Douro Valley Private Tour: 2 Farms, Lunch & Boat Trip

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip, both wineries, the wines and port tasting and excellent lunch at the second winery we're superb also the boat trip was nice and relaxing. The whole day was made even better by our guide Joào Dias we could not have wished for a better guide he gave us so much interesting information it made our day. I would not hesitate in recommending this small group tour

You can stop searching for a Douro Valley tour — this is the one! After looking through what felt like hundreds of options, my friend and I booked this private Douro Valley tour day trip, and it was absolutely the right choice. The wines we tasted were exceptional, the wineries were so picturesque, and everyone we spoke with was so knowledgeable and kind. We also tried incredible olive oil and honey, like nothing we had ever tried. The home-cooked meal was so delicious and comforting, we could really tell the care that went into making it. We even lucked out and got the entire boat cruise almost to ourselves, as only about two or three other people ended up joining it! Our driver was Emanuel, and he was a huge part of why we enjoyed the tour so much! His dry humor had us laughing for hours, and he even was able to personalize our experience by stopping at viewpoints and locations we would most enjoy. He also was incredibly knowledgeable about the region and the wine, and had answers to all of our many questions, and kept us happy and having fun the entire day. It was truly the highlight of our entire trip to Portugal. If you love laughing and having fun, great wine, great food, great views and great company, this is the tour for you!

our guide for the day was Nino Pires. He was very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. He made the day very enjoyable. He spoke perfect English and German. The guide at the wine tasting Yass was also very knowledgeable speaking perfect English and French. The tour was great value and greatly enjoyable.

A group of 5 couples (10 pax) had a wonderful two-day experience with Planeta Pautado and everything was excellent from the pre-tour communications to the quality of the vehicles, to the choice of venues for wine tastings and lunch. Everything was perfect! And to top it off the two drivers were excellent, friendly and very accommodating - thanks very much to Emanuel and Carlos. Well done to Fabio and Planeta Pautado, will use them again when back in Porto.

We had a great day with Nuno as our guide. He was funny, knowledgeable and entertaining. We had a wide range of ages as we did this trip with our adult kids and their spouses. Everything we did that day seemed like a VIP treatment with a private boat trip to private tastings and a beautiful lunch.

Full disclosure: I booked this tour but couldn’t go thanks to an untimely illness, so this review is based on my friend’s glowing report. Nuno is an absolute gem; he’s funny, charming, a Portuguese wine wizard and a surprise photographer (he even got my usually camera-shy friend to pose!). After the tour, she was suddenly a Portuguese wine snob at dinner, so clearly he’s a pro at turning novices into enthusiasts. Wish I’d been there!

We had an amazing visit to the Douro Valley. The guides at the wineries were excellent and the tastings were generous. Lunch was delicious. The views from the bought ride were beautiful. Mostly our guide, Emanuel was incredible. He was knowledgeable, had a great sense of humour and took care of every need. I highly recommend this tour.

Our guide Ana was amazing! We were picked up at our hotel in a comfortable and clean van. The ride out to the Douro Valley was scenic and beautiful. The wine tours were informative and the lunch was delicious! The boat tour was a nice way to see town. Thank you for making our time in Portugal special 🥰

We booked a private tour for a full day of winery tour to Douro valley. Our guide was Emanuel who came highly recommended by our friends. He didn’t disappoint, he was punctual, an excellent driver, and took us to amazing places giving us a real local experience. My husband and I had a wonderful day together with Emanuel who was funny and also was a great photographer. The tour was on point and was great being off season we got more out of it than if we came in the peak season. Overall a fantastic tour.

I did the daytrip on 3 October with Ana. It was an amazing day and Ana is the best tourguide. She made it fun and was very knowledgable about the area and wines. She qent above and beyobd to accomodate all our needs.

We had an amazing trip, Ana Sofia was the perfect guide, went over and beyond for us all. The 2 vineyards were fab, and lunch and boat trip on the river Duoro wonderful

Thanks Ana for being an amazing guide! My husband and I both enjoyed the experiences. From tasting grapes directly from the vines, to tasting and learning the different types wine and port and to meeting new and interesting people from all over the world!

We booked Douro Valley Private Tour including pick up from/to hotel. Our experience was very positive, everything was well organized. Special thanks to guide Nuno, who was perfect, we enjoyed the whole day. I highly recommend the tour.

We booked this tour at the last minute and were not disappointed. Our driver and guide for the day was Emanuel who was both friendly and professional. He was a careful driver and very informative with a good sense of humour which made our day even more enjoyable. The tour was just the right pace with the visit to the farm for lunch and wine and port tasting the highlight of the day. Emanuel was very respectful and as we were a couple on our own left us to eat lunch in private. Overall an excellent day if not a little expensive. If you book this trip be sure to ask for Emanuel as your driver and guide.

To call this a private tour is really misleading. At an absolute stretch it is a semi-private tour. Yes you are in your own car (which was an average Ford Focus) and picked up from your accommodation, but the privacy ends there. We joined up with others at every single stop who were on group tours with the same provider. We thought the boat ride would be private but we were with about 60+ people - I found this incredibly disappointing as this is not what I expected at all. Not one part was exclusive/private except our driver Miguel stopped at a swing which had lovely views. For the price I really should have known better although it was by no means cheap; we still paid £400! If we knew we would just be meeting with the groups we would have just booked a group tour for half the price or less. Or indeed paid more with a better provider. This needs to be advertised to expressly state that by private tour they really mean a separate car only. The lunch was crowded with the manager of the estate reused the same joke with everyone, it was a little cringeworthy. Although Miguel our driver was lovely, he was very quiet and we felt quite awkward when he joined our table for lunch; it felt a little unprofessional but we were too polite to say anything. He was not overly talkative but again he was polite and tried hence why we tipped him for his time - it is a long day. We did ask if he could drop us back at another location but he refused and explained that he was not allowed to; we understood although it was a little disappointing at the time. Lastly, the provider mixed up our days. I received a call 2 days beforehand when I was in Madeira for a pick up - this was their error and I was awoken from my already disturbed sleep. When I followed up the the driver Joao, he just ignored me which was very rude. I then had to chase the evening before to confirm the pick up time and driver. Unfortunately this experience was just not up to par. Although we would do a private tour again, it definitely would not be with this company especially given then we paid £400 for the pleasure. Quite disappointing. I would not recommend this tour unless they make some serious changes; you are better off paying less for the group tour because that is pretty much what the experience was.

Good day in excellent company, our guide was spectacular, good food and good wine, we really have very good things in our country, we just have to be lucky to find professionals like those we found in this fantastic company. Thank you for the excellent experience.