By: Karen Rubel, a Marvelous Mouse Travels agent
An Adventures by Disney trip is like no other! The superb quality you can expect from Disney follows you to almost any destination across the world. New in 2022 is an amazing itinerary covering the beautiful European country of Portugal. Below is my experience on this amazing adventure, but remember, each trip is unique with “magical extras” that the Adventure Guides sprinkle throughout!
From the moment of arrival in Porto, we were completely taken care of with our private driver waiting for us in the airport arrival area! He took our bags for us and drove us directly to our hotel, sharing information about Porto and answering our questions about the region.
We arrived at our hotel, InterContinental Hotels – Porto Palacio das Cardosas, and had a smooth check-in, and met our two Adventure Guides, one with eight years of experience as an Adventure Guide with Disney and the other native to Portugal.
A welcome bag was waiting for us, and the views from the room were incredible. The room had two small balconies we could walk out to; we had a view of some construction which I would later learn was originally for an underground metro line, but when digging, they came across Roman Ruins! The history in a place like Portugal is just amazing.
The first night started with a welcome reception, where we went through preferences and dietary requirements with our Adventure Guides. Others did this earlier at check-in, but our flight arrived a little late, so our Guides easily accommodated us! We also gave our preferences for some of the activities later in the trip (such as if we would climb the bridge or do an alternative activity), although we could change our minds at any time.
We had dinner at the hotel where we learned about the upcoming trip and got to meet everyone in the group. What really stuck with me was the guides asking us from this moment on to…Live in the Moment, Cherish the Now, and let the guides take care of everything from here on out. 😊 After dinner, my guest and I went for a walk so we wouldn’t be tempted to fall asleep too early as we adjusted to the new time zone!
After a delicious breakfast buffet at the hotel (all breakfasts included in this adventure), we started our day with a short walking tour where we learned the history of our hotel (it used to be a monastery, a military hospital, and a palace)! We headed to the Sao Bento Railway Station, with a few stops to learn the history of the area, and then walked to our tuk-tuks, which we rode for a couple hours in the morning.
Our first stop in the tuk-tuk was Livaria Lello, a famous bookstore where J.K. Rowling drew inspiration for Harry Potter when she lived in Porto. The queue to get in was massive and our tuk-tuk driver told us it was one of the most visited places in Porto. I thought we might snap a couple pictures of the outside, but our guides had special access tickets for us to skip the queue and go straight in. We even got an extra surprise once inside!
The next stop was at Igreja De Sao Francisco Church. Pictures weren’t allowed inside, but there was a jaw-dropping amount of gold inside – you’ll have to see it to believe it!
The final stop on the tuk-tuk was at the top of a hill with a beautiful view of Porto!
Our first lunch as a group was very memorable, as we went to the top-rated restaurant for the most famous dish in Porto, Francesinha, which is essentially like a delicious “grilled cheese & meat” sandwich in a special sauce.
Following lunch was the “big activity” of the day – climbing an arch bridge, the only bridge climb of its kind in Europe. Some people on the trip did not feel comfortable doing this activity, so there was an alternative one provided, a beautiful cable car ride.
We got a quick break back at the hotel to get ready for the evening activities, starting at a wine lodge in Gaia, across the river from Porto. We learned about port wine and had a tasting experience! For those that choose to not drink, there was a fun alternative activity provided.
The last stop for the evening was for dinner at another wine lodge atop a hill with gorgeous views. It was a long, but very eventful day!
We started with the included breakfast buffet in the hotel and then went on a ~1.5 hour drive to a secluded town in the Douro Valley region, which is the only area port wine can be made. Once there we set out on a kayaking adventure down the Douro River! For those that couldn’t or didn’t want to participate, an alternative activity of a leisurely boat ride down the river was provided. The scenery here was gorgeous! This is an example of an activity we would never have done on our own – traveling that far outside of a main city to a secluded down for this type of experience!
After changing to dry clothes, we headed to a winery where we would spend the rest of the morning and majority of the afternoon. Once there, we went on a tour and learned about port wine and this particular winery’s history. We had a cooking demonstration where volunteers could help the chef chop, whisk, and sauté! This food would then turn into our lunch that we enjoyed right in the wine cellar, and included octopus which many people tried for the first time. For all meals throughout the whole adventure, anyone who had any dietary restrictions were taken care of with alternative options.
Following lunch, we participated in an art activity using cork! Cork is such an important material in this region and around 50% of the world’s cork supply comes from Portugal! We had beautiful views of the winery as we worked on our craft.
We headed back to Porto and were free to have dinner on our own. This was the first meal not included in the adventure, and we took the opportunity to check out the McDonalds steps from our hotel. Actually, several of us did because this is considered the “world’s most beautiful McDonalds”, so we couldn’t pass the opportunity by to check out ourselves! With this experience, our time in Porto was over, as we headed to our next city in the morning!
Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!
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