Douro Wine Tour - Easy Level Bike Tour

This cycling tour can be made all year. We recommend doing it between the months of September and October, especially during the wine production.

A cycling path that combines hospitality in wine producing farms, with bike rides through the vineyards and olive groves, producing Port wine and olive oil from Portugal. With a resting day off to visit the cave paintings and its museum in Vila Nova de Foz Côa, you must take this journey along the incredible Douro region, considered natural heritage by UNESCO.

Tour Description: Very Easy (self guided / support van / guided with support van)

Estimated KM: extension of 63miles/102 km and 1895 m of cumulative ascents.

Day 1: Porto – Pinhão (110 km, train transfer)
Day 2: Pinhão – S. João da Pesqueira (23 km)
Day 3: S. João da Pesqueira – Penedono (22 km)
Day 4: Penedono – Marialva (27 km)
Day 5: Marialva – Vila Nova de Foz Côa (22 km)
Day 6: Vila Nova de Foz Côa
Day 7: Vila Nova de Foz Côa – Pocinho (8 Km); transfer train to Porto

Details:

Day 1: Porto – Pinhão
First, we’ll travel by train following the coastal waterfront of the Douro River. Fortunately, we shall attend at the hotel’s reception to get our bicycles, where we’ll have one night with breakfast included. You’ll have enough free time to visit the Pinhão railway station, its main church and, if you would like to enjoy sightseeing, having a cruise on our River Douro.

Day 2: Pinhão – S. João da Pesqueira (23 km)
Always by road with an acceptable and good inclination’s rise, we’re going to cycle along the incredible view of the Douro River, entering through Portuguese landscape heritage of humanity. Be marveled with the vineyards of the Douro and its cultivation. Our hospitality will be in São João da Pesqueira, having the chance to visit the castle and the sanctuary of S. Salvador do Mundo, where you can get one of the most beautiful scenarios in this region. Visit the famous sun house which once belonged to the wealth family “Pintos”, allowing you to get acquainted with the activities of Port Wine production and having a wine tasting event.

Day 3: S. João da Pesqueira – Penedono (22 km)
Our cycling journey continues throughout the green landscape of the Douro region, surrounded by vineyards. Our hospitality shall be in Penedono. You can visit the castle and explore Sírigo, which holds a circular route that
takes the traveler through the neighboring villages and outskirts, such as the villages of Ferronha and A-do-Bispo.

Day 4: Penedono – Marialva (27 km)
Our route departs from the Douro River heading towards South, finding our daily hospitality in Marialva. You can visit the castle of four towers and the incredible church of Santiago. A land full of castles and with history sites, being classified as a one of several historical villages of Portugal.

Day 5: Marialva – Vila Nova de Foz Côa (22 km)
The bicycle route will involve returning to the vineyards again, but now we can also watch the astonishing olives, another important Portuguese heritage, used especially as a sauce for refined dishes. Our route approaching the Douro River will be traversing its highest part, ending with an accommodation in Vila Nova de Foz Côa, a very well-known site for its pre-historic paintings.

Day 6: Vila Nova de Foz Côa
You’ll have enough free time to rest or ride freely around Foz Côa, enjoying the olives and vineyards. Later, you can embark on an expedition with a 4x4 vehicle to visit the pre-historic cave paintings and the Côa Museum or a boat cruise. Our hospitality shall be in Vila Nova de Foz Côa.

Day 7: Vila Nova de Foz Côa – Pocinho (8 Km)
At 14:30, we shall return our bicycles and at 15h00 we’ll return by train to Porto. The train route is an unforgettable journey, because it makes the level of the river at the foot of the slopes of the Douro’s vineyards. We can enjoy this unique landscape of the Douro vineyards, where in the 18th Century the boatmen used to transport the wine barrels along this river and them stock them in the Port Wine cellars, in Porto.

On day 6 there is an option to do a Douro river Boat cruise.