Portugal Guide
The Douro Valley
The Rio Douro ("River of Gold") winds for over 200km from the Spanish border to Porto and the sea, with port wine lodges and tiny villages dotted above the intricately terraced hillsides. Once a wild and unpredictable river, it has been gradually tamed since the eighteenth century and now makes a spectacularly beautiful journey, above all if you travel by cruise boat or by rail, on the Douro line itself or its narrow-gauge branches.
Highlights
1 Amarante A dreamy riverside town that you can reach by narrow-gauge railway.
2 Pinhão Road and rail hug the Rio Douro as far as this beautifully sited port-producing town.