Inside Info about Portugal’s River of Gold Viking Douro River cruise Excursions

When planning a Viking River Cruise, the onboard experience and stunning destinations are only part of the adventure. Equally important are the excursions, which allow you to fully immerse yourself in the rich history, culture, and natural beauty of the regions you visit.

From the included shore excursions to optional upgrades, Viking ensures guests have a variety of ways to explore each destination, tailored to different interests and budgets. Whether you're strolling through charming villages, tasting local wines, or venturing to iconic landmarks, excursions add to your vacation memories.

We'll guide you through the process of booking Viking excursions, discuss the difference between included and optional excursions, and share our experiences from Portugal's breathtaking Douro River. We'll also provide tips for maximizing your time in Lisbon and Porto, including pre-cruise tours you don’t want to miss.

Disclosure: This page might have affiliate links, meaning we may earn a small commission if you click the link and proceed with a purchase at no cost to you. We thank Viking, Devour Tours, and The Tour Guy for hosting us. We recommend cruises, experiences, products, and services we personally use. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

When and How to Book Viking Excursions

Viking does not have a set timeline for when shore excursions are available before a river cruise. However, you should log into My Viking Journey to see if excursions are posted as soon as you sign up for your cruise. If they are not loaded when you log in, you'll be notified via email when they are available for your sailing.

In general, the website bookings close one week prior to embarkation; be sure your excursions are sorted before that time. Know that you can book optional excursions once onboard, based on availability. To ensure you'll get the optional excursion(s) you want, we recommend booking on My Viking Journey as soon as possible.

Included Excursions Versus “Optional” Excursions

Viking includes an excursion in every port with river cruises. If you want to enrich your experience with additional excursions, you can book activities at an extra cost. These excursions, which Viking labels as “optional,” are priced per person and vary in price.

For Portugal’s River of Gold itinerary, the excursions range from a historic walk around a village to a drive through the stunning rolling hills covered with vineyards to a Port wine tasting or a multi-course dinner with wine pairings.

Though excursions may vary from year to year, our experience will give you a solid overview of the options and what to expect. Most importantly, this will inform your decision about what optional excursions to book.

Budgeting for “Optional” Viking Excursions

We recommend budgeting for a few additional excursions. Whether you do them through Viking or a third party is up to you. Know that for this particular itinerary, it will be hard to find excursions outside of Viking’s offerings in the small cities and villages between the major ports.

While Porto and Lisbon are big cities where it is easier to find things to do on your own, it's more challenging to arrange excursions in Régua, Pinhão, Pochinho, Barca d’Alva, and Folgosa along the Douro River.

Additionally, some logistics might get confusing for excursions you seek out on your own during the river portion of this cruise. This is because there were times that we disembarked for an excursion in one port but got back on the ship in a different port. In other words, the ship repositioned itself to another port while we were on an excursion.

If you try to coordinate independently, where you need to be picked up and dropped off with a third-party tour operator could easily cause confusion. For this reason, specifically for this cruise itinerary, we recommend sticking to Viking's excursions throughout the whole trip. Luckily, they're very good tours! However, we encourage you to add your own pre- or post-cruise tours in Porto or Lisbon.

Budgeting for Viking's Optional Douro River Tours

Regarding budgeting, some excursions are €89 per guest, while others are €299 per guest. The experiences you will be interested in adding depend on your taste and what you want to do.

You'll love the cruise even if you only budget for the cruise and do not add optional excursions. If you think you may want to spring for additional experiences to enhance your vacation, there are various options to accommodate different budgets. Below, we share the excursion options during our Douro River cruise and what we signed up for.

Viking Douro River Cruise 10-Day Itinerary & Excursions

Viking's 10-day Portugal’s River of Gold cruise experience includes: 

• Day 1 & 2: Two nights at the Corinthia Lisbon, including a tour of Lisbon's Belem area
• Day 3: Viking transfer from Lisbon to Porto, with a stop in Coimbra
• Day 4: Régua & Pinhão
• Day 5: Pochinho & Barca d’Alva
• Day 6: Salamenca, Spain
• Day 7: Pochinho, Folgosa & Régua
• Day 8: Régua & Vila Nova de Gaia/Porto
• Day 9 & 10: Porto for two nights (the ship docks at Vila Nova de Gaia to be precise, which is on the riverbank opposite Porto)

You start your vacation in Lisbon, are driven north to Porto to board the ship, then sail from Porto towards the eastern end of the river and back again. While you dock in some of the ports twice, the experiences are different the first and second times you are there.

