The hook
The oldest demarcated wine region in the world, where the Douro river winds between hillsides terraced by hand into thousands of narrow steps, all of it for port.
01Why it's worth it
People have been cutting terraces into these steep schist slopes for centuries, and the result is a landscape shaped entirely by one crop. The grapes for port grow on ledges too steep for machines, are still often picked by hand, and travel downriver to age in the lodges of Porto. The valley was formally mapped as a wine region in 1756, before Bordeaux, which is the claim it rests on. What you actually get is a quiet, sun-baked river gorge lined with whitewashed wine estates, the quintas, many of which take visitors for tastings and lunch on a terrace over the water. It is beautiful in a worked, human way rather than a wild one, and it rewards going slowly.
02How to experience it
Don't rush it in a day from Porto. Take the Douro railway, which hugs the water on the prettiest stretch beyond Pinhão, or drive the small roads high on the valley sides for the terrace views the river doesn't give you. Book a tasting and a meal at a quinta. Come for the September harvest if you can, when some estates still let guests tread grapes.
From the locals
It gets recommended as the reward for basing in Porto rather than as a destination of its own: the city "has amazing food, and is a day trip away from the beautiful Douro Valley," one traveller wrote — the terraced river gorge being the thing people leave the coast for.