Portugal
Three days along the Douro without a car
The regional train from Porto, a steep road to a viewpoint and a rainy last afternoon in a station café.
Three days, two nights, no car, at the end of October. It is the trip we suggest most often to people who have only a long weekend.
Day one: the regional train from Porto São Bento, a little after eight. The first hour is back gardens and cabbages; after Régua the line runs along the water and the carriage goes quiet. We got off at Régua for the wine museum and a long lunch, then took the afternoon train on to Pinhão, where we slept both nights in a guesthouse ten minutes from the platform, €55 with breakfast.
Day two: Pinhão. The station has blue-and-white tile panels of the harvest. We walked up the road to Casal de Loivos, five kilometres and about 350 metres up, with no pavement and cars at seventy. The view is as good as everyone says. The road is not, and next time we would take a taxi up and walk down the old steps.
Day three: one train further up to Tua and back, since there is roughly one every three hours, and then rain. We spent the afternoon in the café by Pinhão station with bolinhos de bacalhau and a book each, and caught the evening train to Porto with people coming home from Régua with their shopping.
Check the times on the CP website and then check them again at the station: the upper part of the line has very few trains.
— Marta