Overview of Our Pre-Cruise Schedule in Lisbon

We recommend doing some tours on your own in Lisbon before the Viking itinerary starts. We stayed in Lisbon for a night before meeting up with the Viking group.

We decided to fly on the day before the Viking itinerary started. We took a red-eye flight that arrived early in the morning. We took a Bolt car (the local version of Uber in Portugal, though they also have Uber) into the city center, dropped our bags at the Ivens Hotel that we booked on our own, and immediately went on a food tour.

The next day, we checked out of The Ivens hotel (which we highly recommend — it's in the heart of downtown Lisbon and is fabulous) and left our luggage with the front desk. We took an all-day tour to Sintra and Cascais with the company The Tour Guy. Then, we grabbed our luggage to transfer to the Viking hotel, Corinthia Lisbon, which is approximately 20-30 minutes from downtown Lisbon, depending on traffic.

That's all to say that coming in one night before our Portugal’s River of Gold cruise itinerary started at the Corinthia Lisbon hotel allowed us to take two excursions on our own. This maximized what we were able to see in and around Lisbon, for which we're grateful. It enriched our Portugal experience.

Tours You Should Book Independently to Start Your Vacation in Lisbon

You begin your 10-day Viking vacation in Lisbon, Portugal's capital city. The airport is approximately 30 minutes from downtown, depending on traffic, and only around 15 minutes to the Corinthia Hotel, where Viking hosts guests.

We started before Viking's itinerary began, which allowed us to see more of the area. We highly recommend this. It's very easy to arrive early, get to the main part of the city on your own, and book some excursions before the Viking trip begins.

We recommend two things: a tour of downtown Lisbon's historic area and/or a food tour, and a day trip to Sintra. We have a favorite food tour company we book with wherever we go, and when we saw they had a tour in Lisbon, we jumped at the chance to learn about the local cuisine with them.

Book Tours on Your Own Before Meeting Up with Viking

✔️ Devour Food Tour in Lisbon to Taste Portuguese Cuisine

Devour Tours has the best guides. Their food tours only visit independently owned small shops and restaurants to support locals. Our guide was a woman who spoke perfect English (she was from the USA but had lived in Portugal for years and was a current resident). She was friendly and knew the answers to all the questions we asked, and then some. She had great recommendations for things to do and see in the city, as well as where to eat during our time there.

One of our favorite things about this tour was that the guide pointed out the differences between Portuguese and Spanish foods that were similar. As neighboring countries, it's not a surprise that they share some of the same specialties, like Iberian pork. But her explanation of how they differ in Portugal vs. Spain was fascinating to learn.

We tasted many classic dishes and foods during this tour that laid the foundation for our education about Portuguese cuisine and culinary expectations for the trip ahead.

✔️ Day Trip to Sintra, Roca Cape, and Cascais

We had one day where we could use its entirety for a six or eight-hour tour before we joined the Viking group. We wanted to use that day wisely, so we embarked on an all-day adventure. Some great day trips take you to areas surrounding Lisbon.

The Tour Guy helped us find the perfect tour to see Sintra and inside Pena Palace, called “Sintra and Cascais Semi-Private Day Trip from Lisbon with Pena Palace.”

Most tours to Sintra will take you to the castle, but not inside. And we thought, “If we're going all the way there, we want to see inside Pena Palace!” In addition to the tour of Pena Palace, we visited the cliffs at Roca Cape, the westernmost point of continental Europe, during the tour. We finished with free time in Cascais, a “ritzy” popular beach town in Lisbon.

We really liked that this tour met in the morning at an easy-to-get-to location in downtown Lisbon. The tour had a maximum of eight people and transportation was included.

One thing to know when you book with The Tour Guy is that they don't do the tours themselves. So whereas Devour Tours operates their own food tours, The Tour Guy only operates their tours sometimes. They partner with select tour companies to meet the guests' demands. When we arrived at the meeting location to greet our guide, we realized the operator on the ground was Inside Lisbon.

Nevertheless, everything was smooth, and we had a great day. We only mention it so you're not confused upon arrival, like we were. In retrospect, when we look at the photos of the tour we took, we see “Inside Lisbon” in some of the promotional images on The Tour Guy's website.

