Upper DouroWine RegionUNESCO Heritage

We encourage you to arrive a few days early to enjoy Portugal before our Expedition. Our hotel for this first night in Porto is the Hotel Moov Porto Centro. At 3 pm, in the hotel breakfast room, you will meet your Douro Kayak guide and receive a detailed explanation of the expedition. At 4 pm, a local guide will lead you on a 3-hour walking tour of the Historic Centre of Porto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We’ll end our first night with dinner in a typical Porto restaurant.

After an early breakfast today, our adventure really begins with a train ride on the Linha do Douro. We’ll meet at the São Bento train station at 8:45, so we have time to look at the excellent tiles, which are hand-painted tile scenes of historical events in northern Portugal. We’ll then board our train to Pocinho. Upon arriving at the end of the line in Pocinho, we will have lunch at a family-run restaurant, then visit the Prehistoric Rock Art Museum (https://www.arte-coa.pt/). Rock art is mankind’s oldest graphic memory, and the Foz Coa Valley is a Rock Art World Heritage Site. The museum is located at the confluence of the Douro and the Fiz Coa Rivers, and the area seems to have been considered a magical place, where over 5,000 stone engravings have been discovered. The view from the Museum alone is worth the visit. Tonight, we will stay at a beautiful working wine estate that was once owned by the Templar Knights, where we will also have dinner.

Today we will have our first paddle on the wonderful Douro River. We’ll get an early start to avoid midday headwinds. Today, our journey will take us through one of the most beautiful and isolated parts of the river. Along the way, we’ll stop a couple of times for a brief swim. Our lunch will be a picnic at our take-out for the day. After lunch, we will drive to our lodgings, where we’ll spend two blissful nights. In the afternoon, we will have a sauna and a swim in the pool. Dinner will be nearby.

Today we have another beautiful and relaxing day. After breakfast, we paddle down the river for about 2 miles to the most famous Quinta on the river. (http://www.quintadovesuvio.com) The history of port wine and the Douro River would be very different without the Quinta da Vesúvio. The Symington family now owns this Quinta and many others in the Upper Douro, and here they produce some of their finest wines. Past the Quinta da Vesuvio, we pass Quinta de Vargelas and go on to Ferradosa. At take-out, we will have another wonderful picnic. After lunch, and if there is time, we'll visit a castle first documented in 960 AD. We’ll then return to our lodgings. Dinner will be nearby.

The paddle today will not be forgotten. The Valeira Cataract was the greatest obstacle to navigation on the Douro River till the first great hydraulic project was carried out between 1780 and 1791. This project was to demolish the falls, and they succeeded in enabling navigation up the Douro to the border with Spain. This made possible an essential development in the wine industry and, in fact, was the project's reason. This incredible project didn’t eliminate the river's dangers; it only made passage possible, but it still carried significant risks. It's worth noting that the wine casks were only half-filled, so when a boat struck the rocks, they floated and were saved. The man who made the first detailed map of the Douro, Baron Forrester, drowned in this place 70 years after it was demolished. All five locks on the Douro River are the same size and allow boats up to 272 ft. in length, 37 ft. beam, and a draft of 12.5 ft. Today, we will pass through the Valeira Gorge via a lock that lowers us 108 ft. This is one of the most impressive locks in the world, and it’s part of the Valeira Dam, which was finished in 1975. In the lock, we will be lowered to continue our journey down the river. Going through a lock in a kayak for the first time is an enjoyable experience, and you’ll enjoy it, I’m sure. After the lock, we’ll paddle to the small village of Tua. First, we'll have a picnic lunch, then head to our hotel, where we'll relax and maybe swim in the pool before dinner.

This is our last day on the river, and we’ll again be off to an early start. We’ll paddle to Pinhão, an important wine-producing center. Today, you will paddle past some of the finest wine estates along the river. At Pinhao, we’ll take out and have lunch. After lunch, we’ll go to the train station, where you will see the excellent ceramic tile work, and take the train back to Porto. An Important note: Our itinerary is always subject to change due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Our objective is to spend our six days fully enjoying the river and not be stressed by rigid planning.