Jump to content

Viking Osfrid Douro River Cruise review


beanpittsburgh
 Share

Recommended Posts

Sunday Morning

Today we left the ship at 9 for a day trip to Favaios. It is a small town which specializes in 2 things. Small loaves of bread and Moscatel de Favaios. The Moscatel is similar to Port in that it is sweet and fortified. However, it is capped at 17% alcohol. It is made from the Muscat grape and is sweeter than Port. The other differences are that in is an aperitif and a lot cheaper in cost. Another difference is the town of Faviaios has 500 wine growers which combine all their grapes to make the one style wine at a co-op. The wine so far has been grown along the Douro on steep terraces. The wine here in Favaios is grown in comparatively flat fields.The regular which we tasted was 5 euros while a 10 year old special was 11 euros. We were divided in 3 groups that in turn visited a bakery, wine museum, and the wine co-op.

After the 3 stops of about 30 minutes each, we went to a huge winery/restaurant for lunch. We were treated to music, humorous stories, great Portuguese food, and endless glasses of the regular table wine that is made also in the area. The white was made with the Muscat grape while the red was from a few miles away and made in the traditional Portuguese way(stomped on by foot). This place was definitely the highlight of the trip so far.

We arrived back at the ship by 330 for a much needed nap. The ship is docked for the night in Pinhao. It is a charming little town with the best opportunity to explore on ones own since leaving Porto. Too bad we had so much wine in Favaios.

There was a captains toast tonight at 6:30. Even though we have one more day of sailing, we did the captains toast tonight since mostly we will be sailing most of the day tomorrow and the captain won’t have the opportunity to have a toast with the passengers tomorrow. They discussed the departure procedures and gave us our departure times for Tuesday morning during the PD talk. Tonight after dinner, we had a Portuguese University musical group called Tuna or at least that’s how it sounds, I’m not sure how it’s spelled. There were eight members in the band. They had a mix of different guitars and instruments. Very interesting music. I would have to say today and yesterday in Salamanca were the two most interesting excursions that we did. So if you decide to stay on the boat a day, don’t eliminate either one of these tours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Monday

Final day of Cruise. Bittersweet. Great trip but ready to go home. Today was mostly spent cruising back to Porto. There was a 3 hour excursion to see a small town and cathedral but we stayed aboard ship and relaxed instead. Viking did nothing special today. While cruising on the Rhine past the castles, we had beer and sausage. Kind of thought Viking would do something similar on the Douro. We made it back to Porto just in time for a beautiful sunset. Dinner tonite was our favorite one so far. Again, no formal farewell from the crew, just Cruise Director. We enjoyed the crew and I would have liked to have some pictures taken with them all. Passengers are disembarking as early as 230am. We leave at 845 for a long day of travel home to Pittsburgh.

This was our 3rd Cruise with Viking. The Rhine had the best ports and chance for independent sightseeing. The stretch in Germany with castles is fantastic. Everyone spoke English.

Our Bordeaux Cruise had the best food and wine. Not a great Cruise for sightseeing. I would recommend it only for wine lovers.

The Douro definitely had the prettiest and most scenery. The local Portuguese food was okay. I thought the locals were very friendly. Spain and Portugal had more of the old world feel to them which was a nice change from our everyday lives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The “local” Portuguese food I mentioned in my review was basically any food we had, whether on board ship or not. The cuisine is heavy on fish & seafood of which we are not fans. Also I prefer more spice in my foods. That is not to say others would be very happy with the food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for taking the time to post live. I really enjoyed reading your day by day.

 

My husband and I had toyed with the idea of a Douro River Cruise in 2018 but after reading several reviews did not think that this itinerary would appeal to us due ti so much time on a bus and not enough time on the water. However your review has me rethinking our plan -- perhaps for 2019. We have already done the Rhine, Danube, Seine, German Christmas Markets and Imperial Jewels of China and loved them all. Now I am thinking Douro again!

 

Many thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess its all a matter of preference. My wife and I didn't think the bus rides were too bad. The longest day on the bus from Lisbon to Porto was about 8 hours. That was broken up with a rest stop and also 4 hours in Coimbra. Same with Salamanca, rest stop, 5 hours in Salamanca, and back to the ship. Granted, bus rides sometimes make me nod off for short periods of time. That can make the rides seem shorter too. I honestly didn't hear anyone complain about the bus rides. As I said before, I thought the Douro had more spectacular scenery than the Rhine. The Rhine had better ports with more independent time to explore. The included excursions in Porto and Castelo Rodrigo I could have done without but the day in Salamanca and Favaios were highlights of the cruise for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Enjoyed your review - thank you.

We are thinking of taking this cruise in Sept 2019.

I noticed your remark about Bordeaux tour mostly for wine lovers (understandable).

We do not drink - would we still enjoy this cruise? Are there other excursions for sightseeing rather than mostly wine tasting?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paulchili

There were people on the Bordeaux cruise who were not big wine drinkers. In my opinion, if you don't like wine then do not do this cruise. The scenery was not very spectacular and the boat was basically a floating hotel -- only traveled maybe 150 kilometers for the week (Least it seemed that way). The ports were just okay for independent exploration (the city of Bordeaux itself and St Emilion were worthwhile with lots of possibilities). The optional excursions were fun and not all wine related. We did the Truffle tour and Bordeaux Market tour as extras. Viking did a great job as usual with food and hospitality. We had 4 first time cruise friends along and we all had a great time. I just feel that this particular cruise lends itself best to wine lovers. Others may disagree with me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paulchili

There were people on the Bordeaux cruise who were not big wine drinkers. In my opinion, if you don't like wine then do not do this cruise. The scenery was not very spectacular and the boat was basically a floating hotel -- only traveled maybe 150 kilometers for the week (Least it seemed that way). The ports were just okay for independent exploration (the city of Bordeaux itself and St Emilion were worthwhile with lots of possibilities). The optional excursions were fun and not all wine related. We did the Truffle tour and Bordeaux Market tour as extras. Viking did a great job as usual with food and hospitality. We had 4 first time cruise friends along and we all had a great time. I just feel that this particular cruise lends itself best to wine lovers. Others may disagree with me

 

Thank you for the reply but I didn’t express myself clearly - my bad.

We are interested in taking the Douro cruise, not the Bordeaux. But the Douro cruise also seems to have a fair number of wine inspired tours - maybe not as many as the Bordeaux one.

Are there tours on Douro cruise that are not wine centered?

TIA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there was more wine poured on this trip than the Bordeaux cruise. The basic cruise theme, I think, was to highlight the Douro region and empathize the Port and local wines. The meals in Coimbra and Favaios had bottomless wine poured. There were a total of 4 wine stops on the trip - 2 Port houses, 1 winery, and the Favaios wine co-op. With that being said, I think a non-wine drinker would still have a wonderful time on this cruise. We met a great couple from Philly who did not drink on the cruise and I know they had a great time. The Douro river and scenery was fantastic as was the trip to Salamanca. There are not as many optional excursions on this trip but there are a few that don't deal with wine. There are a few in Lisbon and a couple in Porto and the optional Fatima excursion. Once the ship left Porto, there were no optional excursions. Also, I might add, while there was a great deal of alcohol poured on this trip, I never saw anyone remotely drunk or intoxicated. I recommend this cruise to everyone - drinker or not. The Portuguese were very sincere and friendly and of course I loved the scenery. Viking has a good product and met our every expectation. Was everything perfect? No, but we got more than our money's worth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...