After three years of planning, relationship-building, and more trips to Portugal than we can count, we're announcing our newest itinerary. It begins in Lisbon's oldest neighborhoods and ends in the terraced hills above the Douro River, where Francisco has been making port wine the same way for forty years.
Portugal has been on our minds for a long time. We first visited Lisbon in 2019 — Paola and I had a week before starting a scouting trip in Spain — and we've been going back ever since, learning the country, meeting people, understanding what makes it distinct. Portugal is not a smaller version of Spain. It has its own logic, its own ingredients, its own pace, and its own particular warmth toward strangers. We wanted to understand it well enough to share it properly, which takes time.
The itinerary we've built begins in Alfama, Lisbon's oldest neighborhood, where Ana has been making pastéis de nata in her family's kitchen for thirty years. She's the reason we start there and not anywhere else: that first morning, hands in pastry dough, talking about custard and history and the way the same recipe gets passed between generations — that's the opening note we wanted for this trip. From Lisbon we move north through the Alentejo, where cork oaks shade the roads and the food is earthy and ancient, then up to the Douro Valley.
Francisco has been aging port in the same cellar his grandfather built. When he opens a bottle for CDV guests, it's not a sales presentation — it's a conversation about time, about the land, about what his family has understood about this valley for a hundred years. He's one of the people who made us confident we could do Portugal justice.
Portugal: Lisbon to the Douro
8 Days · Up to 10 guests · From $4,895 per person
Francisco will open a bottle he's been saving and tell you the story behind it. The fishermen in Nazaré will show you how they've pulled from the Atlantic for generations. You'll leave with friends, not souvenirs.
Departures begin in October 2027. We're opening the waitlist now, because our Italy tours fill early and we expect the same here. If Portugal has been in the back of your mind, this is the moment to put your name down.
Co-Founder
Michael co-founded Culture Discovery Vacations in 2006 with his wife Paola after years of living and working in Italy. He has led over 200 tours across six countries and still finds himself surprised by what happens when people eat together.