Viking Douro River Cruise Excursions

The excursions with Viking were incredibly well organized with great guides, skilled bus drivers, and well-planned experiences. You'll be grateful for the professional and reliable bus drivers because there are some very windy roads in the Douro River valley! We appreciated the “comfort stops” for restrooms on long drives, the availability of onboard restrooms on each coach bus just in case, and the use of the Quietvoxes, which allow guests to hear the guide as if they’re right next to him or her. 

Viking includes at least one excursion in your cruise fare every day of your river cruise unless you’re on the water all day. Which we would liken to a “sea day” on ocean cruises.

Viking doesn’t have intense excursions on the Douro River cruise itinerary in terms of level of activity. If you’re looking for a river cruise line with an onboard gym and moderate to difficult hikes, Viking might not be for you because you would be disappointed by the lack of challenging hikes and such.

That’s not to say that you can’t hike or go for a walk on your own in a port; you can. But for most people, that defeats the point of signing up for a river cruise with befitting excursions planned. “Easy” activity levels aside, Viking had wonderful excursions that we very much enjoyed. 

Excursion Details, Day-by-Day

We won’t go through every detail of each excursion from our Viking tours on the Douro. Instead, we’ll provide an overview of what to expect based on our experience. That way, you know what you’re signing up for, especially for the optional excursions. 

The excursions are listed chronologically from the beginning of the cruise to the end, including our pre-cruise days in Lisbon with Viking. Though you dock in some ports twice, like Régua, the excursions are different each time you're there.

Day 1 of the 10-day Portugal itinerary is the arrival day in Lisbon; tours through Viking were not offered that day.

Lisbon Excursions (Day 2)

While Viking didn't include an extensive walking tour of the downtown Lisbon area, we got to visit Belem with the group.

Belem is part of the greater Lisbon metropolitan area. It's like saying you're in Brooklyn when you're in NYC, even though you're not in Manhattan, which is what most people are referring to when they say “New York City.” When most tourists say “Lisbon,” they're usually referring to downtown historic Lisbon, even though technically, Belem is part of Lisbon too. It's a beautiful historic area.

We boarded coach buses from the hotel to go to Belem. A highlight was being among the first to enter the famous Jerónimos Monastery for the day, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Viking covers admission for all passengers, and our guided tour was great. We had free time to walk around the area afterward and see the Belem waterfront before returning to the buses for a guided tour of the Belem Tower area and its nearby monuments.

Optional Excursions in Lisbon

We chose to do an optional Viking excursion to the National Tile Museum. The cost of this optional tour was €129 per guest. Painted tiles are an integral part of Portuguese architecture; we were excited to see the museum with a guided tour and paint tiles, which was a fun souvenir from the trip.

The museum was good, not great (which is no fault of Viking's), but we were glad we went to see this important cultural aspect of the country from a different point of view and with a guide. It's a little bit out of the way from Lisbon's downtown area, so what appealed to us was not just the guided tour and painting our own tiles, but also that Viking took care of getting us there and back on a comfortable bus!

Our painted tiles were fired after our visit and dropped off at the ship in Porto on the second-to-last day of the cruise.

Another optional excursion during our time in Lisbon with Viking was a Flavors of Lisbon food tour for €109 per person. The reason we didn't do this tour was because we love Devour tours, and we were able to fit a food tour with them into our schedule the day before.

Additionally, the Flavors of Lisbon tour overlapped with the tile museum tour, and we could only choose one. Our solution was to do a food tour on our own with our favorite tour company, then partake in the tile museum tour.

Coimbra (Day 3)

After your second night at the Corinthia Lisbon hotel, you board buses early in the morning to head north to get to the ship. Viking does a great job of breaking up the trip with a stop in Coimbra, a beautiful city centered around a historic university. We had a wonderful tour of the campus and the gorgeous library there, which is where the card catalog system started. After the campus tour, we headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

If you're like me and want to know the day's schedule in advance so there are no surprises, here's a general outline of what to expect this day, which is day 3 of your cruise (the day you board the ship):

Lunch included a performance from a Fado singer and musician, which we were excited about because we loved seeing Flamenco in Spain. It's very similar. It was also the first sit-down meal we had as a group, and it was good to get to know some of our fellow passengers during this time.

After lunch, we boarded the buses to continue north to the ship.

The day's optional excursion was Batalha & Fatima (€239/guest). Guests who did this excursion skipped the transfer from Lisbon to Porto via Coimbra. Instead, they left Lisbon on a separate bus and visited Batalha and Fatima on the way to Porto. In other words, if you sign up for this optional excursion, you do not go to Coimbra, and you skip the included lunch with Fado performers.

