Ladies Vintage Tour in the Alto Douro

Five nights along the Douro, self-guided, in an MGA Roadster, as a women-only tour.

The operator launched this edition in 2025 with a plain rationale: to put women in the driving seat rather than the passenger seat, which on classic car tours is still more often where they end up.

The Palacio do Freixo in Porto is the start, an eighteenth-century baroque palace by Nicolau Nasoni, now a five-star hotel, where the MGAs are introduced. The route then follows the Douro upstream through the terraced vineyards, the historic quintas and the wine villages of the Alto Douro, which was demarcated in 1756 and is among the oldest wine regions in Europe. The nights are spent in wine hotels above the river, and the format differs from the standard tour in the time built in: extra hours at each hotel’s wellness facilities and additional cultural stops rather than a longer driving day.

The MGA for the duration, the accommodation in the wine hotels and the group meals are all included. The price shown is per person. Spring and autumn are the seasons, with the harvest in late September the most atmospheric time to be in the valley and the midsummer heat considerable in a car with very little roof. Six days at this pace is a holiday rather than a rally, and the valley roads reward it: narrow, steep and slow, with the terraces climbing away on either side. The Palacio do Freixo at either end also means the trip opens and closes in Porto rather than at a provincial hotel, which makes the flights easier to arrange.