River Douro

Having done most rivers and loved them... the one we are hoping to do this year is the Douro. Does anyone know anything about the "Spirit of Chartwell"..... yes I do know it is a "barge" conversion. We have done AMA, Avalon, Viking etc but thought a smaller ship might be a bit different. Any comments greatly appreciated. thanks :)

Not familiar with this company, but I would advise that you compare the itineraries and if you can see photos of the cabins or get feedback from someone who has sailed on this ship, that would be helpful. As far as the Douro - it is a beautiful river to cruise.

Cole

Spirit of Chartwell is now owned by Douro Azul, who owns most of the boats on the Douro. I have been on a different Douro Azul boat under charter to Vantage, and the service by the Douro Azul crew was quite good. Chartwell was Queen Elizabeth's Royal Barge during her Diamond Jubilee sail on the Thames. I have walked slowly by the Chartwell when it was tied up in Porto. Unfortunately I can't comment on the cabins, but it supposed to be Douro Azul's entry in the luxury market.

Having done most rivers and loved them... the one we are hoping to do this year is the Douro. Does anyone know anything about the "Spirit of Chartwell"..... yes I do know it is a "barge" conversion. We have done AMA, Avalon, Viking etc but thought a smaller ship might be a bit different. Any comments greatly appreciated. thanks :)

Viking has special baby longships for Portugal that hold under 100. We loved it. You can see pictures here:

http://www.RhodesVacations.com

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Viking has special baby longships for Portugal that hold under 100..

Close, but Viking Douro boats have 53 cabins so at full capacity (I am almost positive they are all doubles, but could be wrong) that is 106 passengers. Spirit of Chartwell has 14 cabins, so assuming double occupancy that is 28 passengers.

Viking Douro boats are (or at least were when I was there in 2016) owned by Douro Azul (their name was painted on the boat in smallish letters even though the standard Viking paint job and design details were predominant). Apparently Portuguese law makes it near impossible for a non-Portuguese company to own Douro vessels even though most (all?) make a stop in Vega de Terron, Spain. Given the presumably Viking copyrighted design I assume (dangerous, I know) a long term lease is involved.

The only important detail was that you enjoyed the trip.😊

Thanks for all replies. :-)

If the Spirit of Chartwell doesn't work out for you, I'd highly recommend Uniworld. We sailed with them on the Douro (Madrid to Lisbon) last summer and were very impressed. They handled all logistics very nicely, even up to delivering us to the ticket counter at the airport in Lisbon. And it really is a beautiful trip, especially getting to learn more than I ever imagined about Port wine.