Cruise on the Douro in Portugal

From Porto to the Douro Valley, a fully planned itinerary for a customisable holiday

A vis­it to the city of Por­to, before being trained on how to steer the house­boat you’ve rent­ed, will be your first enchant­i­ng hol­i­day expe­ri­ence. With its beach­es and his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ments, live­ly dis­tricts and shop­ping streets, the city of Por­to has no short­age of attrac­tions to enjoy.

Take the time to enjoy the sim­ple things in life aboard your house­boat, nav­i­gat­ing at a sooth­ing pace to allow you to admire the land­scapes you trav­el through. The Douro mean­ders for more than 200 kilo­me­tres through spec­tac­u­lar scenery : a World Her­itage Site. This is the place that, since 1756, has pro­duced one of the old­est appel­la­tions in the world : Port wine.

Discover an art of living aboard a licence-free boat with Les Canalous

Every vil­lage you pass dur­ing your water­way cruise will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty to vis­it one of the region’s winer­ies. And with 40,000 hectares of vines, this is cer­tain­ly an inter­est­ing wine-pro­duc­ing area. Bring some of the pre­cious bev­er­age back on board with you, along with local culi­nary spe­cial­i­ties. Your water­way cruise will thus become a real gas­tro­nom­ic voyage.

Admire the pata­mares, cul­ti­va­tion ter­races that have shaped the land­scape of the val­ley, and soak up the mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence of trav­el­ling through the locks. Along the Douro, there are 5 locks punc­tu­at­ing your jour­ney to Barça d’Al­va, one of which is the high­est in Europe. You’ll be able to enjoy a vari­ety of activ­i­ties, allow­ing your most adven­tur­ous crew mem­bers to go off on a cycle ride, while his­to­ry buffs will delight in a vis­it to the Coa Val­ley archae­o­log­i­cal park.