Northern Portugal & Peneda-Geres National Park: A Vintage Car Road Trip in the MGA

Five nights from Porto into the Peneda-Geres National Park, self-guided, in an MGA Roadster.

Peneda-Geres is the only national park in Portugal and the reason to come north: granite uplands, oak forest, clear rivers and old granite villages, with very little traffic on the roads through it.

The Palacio do Freixo in Porto is the start, with the MGAs introduced and a guided visit to the port lodges at Vila Nova de Gaia on the south bank of the Douro. Guimaraes follows, where the Portuguese nation is generally held to have begun, and Braga, which has been an archbishopric since the Romans. The park comes next, with its monasteries, then a night at the Pousada Mosteiro de Amares, a former monastery whose conversion sets modern rooms inside the old fabric without pretending the two are the same thing. The Minho country closes the route, green forest and rocky hills on carefully chosen back roads.

The MGA for the duration, the accommodation including the Mosteiro de Amares, the guided Gaia visit and the group meals are all included. The price shown is per person. Late spring to early autumn is the window, since the Minho is the wettest part of Portugal and an open car makes that relevant. Six days at this price is the least expensive MGA tour the operator runs, and the north is the part of the country most visitors never see. The park roads are the highlight: granite, water and oak, with wild horses on the uplands and almost no development inside the boundary.