Duoro River Cruise

[Betty Lu]

We're going on the Duoro River cruise with Uniworld next May. Has anyone done this cruise and would like to review it for me? It really looks terrific and I'd like confirmation of my feelings. Thank you.

[jmlh]

The Uniworld Duroro River cruise is really enjoyable. We really liked the pre-cruise days in Lisbon (adding 2 days to the initial 2). Uniworld books very nice hotels and adds a high degree of organization to the entire time.

 

The tour director (land portion) was great and led us to a very great start. The ship is fine - not ultra modern but fine. Food is not excellent but very good. We were always able to find foods that were to our liking. We were fortunate as we travelled with a great group of people - Americans, Brits and us (Canadians). We had a great time.

 

Tours were very well organized and had alot of built-in free time. This was much appreciated. Sitting in the pool, enjoying the scenery and talking to new friends will always be a great memory. Highly recommended!!

 

If you have any specific questions, please ask.

[Betty Lu]

Thanks for your reply. We're planning to go a day earlier to Lisbon also - we have been there before, so one day will be enough. However, we're planning to stay an additional day or two in Porto. Did you add days there?

[CincyAL]

Did travelers fly out of Porto or return to Lisbon for their flights?

[captgeo]

Do a search and you should find our report from last October -- it was wonderful! We flew back to the USA on TAP from Porto to Newark; we flew business class and the service, food, etc. was 'ok. Newark was a zoo when we landed with 6 or so other planes from overseas landing at about the same time.

Too bad Uniworld no longer offers the pre-cruise tour through Spain that ended in Porto via Lisbon.

[Betty Lu]

captgeo: I'm having a tough time finding your review, can you give me some hints as to where to find it? Thanks

[captgeo]

try this:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=648807

 

couldn't find the review, either.

captgeo

[Betty Lu]

Thanks, Captgoe, after reading your review I'm really looking forward to this trip. We spent a week in Lisbon a few years ago and found Portugal a very beautiful place - we can't wait to see more of it.

[daisymae]

An extra day in Porto is well worthwhile. We toured the Port museum along the waterfront, the Crystal Palace park, did some shopping, then to Villanova de Gaia across the river to a port house. Would do another couple port houses if we were there again.

 

The Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon is a very interesting collection from ancient Egyptian and Greek to Flemish masters, well worth a few hours visit in Lisbon.

 

Had good meals near the Placa de Restoradores in Lisbon, wish we would have detoured to the Barrio Alto and tried some of the small restaurants there. Easy to get around in taxi's, about E5 ($7.50) to the Placa from the hotel. Easy walk down the hill, tougher back up the hill. Get a street map ahead of time. Uniworld rep in Lisbon is very helpful and has good suggestions. Restaurant Viscous near the hotel is very good, fair prices.

 

Stops along the Douro are all interesting, small towns and all beautiful. Wish I would have taken time to study Napolean's sweep into Portugal and Wellington's counterstrike, much took place around the Douro. Locks and dams along the river are very impressive.

 

Enjoyed evenings in the taverns where the ship docked.

 

Douro Queen is a little smaller than Danube river boats, has to be to get through the locks. Nice ship, well appointed. Food on the ship generally very good, limited wine selection.

[laughoutloud]

I read two good books about the Douro while on my cruise:

 

Death on the Douro by Tony Aspler

http://www.tonyaspler.com/pub/articleview.asp?id=127&s=13

 

Cork Boat by John Pollack

http://www.corkboat.com/

 

Made the trip even more enjoyable. :)

[Betty Lu]

Just ordered the book "Death on the Douro" and look forward to reading it. Thanks for the tip.

[laughoutloud]

You are going to love the scenery. Especially on the Alta Douro past Pinhao.

 

I would bring my book up to the top deck, get all comfy & settled to read, and then spend the next couple of hours just looking at the amazing view, lol.

[H2Otstr]

I agree with LOL, the scenery was breathtaking. Had a hard time reading our books on the sundeck because around every bend was another beautiful scene. I had no idea Portugal had such different terrains as one traveled on the river toward Spain.

 

If anyone has any specific questions I will try and answer.

 

The Uniworld boat was one day behind our on the trip.

 

After talking to many of the other travelers I was quite surprised to hear that almost no one had heard of Cruise Critic.