in which case you'd feel very at home with Riviera, I think Mme P.

They were not necessarily the cheapest though, and unlike the deal that non-C had, alcoholic [or any drinks save tap water] were not included apart from the sparkling wines and juices which were served when the Captain invited the guests for pre-dinner drinks, which happened a few times during the trip.

personally I prefer that as I don't like paying for other people to drink [nor the feeling that others are paying for me to do so!] but I can see the advantage of not having to face a large bar bill at the end of the trip.

I'm not much of a drinker myself and feel as you do about subsidizing those who are. I'll certainly have a look. Many thanks for the insight.

We booked via a travel agent. We were actually originally looking at Riviera, which was a similar price level, and also had a pool on the boat, but it was fully booked for all of 2016 up to November, when we enquired in October 2015.

I think possibly the most expensive brands of whiskey etc were not included in our deal, but we're not big drinkers so I'm not sure - I don't drink at all, my mum likes a glass of wine with dinner, and dad's somewhere in between.

The next day saw our longest journey, as we set out from Barca d'Alva across the Spanish border to Salamanca. Quite a pleasant drive, with more occasional spottings of storks. The trip had some kind of arrangement with a hotel a little way out of the historic heart of the city; we stopped there first to use the facilities and have a drink.

Then we had a walking tour led by a local guide – this was outstanding - very informative and enjoyable, and I very much appreciated it. It really is a beautiful city, with lots of graceful sandstone buildings.

Then it was back to the hotel for lunch and a flamenco show – not really my thing but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. Then we had two hours free time.

Beforehand I had been somewhat vexed that this trip was on a Monday, when in common with many parts of Europe almost all the museums were closed. However in the event, the time was not really enough even to do the cathedral properly, as it was about half an hour’s walk there from the hotel. (We had seen it from the outside on our walking tour.) The cathedral was a very impressive building inside, with lots of small chapels and the older cathedral all inside. I used an audio guide which was very informative, but had to skip some of the later bits to be back at the hotel in time to travel back to the boat.

I grabbed an icecream on my way back as it was another very hot day. My appetite was definitely whetted to return to beautiful Salamanca some time.

That evening we ventured ashore to have a post-prandial coffee (and Coke Zero) at one of the cafes in Barca d’Alva. The village had seen better days; we were told that it had been in decline since the railway from Porto to Salamanca shut down. It appeared somewhat run down, with a street with a few restaurants and bars parallel with the riverside (where there were a few souvenir shops for cruise ship visitors), but set a little way back. The young girl serving at the bar/cafe we drank at had rather rudimentary English. My mum wanted English-style tea with milk, but was served with a large glass of milk. She then ordered a coffee, and she and my dad shared the milk - they said it was the best coffee they had on the trip, as usually there wasn't enough milk for their tastes ;)

We were moored overnight at Barca d’Alva, before setting off back downstream early the next morning. We sailed all morning, then after lunch set out on a two-part outing while the boat continued on without us. The first part was another winery visit, the Quinta do Seixo, with tour and tasting. I would happily have skipped this, but wanted to do the second half of the trip, and the coach did not go back to the boat in between. There were nice views, and we learnt that they grow roses as a way of testing whether there are any pests in the area, as the roses are more delicate than the grapes – a kind of vine canary, if you like.

The more interesting visit was to the historic city of Lamego. First we visited a fine pilgrimage church at the top of the hill. There are 700 steps down to the town, which the devout climb on their knees, and a few of the group members elected to walk down it, but most of us went down by coach. There is a castle in the town, but Tiago advised that it was tricky to get to, so I spent my time going round the excellent local museum and visiting the small cathedral. The latter paled in comparison to Salamanca, but the museum had some wonderful exhibits, mainly of religious art and altarpieces. One gilded altarpiece from a convent was so magnificent that, turning a corner and coming upon it, I literally said “Wow” out loud.

