sit down someone will bring over a few little plates of food. These will wind up on your bill so if it’s something we weren’t interested in eating we just politely let them know). At the end after we paid and were waiting for our taxi he brought three glasses of tawny and we sat together in silence watching for our taxi out the window.
I am no help with Lisbon we spent one evening there before flying out the next morning. We went to Alfamo neighborhood to find a Fado place and it was neat although touristy. I'm glad we did it but wouldn't necessarily recommend the place we wandered into.
As you might imagine we were excited just to write this post and hope that you love your experience as much as we did.