Two quintas, a river lunch, and nobody driving

The Douro Valley looks engineered by someone showing off: two thousand years of hand-built terraces stacked above a winding river, every slope striped with vines. It deserves a full day, and it deserves you not driving.

The small-group tour (eight of us in a van from Porto) hit the balance: one grand quinta with the polished tasting room, one family quinta where the winemaker's father still runs the crusher, and a long lunch on a terrace over the river that no restaurant in Porto can match for setting.

Five ports and three table wines deep, the €120 price had justified itself before the boat ride even started.

Book the small van, not the bus. Ask for a family quinta on the itinerary. And buy the bottle you loved at the source — it will never taste that way at home, which is precisely the reason to do it.