The cycling routes require a basic level of fitness, which you should have acquired by steady cycling. The routes can reach an altitude of 100 to 800 meters. The daily routes, of 35 - 60 km, cover hilly and mountainous terrain and can be completed without time constraints. The roads are mostly asphalted but there are also trails in this tour included. You can decide every day for yourself, whether you would like to cycle individually using the maps provided, or join one of the tour guides (or other individual participants).

The start of your journey. Departure from the airport is at 2pm (if you arrive after 3pm there will be a surcharge). On your way from Porto airport to the eastern most point of your holiday - Miranda do Douro, enjoy the beautiful landscape and scenery that unfold along the way like a painting of green trees and grey and brown rocks, hills and mountains, crowned by a blue sky. The Douro River Canyon and it’s over 200 meter-high cliffs also offers a fascinating landscape. The small town of Miranda do Douro, with it’s typical whitewashed houses, it’s Roman origins and narrow cobbled streets, deserves an exploratory walk.

The first stage of your biking holiday takes you through the International Douro Nature Reserve, a gentle highland plateau known for its wilderness and landscapes. The stretch you shall cycle will take you across a quiet land, populated by over 170 species of birds, wild boar, and the occasional Iberian wolf. Even the goats and cattle make little noise. In the sky overhead, you may see a rare Golden Eagle or an Egyptian vulture.

Today’s tour takes you along a former railway line. The eco trail runs past forests, across fields, a typical agricultural landscape, and a few scattered woods. Although the shepherds you meet may not speak your language, they are extremely friendly and happy to pose for photos. Continue along olive and almond groves until you reach medieval Torre de Moncorvo, the Capital of the Almond Blossom Festival. You will be warmly greeted by your host at an elegant town house where you may have the chance to sample her homemade liqueurs, which go beautifully with the locally grown Moncorvo almonds.

On the fourth day, you will cycle along the Douro River for the first time. The stage passes through olive groves that produce some of the best olive oils in the world and takes you to the small and peaceful village of Lodões, where you will be welcomed by the producer in an olive mill, who has carefully prepared a picnic with seasonal and regional products such as fruit, cheese, sausage, bread, olive oil and wine. You will spend the night in a farmhouse in the Iberian Plateau Biosphere Reserve (transfer at 2.30 pm), where you will find old granite mills with thick trunks that were once used to make wine and olive oil. For dinner, you will be served the best of local gastronomy.

The Alto Douro Winemaking Region is famous for their wines. First and foremost is Port Wine, but the region also produces world-famous red wines from the Touriga grape. The terraced vineyards, so typical of the region that is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Property, are a delight to the eye. The neatly-kept wine estates, or quintas, rise proudly amidst the vineyards, their names clearly visible to everyone who passes. You will enjoy arriving at the river’s edge and putting your bike on a Rabelo boat that in earlier days transported barrels of wine downriver to Porto. As you relax in the sun and photograph the surrounding landscape, the Douro region will once again enfold you in it’s magic. Pinhão, where most of the famous Port wine estates are located, is the next stop. Don’t forget to visit the beautiful train station. The seventeenth-century house, where you will spend the night, is located on the hillside, above the town.

It will not be easy for you to say goodbye to your kind landlady. First, the biking route will take you through the back roads of the Douro, then you will cycle gently back to the riverside. The views are nothing less than breathtaking, as if the Douro Valley, knowing that it is the last stage of your biking holiday, wants to ensure that you will never forget their magical beauty.

At the end of this beautiful day, you will arrive in Peso da Régua, the International Capital of Wine and Vineyards, at the centre of the Port wine-growing region.

Departure or extension.