scrb11

Weather's been pretty good in Pinhao. It rained on the drive to Pinhao from OPO but not too much and after I arrived, it was a bit cloudy but mostly clear.

Parked at Dois Lagres, walked down to town. It's a bit of a hike and there isn't really space for pedestrians on the road until you cross the bridge. Got down to the train station just looking around. Pretty there but seems uncrowded. So I made my way to the waterfront and there you saw people. There were few parking spaces and people took up 1.5 widths so fewer spaces than there could have been.

Had to wait about 15 minutes for them to clear a table at Veladouro. Food is good and well-priced but the place is popular, the word is out. LBV, the next door also had fair number of people as well.

When I checked in, they were telling me about restaurants and miradouros. I guess they sell tickets for the boat tours and the museum in Sao Josh da Pesqueira.

In fact that had this glossy pamphlet of that town, the museum and the Sao Salvador do Mundo miradouro. It's about a 40 minute drive but I had bookmarked some nearer miradouros so I went to those first.

Sao Cristovao do Douro was only a few km north of Does Lagres so I visited that one. Very nice, looking straight down to the bridges.

Then I went down to the town, tried to get lunch again but they weren't seating anyone, claimed they had all these reservations. There was a big spot of 2 or 3 square tables pushed together for a big party.

So I drove to Sabores do Douro, which is above town. I had seen on Google Maps that they had an outside terrace. Everyone was sitting inside but I asked to sit outside. They didn't have the umbrellas open so I felt the sun beating down. Still worth being outside.

Food was okay and bargain-priced. I had their bacalau grilled in coal. They had three types of bacalau, salmon and meats. Highest price was about 12.50 Euros but they brought out bread and olives and charged 4 Euros.

I would say the food and speed of service was better at Veladouro.

After lunch went up to Casal de Loivos, which looked spectacular. The receptionist at Dois Lagres said 10 minutes by car or 60-90 minutes hike. Well it took me longer by car. Last bit is on rock-laid narrow roads with a lot of dirt on them. It was a bumpy and steep climb on the car so I was deliberate and slow because I was driving in the middle, ready to stop or pull aside if cars were coming down the other direction.

I was the only one up there for about 15 minutes and then people started showing up. There is someone selling jewelry and crafts up there. His truck takes up quite a bit of the curb space running along the miradouro. Would people going up there for views want to buy anything? But I guess he's not permitted to park that truck in town to sell.

Sao Joao da Pesquiera does look spectacular but I have to wonder about the state of the roads going there from Pinhao so I passed on driving there this afternoon. Maybe another time.

I do see a hotel and quinta on N222, Ventozelo. Has restaurant so maybe a good place to stay for a night or two if you don't want to drive down to Pinhao for dinners.

Maribel

The Miradouro São Salvador do Mundo is quite a long and tough drive from Pinhão.
Glad you got up to the one north of town, the Miradouro Casal de Loivos. In the village there's an olive oil press and shop, D'Origem
https://dorigem.pt/en/olive-oil-press/. .

The Quinta do Ventozelo is 2-years old and gorgeous and sits on one of the Douro's oldest and largest estates, 400 hectares. And it has its own boat. We're going up there for lunch in the fall. Not all rooms have river views. It's kind of a "get away" place.

scrb11

Well the one in Galafura was great, though it's a long drive up winding roads.

I should have eaten at the restaurant there but figured I could eat in Mesao Frio after checking in.

But the restaurant seems to have a nice terrace with its own views.

Kind of a hazy day but still beautiful in the Duoro valley, between Pinhao and Mesao Frio.


Just got back home last night and if and when I visit again, I am going to strongly consider flying into some other European airport and train or drive into Portugal, so maybe from Andalusia.

Had the worst experiences with airports in Portugal:

1. 2 hours to get through passport control on arrival.

2. 1 hour delay on flight from FAO to LIS, almost causing me to miss my connecting flight. They boarded that flight as soon as they arrived in FAO and the passengers of the previous flight de-boarded the plane. Still it was late and I just barely boarded the next flight because the gate for the next flight was right next to my first light.

How is it that there are no directly flights between FAO and OPO. They have to be the second and third largest airports in Portugal? I guess Northern Europens going on holiday to Algarve don't visit Porto enough on the same trip?

3. Drove an hour from Mesao Frio to OPO for a 9 AM flight. I arrived at the Sixt rental car office around 7:30 AM and there was one guy checking all the returned cars for damage. I don't know what they don't even have a drop off option but they handled it a differently than the Sixt in FAO.

