• Travelsignposts Home
  • Country Guides
  • City Guides
  • River Cruises
  • Europe Photos
  • About Us

River Cruises

  • Home
  • About River Cruises
  • Photos
  • Map of Europe
  • Site Map
  • Cruises
    • Rhine Danube River Cruises
    • France River Cruises
    • Germany River Cruises
    • Holland Belgium River Cruises
    • Italy River Cruises
    • Spain Portugal River Cruises
    • Russia Ukraine River Cruises
    • UK River Cruises
  • Riverboats
  • Sightseeing
  • Useful facts
  • News & Events
You are here: Home / Cruises / Spain Portugal River Cruises / See the Pristine Douro Valley on a Douro River Cruise

See the Pristine Douro Valley on a Douro River Cruise

By Helen Page 2 Comments

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

CRUISE THE DOURO RIVER FROM PORTO TO THE SPANISH BORDER AND VISIT SPAIN:

Douro River, Portugal

Douro River, Portugal

The Douro River is one of Europe’s most western rivers, flowing through Spain and Portugal into the Atlantic Ocean.  On a Douro River cruise, you’ll see restored palaces, historic cities, steeply-terraced vineyards and picturesque rural villages along one of Europe’s most charming and relatively lesser-travelled rivers.

Douro River Valley

Over the centuries, the Douro has carved a spectacularly wild and scenic valley through the Portuguese Highlands. As a result, it has also created its own Mediterranean-like microclimate, making it perfect for growing olives, almonds, oranges, figs, peaches and the valley’s most famous produce, grapes. The Douro Valley is the world’s oldest designated wine-producing region with Port being its most famous export. Most of us have heard of Mateus Rosé!  This iconic frizzante rosé wine is still being produced by the same family, but it has been made less sweet and more sparkling to meet modern wine tastes.

Douro River Cruise

All Douro River cruises start or finish the river section of their itinerary in Porto, founding place of Portugal’s famous port wine and the ‘City of Bridges’. Although many actually begin/end in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, and visit Coimbra, Portugal’s third largest city and the birthplace to six of Portugal’s kings, these parts of the itinerary are covered by motorcoach, as is the visit to Salamanca in Spain. In Porto, drop into a local cellar and enjoy a glass (or two) while learning about making and trading port.

Your cruise on the Douro River follows a wonderfully scenic path through deep-cleft gorges terraced with vineyards, past sleepy villages and a tranquil countryside of almond and citrus trees to the Spanish border.  Along the way, explore pousadas and quintas, pilgrimage sites and vineyards. This is probably one of the most comprehensive and enjoyable ways to see these areas of Portugal and Spain.

Douro River Cruise

Visiting Porto on a Douro River Cruise

Typical excursions along the way might include the 14th century Alpenduranda Monastery, a visit to the famously baroque Casa de Mateus (still owned by the Count of Vila Real), Lamego’s Gothic cathedral and 11th century castle, and a trip to the Spanish city of Salamanca, home to one of the oldest (13th C) universities in the world (Copernicus taught here) and one of Europe’s most impressive squares.

OUR ADVICE: The major cruise operators such as Uniworld, Viking, AmaWaterways, offer cruises on the Douro river and although there are now other players working the Douro, it is not overrun by river cruises as on the Rhine and Danube. Concentrate on the ship you want to travel on and the destinations visited (of course, there’s also price!). Be sure to check out our “Things to watch for“ page too!

Click here to get a free PDF of this post

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Spain Portugal River Cruises Tagged With: douro river, douro river cruises, douro valley, portugal river cruise, spain river cruise

avatar

About Helen Page

Helen Page is a prolific blogger and ardent traveller; she runs Travelsignposts with her professional writer and photographer husband Tony.

Comments

  1. avatarRed hen says

    March 24, 2015 at 10:59 pm

    This first photo with the beautiful bridge is captivating! May I know what city this is? Thank you for your lovely site, it’s a pleasure to visit!

    Reply
    • avatarTony Page says

      March 25, 2015 at 6:51 pm

      It’s taken from the new bridge crossing the river Tamega looking towards the old single carriageway stone bridge to the city of Amarante, well worth the detour as the whole district is quite attractive.
      And many thanks for your kind comments, it makes our work worthwhile!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

eNews and Updates

feedburner Sign up now to get emailed news as well as other site updates!

You can also find us on

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Plan and Book Your Trip


Get the Guerrilla Travel Photography ebook here now!

Latest Additions

  • Embarkation Day – Amsterdam to Budapest River Cruise
  • Amsterdam – The City of Canals
  • Cologne on the Rhine
  • An Evening Stop at Koblenz
  • Cruising the Romantic Middle Rhine
City Guides
Country Guides
River Cruises

Who is behind Travelsignposts?

Helen and Tony Page at Singapore Changi Airport

We're Helen and Tony Page, and we love travelling - lucky as we've been doing it for the last few decades!

Tony has long been a professional photographer and writer, but Helen now writes most of the posts and takes a lot of photos herself!

Travelsignposts is our main travel planning site, but we've just launched Travelsignposts China and Tony also runs the Travelsignposts Photo and Guerrilla Travel Photography web sites, as well as publishing the Take Better Digital Photos and Guerrilla Travel Photography eBooks.

Read more about Helen and Tony or contact them.

Other Countries

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • England
  • Estonia
  • Europe (General)
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • Ukraine

Resources

  • Take Better Digital Photos eBook Take Better Digital Photos eBook
  • Take Better Digital Photos Free eCourse
  • Travel Signposts Photo – our main travel photography site
  • Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook Guerrilla Travel Photography eBook

Copyright © 2022 ·Lifestyle Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in

Get a free PDF of this post!
Just enter your email address below and we'll send it to you immediately.

Please enter your Email Address