Portugal 2024: Lisbon & Douro River Cruise

Disclaimer: this blog is still under construction! Please excuse grammatical errors. I will be adding photos to the body of the blog soon but please refer to Facebook and Shutterfly albums for accompanying photos. Working on adding more captions. 

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I traveled to Portugal on a Douro river cruise with Avalon Waterways in April, 2024. It was fabulous! We had some snags but overall it was SUCH an amazing trip! 

First of all, the scenery and ambiance was absolutely spectacular. Green, lush, rolling hills of vineyards everywhere. Someone told one of my clients, it’s like if the Moselle valley and Tuscany had a baby. Stunningly gorgeous. I was surprised how developed most of the land is, again with vineyards everywhere in patterned in all different directions. The roads and highways were very impressive to be able to get everywhere quickly. 

I escorted a group of friends and friends of friends. I usually travel with groups about 20 or more to make sure everyone is well taken care of, gets from point A to point B and to handle any issues if they arise. I do get to enjoy the trip but it can be a lot of work. I typically handle everyone’s airfare, insurance and pre & post cruise arrangements. Many extend their trip to other places in Europe so I help with all the logistics. I also get to learn about the destination and products so I can better help my future clients. 

On this trip, my awesome sister-in-law Amy joined me. She had never been to Europe so this was super exciting! We started off by spending 3 nights in Lisbon. Our hotel booked through Avalon Waterways was the Hotel Tivoli Avenida Liberdade Lisboa. It is a wonderful hotel, in a good location in the on the Avenida da Liberdade which is a bit outside the historic center, but just a 10 min walk. However, there is a lot of shopping along the way. Not to far across the street (maybe a block or so) and underground Aldi for bottled water and groceries. I love grocery shopping in foreign countries! 

Lisbon is a big, bustling city. I will say that it isn’t the most pristine of European cities, which is to be expected. Portugal is pretty average as far as their economy not super wealthy compared to other parts of Europe. However, overall a gorgeous place to visit with lovely monuments and history abound. It is the city of 7 hills. Expect lots of walking, uneven cobblestone streets and again, hills! Also expect to see a lot of graffiti. It seems a reality of life here. 

The weather was interesting this trip. It was windy and rainy when we first arrived in Lisbon. The previous week had been very rainy so that was the forecast. However as the trip progressed, it got sunnier and hotter! You just never know. 

We did a couple of tours in Lisbon. The city tour with Avalon was great, we had a city tour to the Monument to the Discoveries, Jeronimos Monastery and Belem Tower. Then I booked a private foodie tour for our group. We walked from the hotel with a lovely local guide. We stopped for presunto (similar to prosciutto), cheese, port wine, the local cherry liquor ginjinha (which is really yummy but super sweet) and the famous pastry, pastel de nata. Then we continued to the food hall: Time Out Market for cod and meat croquettes, vihno verde and more pastries. The pastries were ubiquitous in Portugal the entire trip. I got sick of them pretty fast! Very rich and sweet. The guides kept telling us the story, because of Portugal’s conquests, they ended up with a lot of sugar from Brazil. Then, the nuns and the clergy used egg whites to process their outfits and had lots of leftover egg yolks. So they started making pastries to sell and raise money for the church. The famous Pastel de Nata (cream tart) are undeniably delicious but I was over them after about 3 days. I do like sweets, but mostly chocolate. Give me chocolate. Or I’ll prefer to take my calories in Europe from cheese, bread and wine obrigata! 

We also ate dinner at this tiny wonderful spot in Lisbon for pestiscos (that’s small plates or Tapas, to you Espana!) https://www.restaurantepicapau.pt/en We had: olives, caldo verde (cabbage soup), octopus salad, “pica-pau” sautéed beef loin with pickles, and “peixinhos da Horta” fried breaded green beans. It was affordable and excellent! 

Another adventure in Lisbon is that we wanted to take famous the yellow tram car (28) that only costs a few euros. However, it is so popular that you have to get there super early to queue up. We got there mid morning and it was already an 1-2 hour wait. No thanks! We were sold on a tuk-tuk ride with a charming local, who turned out not to be a local, he was from Chile but adorable and fun nonetheless. Not cheap but totally worth it to get toted around up and down the hills for all the great photo ops and vantage points. 

Next up, an excursion to Sintra and the 1,000 year old, UNESCO Palace which was fascinating and wonderful! Check out my photos! A lovely visit! During our free time we tried to hike up to the top of the hill but it just kept going and going and we ran out of time! Got some great shots of the palace through the trees. We also stopped at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe! 

We were excited to pack up and get to our Avalon ship! On day 4, it was time to depart. Avalon includes a stop in Coimbra for a guided tour to the University which was really wonderful! One of my favorite clients, friends and fellow travelers is a Doctor and we ran into some Medical students for some meaningful photos and greetings! It was pretty special. There is a whole story about their uniform and cape which was fascinating. The library and cathedral here was really spectacular and different from a lot of things I’ve seen in Europe. 

Getting to the ship is always such a blessing. It’s lovely to get into your cabin and settle in for one whole week! Its your own little oasis - close to all the amenities on the ship, super convenient and a spot on a floating hotel taking you where you need to go!