That night we moored at Regua again, and after dinner there was a concert on board by a troupe of local folk and fado musicians. I suppose it was a bit tourist-orientated, but it seemed to entertain the audience and create quite a party atmosphere.

That night we moored at Regua again, and after dinner there was a concert on board by a troupe of local folk and fado musicians. I suppose it was a bit tourist-orientated, but it seemed to entertain the audience and create quite a party atmosphere.>>

one night when we were moored up against another boat [in Arles I think] we could see that they had a folk-lore night; on another boat we saw some local dancing going on. Entertainment on the Riviera boat was somewhat more home-spun with a couple of quizzes and a crew entertainment. all of it is tourist-orientated of course - it just depends what sort of entertainment you like. [or whether it bothers you enough for it to influence your choice of boat!]

Knowing nothing about Portugal, non-C, the trip sounds very interesting - a good way of getting a "taste" of different places. was there enough happening on the river-banks to keep your interest as you went along? That was something that we could have done with on the Rhone which was a bit light on things to watch on the river bank.

Not an awful lot - it was more of a soothing backdrop, watching the hillsides covered in vines most of the time. Very pretty, but not a lot of action.

On Wednesday morning we sailed back to Porto. This was actually the one day of the trip which was not boiling hot, at a temperate 24 degrees, which flt like such a relief.

In fact the boat went past the city all the way to the sea, before turning round and mooring back where we had started at Vila Gaia de Nova. There was yet another visit to a port factory there, which I could definitely have dispensed with, but was popular with others. Then we went into historic Porto. This bit was a little disappointing, as it was a coach tour round to pint out places of interest, a short visit inside to the cathedral (okay), followed by being dumped in what seemed like a pretty random area. As we were having two extra nights here, to be honest we didn’t bother much with even trying to sightsee, but found a lovely cafe/patisserie to relax in.

We saw the queue to go into the Lello bookshop which inspired some of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and which was close to where we were sitting. Apparently it's now a tourist destination in its own right, and charges admission.

So that was the end of the cruise part of our trip, and we were sad to leave the boat.

We were surprised that we were the only ones on our boat who were taking the opportunity for extra time in Porto. The majority were flying back to Gatwick, meaning they had to leave around 6.00, but the boat put on a special early breakfast for them. Those taking a later flight, or who were making other arrangements, and our little trio, had breakfast later, but it was a limited selection with no hot options.

A taxi came to take us to our hotel for the next two nights, the Ipanema Porto, at about 10. It would have been nice if it had been earlier so we could have made a bit more of the day.

The Ipanema Porto (t has a sister hotel, the Ipanema Park, a bit further out of town) was a modern, slightly characterless but clean and efficient 4 star hotel a little way out of the historic town centre. We had no complaints, but it didn't really stand out either. Views were uninspiring - over a car park in my case. But it was clean and comfortable, which is all you really need.

Antonio, a representative from a local travel agency had been appointed to give us a short walk around the area while we were waiting for the rooms to become available, and he was very helpful suggesting places to eat, etc. He showed us the statue which commemorates the British helping out the Spanish and Portugese in the Napoleonic wars, which was close to the hotel; this is a British lion standing proudly on a rather bedraggled and clearly defeated French eagle, on top of a column. (We had actually also see it the previous day, but it was a pretty cool sight.)

By the time we had done that and checked into the hotel, the morning was gone, so we really only had a day and a half for sightseeing. Antonio had recommended the food market near the statue as a place to eat, and my dad wanted to eat there, but we really wanted to do something, so we got a taxi to the Casa Serralves, a modern art museum set in an attractive park.

We ate lunch at the Serralves museum, but it was a bit basic, and we regretted not having gone to the market. The park/garden was lovely, if a bit lacking in colour, but it was a lovely place to wander. We had planned on having a drink in the teahouse there, and were disappointed to find it was shut up, although it said it was open on the entrance gate.

