Portugal River Cruise

My wife & I have just booked Vantage's Portugal & the Douro River Valley Cruise, 16 to 29 October 2012. This is our first Vantage tour, our first river tour and our first time in Portugal.

 

The choice between Vantage and Uniworld was a tough one. Finally chose Vantage as a test case for doing future ocean tours with them. Hope we didn't choose a date too late: cold and rainy. If so, there is time to switch to an earlier date.

 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

:confused:

Cruising the Douro in oct should be fine. We have done this cruise (albeit with "Douroazul" cruises) in sept 2009 and it was bloody warm then, with temperatures in the 25 to 30 deg C, sunny days and blue sky.

Douroazul is a portuguese cruising company with an outstanding service. We sailed by ship while the tourbus followed by road for the daily excursions.

Advantage of this company is that they dock just across the river douro from the city of Porto in Villa Nova de Gaia. You can then do a city trip on foot, it is just a 20 min walk across the steel bridge. All other cruisers dock around the corner and it is a far walk to get to Porto, it is only reachable by bus.

Douroazul also does two dinners in a "quinta" and a "convento" , these can only be reached with a bus. Excursion to Salamanca inland are highly recommended!

In short , this cruise is a must do!

JP

Thank you for the great feedback, Janneke. I have looked forward to visiting Portugal since serving with the U,S Navy in Brazil in the mid 70's. The cruise/tour sponsored by Vantage provides 3 days in Lisbon, a seven day Douro river cruise, and 2 days in Estoril, with the possibility of a four day extension in Barcelona.

 

Again, many thanks.

 

:)

You might also want to post this in the Rivers & Canal Cruising section. It is where many who have done or are planning river cruises discuss things.

Thanks, YoungDubFan. I thought I did this when I went to "Other Cruise Lines", as I didn't see a separate category for river cruises. Are you referring to the river cruise line roll calls? I'm sort of new at using this great service to cruisers.

 

:confused:

Thanks, YoungDubFan. I thought I did this when I went to "Other Cruise Lines", as I didn't see a separate category for river cruises. Are you referring to the river cruise line roll calls? I'm sort of new at using this great service to cruisers.

 

:confused:

 

The thread is a couple of columns down the list under "Special Interest", then look for "River and Barge Cruising". Lots of GREAT info there.

Many thanks for the valuable input H2Otstr. Little by little I'm getting the hang of this valuable tool.

 

:)

....

Douroazul is a portuguese cruising company with an outstanding service. We sailed by ship while the tourbus followed by road for the daily excursions.

 

This looks interesting--how did you manage to find a brochure in English? I went to their English website and clicked on "brochure", but it came up in Portuguese.

 

Would love to do something there, since we've been to Porto and the north and had a great time.

 

How were the cabins? Are they tiny? How was the food?

Hello Wendy

Sorry for the late reply, but i just got back from a 2 week sea cruise.

For the Dourazul info, just google up "douroazul" and click on the "English" button, then on "7 day cruises" and then on "brochures". You will already see on that site how the itinerary loos like.

I have contacted our regular TA and got all the info via the mail.

The cabins were indeed small, as on all river cruisers, but we had a cabin on the top deck with a small balcony (though that takes up space from the cabin)

Food was excellent, buffet for lunch and a menu at night.

Advantage of Dourazul is that they dock right in front of the city of Porto, which you can reach on foot (just cross the bridge)

Hope this has helped you, have a nice cruise if you book this trip.

Anyone experience with Croieurope, who does also the Douro?

Out of Porto we had a cruise on the Douro with the ms Fernao De Magalhaes up to the Spanish border and back.

Croisieurope is a French company based in Strasbourg and specialized on river cruises. On Cruisecritic here it is not often that this company is mentioned and I can imagine that many of us believe that only French is spoken on board. I discovered something completely different.

Used to sea-going cruising, it is the first time I had a river cruise experience. The ship has 142 passengers maximum on 3 decks. Is built in 2003 but renovated in 2011.

The first impression on checking in, was the warm welcome, friendliness and efficiency of the staff, and this impression will be continued up to the last moment.

Cabins are clean and comfortable, shower room a bit small, but we are of course not on a seagoing vessel. During the welcome we realize that 3 languages are used: French, English and Spanish. Languages spoken by the staff in contact with the passengers, who are not only French, Belgian or Swiss, but any English speaking people and also Spanish people.

The food is under the management of a French chief, which is certainly a reference. But they offer also Portuguese and Spanish courses which are prepared is a finer and more sophisticated way as the original. Wine and other drinks are free of charge during the meals (noon/evening) and don’t worry they are not difficult at all is you want some more! Now at the bar the drinks are of course to be paid, but the prices are very honest! With regard to the menu it is with a fixed menu. However if you do not like one of the courses the waiters will directly ask you what else they can serve you, no problem at all.

The Douro is a fascinating river to discover. There are several locks and one is the highest in Europe with a difference of 36 meters. Fascinating to see how the ship fully with own means enters between impressive walls. But the way that the water goes up is rather fast.

On deck there are plenty of chairs available, either in sun or under a large shadow cover.

 

Due to the destination, it is easy to use the shore excursions. Although I prefer organizing them myself where possible we took 3 of them. Salamanca in Spain was a full day. Also these excursions are reasonable in price. For Salamanca at noon dinner is provided in a nice local restaurant and at the same conditions as on board, this means you do not pay for wine and other beverages.

Now again there is a bus with French speaking guide and another bus with English and Spanish speaking guides.

In the evenings the entertainment is of course limited view the vessel size, but the staff organizes them well. There are also some local dancers or groups invited.

One of the last days all passengers are invited if they want (not during maneuvering in the locks of course) to visit the bridge. The Captain is answering you all questions and really with pleasure.

Well this was an excellent experiment on a river cruise. They have also a lot of other cruises on Donau, Rhine and others. They have even some coastal ship at the Croatian coast.

Anyone know anything bout the Ganges trip in2016

Anyone know anything bout the Ganges trip in2016

I looked at Vantage's India tour with a Ganges river cruise. For some reason, cruising that river just doesn't appeal to me at all.

We were in SW India recently and enjoyed it, but still not interested in that one.

...Finally chose Vantage as a test case for doing future ocean tours with them...

IMO the experience you get on a river boat Vantage rents a week or so per month could be vastly different from Vantage's "ocean cruises" which again are either full or partial charters of someone else's vessel. I have done the Vantage cruise to Antarctica and the Vantage cruise along the Norway coast, and enjoyed them, but very little similarity to river cruises. When a company is doing occasional charters the have yielded a large degree of control.

 

Thom