Here is a quick recap of the excursions I participated in from the cruise:

• 4/11 Braga & Guimaraes: 
  • First visited Bom Jesus shrine, beautiful! We didn’t have much time here - I got some good photos but looking up Wikipedia photos, oh wow look at the aerial photo! I was taking photos looking down so didn’t see it this way! Would have loved to spend more time here. 
  • Then to the city of Braga, I loved it! So quaint and charming with gardens everywhere. A church built on the roman ruins and of course a ton of history. I had lunch here - it was so good, bachalhau a Braga (turned out the restaurateur was French) cod fish with peppers, olives and oily and yummy potatoes. Of course accompanied by a glass of vihno verde. 
  • Guimaaraes: just a cute little town, very medieval. Balconies and tiles and little tiny squares. More history, wandering and the gals loved the shopping here. 
  • Maybe some more churches this day, they always blow my mind when I’m there but then when I try to remember them, I just don’t. 
• 4/12 - Morning Historical Quinta: Maria’s manor house! This was probably my favorite excursion. The property was wonderful and wine and snacks great but the highlight was the proprietor, Maria. She was such a gem. Her story is fascinating and I absolutely adored her as she charmed all the guests! She was like a Portuguese version of my mother: super gregarious, funny, blonde hair and hot pink lipstick! Love her. 
• 4/12 - Afternoon: Casa de Mateus this is what I came to Portugal for. Fabulous, quintessential wine tasting. Historic and wonderful palace. Don’t expect to taste the Rose, that is the cheap stuff you get at the grocery store! I think they said they don’t even make it there anymore. 
• 4/13 - Amarante. MORE PASTRIES. Gorgeous town, short walk to the bridge and cathedral. Market day. Wonderful!!! It was getting hot. 
• 4/13 - Afternoon Freixo de Numão - this was somewhat underwhelming. Beautiful drive but long due to water levels. The town is tiny and remote. Super cute but…. We visited a historical museum which was somewhat interesting. Then the almond place, everyone liked that. Originally a wine tasting was on the itinerary which is why I chose it. That changed at some point. 
• 4/14 - Viseu - lunch at a hotel in the city with the MOST AMAZING DUCK! Yum. And wine included. The town and sightseeing tour was cool, it was Sunday so everything was closed but there was this one souvenir shop that was open and it was awesome. All kinds of local goods including wine, cheese, meat, ginjinha. The proprietor was super friendly, giving samples of everything! I bought a wheel of the most amazing cheese I’ve ever had, see my photos. Wine tasting that afternoon, again why I came to Portugal. LOVELY! Such good wine. I was a happy happy camper this day!
• 4/15 - sailing day, they just sailed up and down parts that we’d already sailed but that was fine! I did some work while they offered a cooking and painting class. Then Amy and I drank beer and got in the pool. They had Fado singers on the ship this night, a really lovely experience! 
• 4/16 Morning Porto on 2 Wheels - Bike ride! So fun. Loved it. Very safe and easy. Honestly too slow but it was great.
• 4/16 Afternoon Aveiro - Venice of Portugal! Really lovely town, I highly recommend this excursion. Boat ride, more f-ing pastries, and a stop for Sangria! Lovely day! 

I regret we didn’t have time to do much in Porto, it seemed like a great city. I might recommend adding one extra day in Porto. I’ll just have to go back! 

Avalon was fabulous. I mentioned snags, the water levels were too high to sail all the way up the river. They had just received a ton of rain and we were also informed that Spain controls the dam release of water up river and they have no control over when they release back up. Avalon had to move around much of the excursions and sightseeing. One thing very important to know, is that the Douro river cruise is a bit different than other river cruises in Europe. On other rivers like the Rhine and Danube, the towns and excursions are right off of the docking points. Sometimes you can walk right into town from the ship. However, most of the towns the ship docks on the Douro are not the highlights of the area and you have to be bussed to them. It seriously surprised me how many people on the ship were surprised by this fact. And it surprised me that so many were frustrated about the changes and water levels. This is a reality of river cruising in general and can happen at any time, on any river. If you are not able to be flexible and enjoy the trip with unexpected changes, I wouldn’t recommend river cruising. 

Since we were stuck on one end of the river, the excursions on the planned itinerary were a bit further. Not a lot, maybe added 15-45 minutes longer drives each way. Which really wasn’t too big of a deal. However, most days we returned back to the ship late afternoon. I did miss having a couple of hours downtime on the ship in the afternoons but it was ok. We were just always rushing to happy hour. 

There was one stop that we did not visit due to the changes, I believe it was Freixo de Espada à Cinta. However, amazingly Avalon still offered the day trip to Salamanca, Spain. Amy really wanted to go to Spain but I think it was a 3 hour drive each way from the ship’s docking location. That would have been on 4/14 so we wouldn’t have been able to go to Viseu (with wine tasting) and they also offered Pinhao that day. I told Amy she should go if she wanted to but declined because of the bus ride. There were 12 people on the ship that opted to go, a couple from our group. It was a long day for them but they were glad they went. Their photos were really great! 

Finally I also want to mention our cruise director, Mihai was PHENOMENAL. He was the consummate professional. He handled the changes and hiccups with ease and incredible emotional intelligence. He was also jolly, funny and personable. Not only did he have to deal with the massive itinerary changes but some medical situations of passengers (they were OK), some issues with the guides, and the freaking Viking ship literally hit our ship! It was damaged but the Avalon Alegria was not. Crazy. Thank you thank you Mihai! 

Would go back 10 out of 10 recommend!

Ps Porto has a surprisingly big International airport!