6 Days: Porto and the Douro Valley
Six days is where a Porto trip stops being a city break and turns into a genuine loop through northern and central Portugal, and my favourite version of it doesn’t end back where it started. Here’s how I’d run it, finishing in Lisbon instead of flying home out of Porto.
Book these before you go
- Douro Valley day trip and overnight options : the train-plus-cruise combos sell out in summer
- A quinta room around Pinhao : estate rooms book up weeks ahead in high season
- A Lisbon hotel for the finale night : book ahead if your open-jaw flight is already locked in
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Linha do Douro train to Pinhao, quinta tasting and overnight |
| 2 | A second quinta morning, back to Porto |
| 3 | Guimaraes and Braga |
| 4 | Aveiro |
| 5 | Coimbra on the way south |
| 6 | One day in Lisbon, then fly out |
Day 1: straight into the vines
Flying in, the Violeta Line E metro runs from OPO to Sao Bento or Campanha in 30 to 45 minutes. Arriving overland from Lisbon or the south, you’ll land at Campanha, not the tiled Sao Bento station, they’re separate stations about 3km apart, so head for your connection rather than hunting for azulejos on the wrong platform. Catch the Linha do Douro regional train out to Pinhao, roughly two hours each way for about 12.20 EUR, one of Europe’s best scenic rail journeys, running the whole route along the river through terraced vineyard hillsides. Pinhao’s 1937 station carries 24 azulejo panels of the grape harvest, worth a look before an afternoon tasting at Quinta do Bomfim or Quinta das Carvalhas. Book an overnight room at a working quinta, Quinta da Pacheca or Quinta do Vallado are solid picks, rather than racing back to Porto the same day.
Day 2: valley morning, back to Porto
A slow morning at the quinta before the roughly two-hour train back. Once you’re in Porto, it’s worth being precise: the port lodges across the Dom Luis I Bridge in Vila Nova de Gaia are the aged, bottled product, an entirely different trip from the vineyard region you were just in. An evening on the Gaia riverfront is a good, easy close to the day.
Day 3: Guimaraes and Braga
Guimaraes, about 45 minutes out, earns its “birthplace of Portugal” label honestly, the medieval castle here is reputedly where the country’s first king, Afonso Henriques, was born, and a wall nearby reads “Aqui Nasceu Portugal.” Braga sits at a similar distance and pairs naturally with Guimaraes in one day. Bom Jesus do Monte’s zigzagging Baroque staircase is the draw, take the funicular up if your legs need a rest, it’s one of the oldest water-powered funiculars still running anywhere.
Day 4: Aveiro
About an hour by train, Aveiro earns its “Venice of Portugal” nickname with its canal network and colourful moliceiro boats, and another 10 to 15 minutes by bus gets you to Costa Nova’s candy-striped fishing houses. It’s the lightest, quirkiest day of the loop so far.
Day 5: Coimbra on the way south
Here’s my honest opinion, and it’ll save you an unnecessary backtrack: don’t treat Coimbra as a round trip from Porto if you’re finishing in Lisbon anyway. Coimbra sits almost exactly halfway between the two cities, about an hour and a quarter by Alfa Pendular from Porto, so break your southbound journey there instead of returning to Porto first. The University of Coimbra is UNESCO listed, and the Biblioteca Joanina, a baroque library ornate enough to look fictional, is the reason to stop, complete with a resident colony of bats that eat the insects that would otherwise damage the books at night, a genuine, deliberate part of the collection’s protection, not folklore. Book your library slot online before you travel, it runs small-group and timed, and it does sell out. From Coimbra, continue on to Lisbon, another hour and a half to two hours depending on the service, arriving in the evening.
Day 6: one day in Lisbon, then fly out
You won’t do Lisbon justice in a single day, nobody does, but if six days is all you’ve got, spend it well: the riverfront, a proper lunch, whatever’s topped your list going in. Concrete tip worth real money: check whether your airline lets you fly out of Lisbon instead of backtracking to Porto, most does as a standard open-jaw booking, and it saves you an entire day of travel you’d otherwise burn retracing your steps north.
Getting around across six days
Every regional and intercity train here runs on standard Comboios de Portugal fares, separate from Porto’s Andante city card, budget roughly 3-8 EUR each way for Guimaraes, Braga or Aveiro, 12-15 EUR for the Douro, more for the Coimbra to Lisbon run. Book the Douro train and your quinta room ahead in summer, both genuinely sell out.
Before you go
If you want two proper days in Lisbon instead of one rushed one, our 7-day itinerary runs this exact same route with an extra day tacked onto the Lisbon end. And if Porto’s own historic centre hasn’t featured in this trip at all, our Porto city guide is worth reading before your next visit, this one’s built entirely around what’s beyond the city limits.