We ended up going back to the market for a snack. This market was originally one of the fresh food markets of the town, but was converted a few years ago to mainly restaurants and cafes/food stands. It was really very nice, although it was a bit disconcerting to see one stand served roast pork from the leg, with the trotters sticking out facing the customer like a beer tap. We then went back to the hotel to recover. I would have liked to go on somewhere else, as I felt we hadn't really made the most of the day, but my parents were a bit tired.

We ate that night in one of the local restaurants, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The beef and veal dishes were so undercooked they were not so much pink as raw, even when cooked a bit more. My dad has a medical condition which means he struggles digesting steaks; this is well controlled with medication, but the meat here gave him his first attack for years. The waiters looked concerned - it probably looked as if he was having a heart attack.

Breakfast at the Ipanema was decent. There was a bit more choice than on the boat, but the bacon was fattier and the pastries not as nice. We then headed down into the historic Ribeira district. We visited the Palacio da Bolsa, the lavish old stock exchange building.

Particularly impressive was the Arabic room, an incredibly ornate place where one of the big European Union treaties was signed. The tour guide spoke rapidly, with quite a strong accent, and against a fair amount of background noise so we didn’t really hear all the information, which was a shame.

I had wanted to visit the palace where King Henry the Navigator was born, but it was about to close for lunch, so we went and had our own lunch at one of the many cafes.

We then got a taxi back across to Vila Nova de Gaia so we could take the cable car ride up to the high bridge. It’s only a few minutes, but the views were spectacular, over the river, and both banks. If I had been on my own, I would probably have taken the opportunity to tour the monastery at the top (which belongs to the Portugese army), but we decided to go back to the area our hotel was in to see the Cristal Palace gardens.

In many ways these were more attractive than the Serralvo park, with colourful flowers, a very pretty green lake (the Serralvo lake was minute, more of a pond, really), and even a couple of peacocks strutting around. It was however, less well maintained, and what really let it down were the public toilets, which were, in a word, disgusting. The ones in the public library in the gardens were not great, but acceptable.

We had drinks from the kiosk by the lake, which was very pleasant. Although it was, again, extremely hot, a breeze had started blowing, which was refreshing. The breeze increased and became quite gusty, knocking over my glass of Coke Zero. I was regarded by my dear mother with disapproval, despite my protests that it was the wind’s fault. Then, a sudden, even fiercer gust plucked a parasol from the table next to ours, whipped it into the air, and then whooshed it into the lake, where it gently sank. I would have liked to spend a bit more time strolling around, but others were tired, so we walked back to our hotel.

Butting in to say: Thank you for this. Quite helpful to me.

We had been disappointed by the previous night’s meal, so asked the hotel reception for a recommendation as we wanted something nice for the last night. They suggested a brand new place some distance away, and called us a taxi. We didn’t actually book, as we wanted to check it out first, as it was a steak specialist, and after last night we were collectively a bit off beef. On arrival, we decided it was indeed a bit too beef oriented, and had a look for somewhere else. We weren’t quite sure where we were, although I think it may have been somewhere near the cathedral. We did eventually find a place to eat, a three star hotel called the Guarany. While not outstanding, the meal was perfectly nice, and it was enlivened by a pianist and violinist, who played mainly pop classics.

On returning to our hotel, we found they too had live music on offer in the bar, a fado singer who was quite good, and my dad and I stayed there for a while listening to her, although mum wanted to finish her packing.

Next morning it was our turn for the horrible early start. Unlike the boat, the hotel did not run to special early breakfasts for those departing, but they did give us a lunch bag consisting of a cheese and ham sandwich, an apple and a carton of fruit juice. In retrospect we would have been better off just buying breakfast at the airport. The flight was delayed leaving by an hour, but unlike the journey there, we did not board, so there was plenty of time.

In summary: we had an absolutely lovely time. I would consider another river cruise; and I would definitely go back to Porto or another part of Portugal, and to Salamanca.

Thanks for taking the time to do this interesting and detailed report!