Just like putting on a pair of your favourite old shoes, the experience of sailing on one of APT’s magnificent River ships is always a welcoming time.
This ship – the MS Douro Estrela was launched in October 2024 so it hasn’t had enough time on the water to even get a scratch on it.
She carries approx 116 passengers in 58 staterooms and 38 crew. And she is beautiful, custom built for Douro River conditions.
There are three passenger decks, one shares the Dining room, one shares the Lounge and bar. while the rooftop is a fabulous open gathering space with a swimming pool, putting green and lovely unobstructed views of the magnificent scenery either side of the ship.
The perfect spot to sit, relax and while away the hours gazing at the never ending vineyards clutching to the very steep mountainsides along the riverbank.
The Douro is not a very long river, so sailing is limited to just a few hours per day. However it is very narrow in spots – two river boats could not pass each other in some places.
It is also very windy with lots of twists and turns and dramatic. Beautiful.
There are also a series of river locks which surprised us – some of which have difference in river water levels of 33 metres !! More dramatic than the Danube and Rhine river ways.
The technology around this is astounding – despite an engineer telling me it’s simple, basic hydraulics 🙄 – it still fascinates me.
It’s insane. Brilliant.
We visited some typical Douro Valley townships, high up in the hills which made for an interesting bus ride. Castillo Rodrigo is a beautiful medieval village perched atop the mountain with much of the original buildings still in use today.
Gorgeous – we sailed downstream and berthed overnight at a tiny riverside village of Pinhao – we wandered through the village in the night after dinner and despite it being a beautiful little town – population around 350, it was a very sleepy, quiet town.
The further we sailed down the river, the more dramatic and beautiful the scenery became. Right here in the middle of the Douro Valley, every square centimetre of spare space is taken up with vineyards.
And it’s glorious.
We headed up into the hills adjacent to the river town where the ship was berthed and the drive up through the vineyards was both beautiful and spine chillingly scary. There would have been less than 10cm of space either some of the bus, and some turns took a three point option to get around the corner !
But at the top the view was just spectacular.
Our first “official” winery visit was at a place called Quinta Santa Luis and it was founded by the Kopke family in 1638 making it one of the oldest continuing operating vineyards in Portugal and Spain.
Their primary produce is port wine which has to be graded every ten years by the port grading people (🤷♂️🤷♂️) to ensure the vines and the wine meets their very specific standards.
The port wine is stored in both timber and concrete barrels to achieve different final flavours and styles for a number of years.
The staff were very friendly and informative, taking us through the whole process from hand picking the grapes until sale of the wines. Of course we had a tasting ….
We tried a white port, a ruby port and a tawny port – all of which were superb. They do make another 16 styles at this vineyard but no time to taste them all. Bugger.
Into the cellar door and the prices ranged from €14 up to €1,215 (approx $2,000 AUD) for a bottle of 1935 white port. Wow !
We bought a Ruby Port to bring home – but it wasn’t anywhere in this price range 😬
I’m glad the bus driver didn’t do the tasting as he had to get us back down the hill to the boat !
On the way back to the port, we had a really interesting visit to the Douro River Winery Museum which provided a really thorough insight into the importance of wine to this part of Portugal.
We wandered around on our own for a while exploring, along with the 10,000 visitors preparing for the marathon. The town was in full party mode and it was fabulous.
Eventually back to the ship for a swim and chill out time before dinner.
After another sumptuous feast on board the Ms Estrela which includes any number of local wines, we were entertained by a local harpist who was not only brilliant at his craft but very entertaining. He played mostly recent songs with his interpretations and it was a fun night
Ralph and Karen's Tours 