Best time for Douro river

[krillsister]

We are planning to do a Douro river cruise. When would be the best time to sail. Why?

[bobalink]

We are planning to do a Douro river cruise. When would be the best time to sail. Why?

 

I look forward to seeing the responses, too. We are booked for July 2017.

 

We have friends who did the Douro April 26 - May 6, 2016.

The river conditions only allowed them to do about 60% of the river. They were bussed to the areas they could not get to by ship.

 

I saw their photos and they still got to see lots of beautiful places, but they were disappointed in having to be bussed.

[caviargal]

We did the Douro in August. It was hot and Porto crowded. Scenery was stunning!

 

Lots of bus rides but this was normal for the itinerary and river level was fine, no issues.

 

If we did this again we would choose late September or October.

Edited October 12, 2016 by caviargal

[njhoo]

We did this trip in May, it was a nice temperate time of year. We left on May 8th for two weeks. No issues with river levels.

 

 

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[pbnjrockette]

We just returned Sept21-Oct 7. The weather was gorgeous! Blue skies every day--warm 70's at beginning... a bit cooler mid 60's day by the end. Really nice time to go since it is 'Harvest' time and all the grapes are being picked. No issues with river levels. Working on my trip report...

Edited October 13, 2016 by pbnjrockette

[pinotlover]

We did the trip mid September at it was fabulous! Perfect weather and clear skies. They were harvesting the grapes likewise at that time, and it was fun watching them work on the small terraces when going to the wineries.

[Solent Richard]

We did a Douro River Cruise on Viking Hemming in July and it was perfect.

 

I wrote a full review here...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2014/08/06/viking-hemming-and-portugals-river-of-gold/

 

Water levels were fine. Viking had warned that if they weren't conducive we may have to make longer coach excursions but that never happened.

 

The weather was perfect: certainly didn't impinge on the deck BBQs...

 

 

and because the weather was so good the pre-cruise stay in Lisbon was considerably enhanced...

 

[Rosethorn40]

We went in December. Water levels were fine, weather was mostly 60's during the day, with sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy skies, but while it did rain on occasion, it never seemed to be during the day while we were sightseeing.

 

Advantages were the lack of crowds everywhere we went.

 

Here is my review from last year

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=521325

 

You may check out my photos at my web site http://www.TheGrandTour.Simplesite.com