I barely made start of boarding for the OPO to LIS flight and then once landed, we boarded shuttles and it was a good 5 km shuttle ride to the terminal from wherever they stationed the flight.

All intra-Portugal flights do not dock to the terminals.

4. Then my departure, first leg was TAP for LIS-AMS. It was nice that they had a Premium Center for Star Alliance Gold, very few people there. But they asked me for emergency contact and other personal info. This is on a United ticket and United has all the information from me. So it seems TAP just wanted to collect data.

In any event, when actually boarding, we made it through the gate only to be standing and waiting about 20 minutes to board the flight. The jetway was clogged with people waiting to board. About 10 minutes in they wheeled in a passenger in a wheelchair and that wheelchair didn't come out for 10 minutes and then the line started to move.


I don't know how typical these experiences are but it makes me think avoiding Portugal airports would be a good idea.

Maribel

scrb11,
Glad you were able to make it to the Miradouro in Galafura--incredible views from there. The restaurant is supposed to be nice but it was closed when we were there. It could have been on a Tuesday, its closing day.

I suspect there's not enough demand for a direct flight from FAO to OPO, maybe because of the Alfa Pendular high speed train.

We now travel to Portugal on Iberia (we're One World Sapphire) from MAD to avoid the passport control lines, making our Portugal trips in between our stays in Madrid, or we drive from Extremadura to Alentejo or from Galicia into the Minho. Both are very pretty drives.

Sounds like you had very a bumpy experience getting home with TAP but hope you were able to get some beautiful photos on your trip.

scrb11

Got a lot of pictures.

Other than the windy weather, it was great. I wasn't aware there was a HSR train, something to research for the future.

Portugal really became pricy this year because I think they've received a lot of justifiable hype the last couple of years. Airfares and car rentals were high. So were some hotel rates in Lisbon.

Maribel

Yes, scrb11,
I've found the Lisbon hotels' high season rates really have increased this year.

We were really, really lucky that our hotel honored the unbeatable rate that we booked for Dec. 2020, then had to cancel, then rebooked for December 2021 at that same rate (which they kindly honored) then cancelled again, then rebooked for March 2022. We'll return in November, but hotel rates are much lower then.

I've been meaning to ask...did you enjoy your stay in Carvoeiro in the Algarve?

scrb11

Well the thinking behind Carvoeiro was that I would be going all across the coast and Caroeiro was kind of in the middle.

I had originally booked in Lagos for 2020 but when that trip fell through, I looked at different places. It's close to the boardwalk, where I chose to stay, a vacation rental. Also close to some restaurants, had to walk about 600 meters or so.

The boardwalk is nice, you can walk on a easy to walk wooden platform with seating at different places. Then there are gates where you can walk down into the rocks, though I don't know if you can go all the way down to a beach. So there is one place that had a bar that you could walk down to and another place where you can go in and out of caves, but the rocky ledges that they made into stairs are uneven so you have to be careful and may not be great for less mobile people especially climbing back up to the boardwalk.

I also thought I would go to the Tivoli and maybe visit one of their bars or poolside lounges but I couldn't get a good look from the street and they didn't have any menus posted. I guessed that their views weren't any better than other parts of the coast.

I don't think the Carvoeiro beach was anything special but it's convenient to town and shops and restaurants.

Portimao is a city and though nearby, still a bit of a drive because you have to go north away from the coast and then it's slow going on that highway and then go south. They had some construction blocking off the main road back to the freeway so I had to go round and round to find a way.

With better weather, I'd have gone to Lagos, maybe north towards the hills and east towards Faro.

Also another reason I chose Carvoeiro, it is an area of few restrictions on flying drones. The stretch of coast from just east of Portimao almost to Faro has no restrictions. Wind didn't allow drone flights until maybe the last day I was there.

I stayed 5 days, seemed like enough well-reviewed restaurants there for me. But someone might prefer Lagos or Portimao which have more options.

Maribel

Thanks, scrb11, for your description of Carvoeiro.

I got quite lost in Portimão, and given all the high-rises in that area, it just wasn't for me.
We've enjoyed Lagos, the Costa Vicentina to the north west of Lagos with its gorgeous and pristine beaches and cliff walks and the Tavira area, close to the Spanish border on the eastern Algarve (our favorite being Lagos and northwest).

Thanks again.