3-Days Wine & Food Tour in Bairrada

Day 1: Discover the Bairrada Region

Welcome to Portugal. Wine Tourism in Portugal will invite you to discover the amazing Bairrada.

You will be transferred from Porto to Bussaco Palace Hotel.

Check-in in the magnificent Bussaco Palace Hotel. A fairy tale castle in an enchanted forest. Legendary Palace was built for the last Kings of Portugal in 1885. The hotel is considered one of the most beautiful, romantic, and historical in the world since 1917. Located in the interior of the National Forest of Bussaco, an ex-líbris botanical and natural of Portugal, with fauna from all over the world, many of the giants offer countless and unforgettable pedestrian walks in close contact with nature, with passages through breathtaking fountains, chapels, hermitages, and sights through the hill. The Palace Hotel of Bussaco is an excellent example of "manuelino-gothic” architecture. Their halls are richly decorated and have ancient furniture, large paintings, and typical Portuguese-painted tiles. Here, you can taste the legendary wines of Bussaco worldwide, visit the regional wine route, take a relaxing walk in the National Park, as well, visit the thermal Spa, and the Golf course, and ride a horse found close by to the Hotel.

Dinner will be served at Mesa Real Restaurant. At the beautiful Mesa Real Restaurant, a former royal banquet hall that once hosted historic banquets, decorated with ten huge paintings of Camões´Os Lusiadas’, depicting scenes of Vasco da Gama's voyage to India, and under a magnificent Moorish ceiling, you will indulgence with fine modern Portuguese terroir cuisine mastered by prominent Chef Miguel Silva, who proposes a most authentic and creative gastronomical tour of the best local flavors.

End of day

Day 2: Food and Wine from Bairrada

Breakfast will be served at the hotel.

The Private Driver is waiting for you at the Hotel Lobby.

Your first stop will be at Luís Pato Cellar. The wines combine the technical precision of the new world with the secular tradition of the old world. Luís Pato, known as "Senhor Baga”, is an essential figure in the wine sector in Portugal. The Pato family has been producing wine in Bairrada since at least the 18th century. Luis Pato inherited the nonconformist and pioneering spirit of the family, since 1980 he has been producing mono-varietal wines from unique parcels and exclusively from local grape varieties. His great passion is the Baga variety! João Pato - his father - started bottling wine from his vineyards in 1970, becoming the first producer and bottler in the Bairrada region after his demarcation. You will have a visit to the winery and a wine tasting.

Then, lunch in a local Restaurant with the presence of a representative of Adega Luis Pato. Enjoy a roast suckling pig with Luís Pato wines, a typical dish from Bairrada (alternative menus are possible).

After lunch, you will visit the Aliança Underground Museum. A Cellar, where you can find a wide range of wines, sparkling wines, spirits, and muscat, from all bacalhôa companies (Aliança, Bacalhôa, Quinta do Carmo e Quinta dos Loridos). You will have a guided visit and a wine tasting of its best wines and a visit to the eight different collections of the museum: archeology, ethnography, mineralogy, paleontology, tiles, ceramics, and tin; covering the history of millions of years.

Return to your hotel.

End of day

Day 3: Charming Coimbra

Breakfast will be served at the hotel followed by Check-out.

The Private Driver is waiting for you in the hotel lobby.

You will visit Coimbra. On the banks of the River Mondego, Coimbra is famous for its University, the oldest in Portugal and one of the oldest in Europe, which over time has shaped its image to become "the city of students". You will have a drive/walking Tour in Coimbra with a private driver. We begin this visit, precisely at the university founded in the XVIIIth Century and which UNESCO has placed on its list of World Heritage sites, in a classification that also includes Rua da Sofia and the upper part of the city. It's well worth climbing its tower, which houses the bells that signal the start and end of classes, to appreciate the superb 360º view of Coimbra. But there is much to see at ground level, too: the Pátio das Escolas courtyard, the Sala dos Capelos hall where the most important ceremonies are held, the Chapel of São Miguel with an imposing Baroque organ, and the Joanne Library, which has more than 300,000 works dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Several monuments from those times display the splendor of Romanesque art. In the shopping area and area of historic cafés in the City Centre, visitors really must see the Monastery of Santa Cruz, which houses the tomb of the first King of Portugal, Afonso Henriques, and on the other bank, the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha recovered and rescued from the waters of the river that invaded it over the centuries. The Sé Velha (Old Cathedral), too, on whose steps the monumental serenade takes place in which students dressed in black capes sing the Coimbra Fado with heartfelt emotion.

Lunch is waiting for you at Pedro & Inês Restaurant. A romantic cuisine, the restaurant offers a more informal atmosphere and a concept of sharing. It is a cozy space, overlooking the garden and where the old recipes of Quinta das Lágrimas are present.

Then, you will visit Quinta das Lágrimas Park. The Quinta das Lágrimas estate has been cited as the setting for the forbidden romance between King D. Pedro I and D. Inês de Castro in several of the finest pages of Portuguese literature, one of the most beautiful although tragic love stories. Quinta das Lágrimas estate occupies a total area of 18.3 hectares. There are woodlands on the southern slope, which are ideal for taking long walks, complemented by the recently created Mediaeval Garden, the first of its kind in Portugal, in homage to the love story between Pedro and Inês. For this garden - where an attempt has been made to create a simple, enclosed environment - around 50 species of plants have been selected, whose existence before the Age of the Discoveries can be proven by historical engravings and documents.

Return to Porto.

End of the Tour.

Highlights:

• Coimbra’s Heritage
• Visit to the Quinta das Lagrima’s Mediaeval Garden
• Wine Experiences
• Accommodation in a charming Hotel Palace