Time Spent on Buses during a Douro River Cruise Itinerary

Some fellow passengers felt that we spent a lot of time on a bus, not just during this transfer day, but throughout the cruise. We didn't mind, though.

While you may be on a bus for more time than expected because of the geography of the Douro River Valley, and because you start the trip in Lisbon to explore more of Portugal before arriving at the ship, it didn't faze us. We were so used to being on a bus for a long time during our Mekong River Cruise months earlier that the time we spent on a bus in Portugal seemed minimal. It's all relative.

Porto (Day 3: Ship Embarkation)

Later that day, after we boarded the ship in the Porto area and settled into our room, we had the option of Graham’s Port Dinner (€299/guest). If you sign up for this dinner, you will miss the first evening's dinner onboard. Know that if you skip the first dinner on the ship, you don’t miss anything significant. We spoke to two of the ten guests who attended the intimate dinner, and they said it was an exceptional experience.

If you know you want to do this dinner, we recommend you sign up for it ASAP in My Viking Journey because seating is very limited.

Régua (Day 4)

The only excursion on this day is the Mateus Palace and Gardens tour. It's an included tour, so you only have to decide whether or not you want to go. It's the only real intact “palace” you get to experience during the Viking Douro River cruise unless you sign up for the optional Marialva Castle and Lunch tour from Pochinho (which was an option the next day), or go to Sintra's Peña Palace on your own from Lisbon, like Dan and I did before the cruise started.

We had a short tour inside Mateus Palace before we were given free time to explore the gardens and the rest of the grounds on our own. Having never had the famous Mateus rose wine, we bought a bottle for €7 and drank it throughout the week in our room on the ship.

We returned to the ship to have lunch onboard while the ship was docked in Régua. Afterward, we boarded the buses to visit Quinta do Seixo and “Sandeman” for a very brief Port wine tasting. Because the sun sets around 5:00 pm in this region during late November, we couldn't see the beautiful views from the winery, as you can during daylight hours. If you want to skip any included excursion, we recommend skipping this one unless you're cruising during late spring, summer, or early fall when sunset is later.

Pocinho & Barca d’Alva (Day 5)

One of my favorite excursions during our Douro River cruise was to the small village of Castelo Rodrigo, while the ship was docked in Pocinho. The village reminded me of our trip to the small but incredible village of Oingt during our AmaWaterways Colors of Provence river cruise in France.

The views from Castelo Rodrigo were fantastic! It is a small medieval village that is great to explore. You learn a little bit about Jewish history there and why it was unique, and you get some free time to shop for souvenirs. Though the town was small, three shops sold regional products, including accessories made with cork, almonds, liqueurs, and olive oil. We learned about cork on the ship one day, so everyone was looking for quality cork products!

The optional excursion that day was Marialva Castle and Lunch from Pochinho (€199/guest). If you go on this excursion, you will miss the included excursion to Castelo Rodrigo. 

Salamanca, Spain (Day 6)

A day in Salamanca is included for all guests: half the day is spent on the bus getting there and back, and the other half of the day consists of a tour and some free time. One of the reasons a Douro River cruise with Viking appealed to us was because we saw that a day trip to Salamanca was on the itinerary. We never miss an opportunity to visit Spain, one of our favorite countries! 

When the ship was docked at the river's most eastern point where the vessel can safely navigate, buses took guests on a two-hour drive east to reach the historic city of Salamanca. The ride back to the ship is slightly longer because of afternoon traffic. 

We had a few hours in Salamanca to enjoy an included tour and explore on our own afterward during free time; some guests opted to skip the tour to explore on their own the whole time we were there. 

The included walking tour meanders through the historic city center as you learn a bit about the culture and foods like Iberian ham (a Spanish dietary staple) and Monchego cheese during a stop at the local market.

We also learned about the city's history, the famous university there, and the city's cathedral. You don’t tour inside the university, though you see some of its buildings and learn more about them. You also don't go inside the cathedral with your guide, but we went inside during our free time after the tour. The cost of admission to the cathedral is waived, thanks to Viking.

We also popped into the Art Nouveau museum (again, the admission cost was comped by Viking), walked over the Roman bridge for a spectacular view of the city center, and enjoyed a sit-down meal to indulge in some of our favorite Spanish dishes. 

The day trip to Salamanca is the only day that Viking didn’t include a sit-down lunch. However, the ham and cheese tasting with a small glass of wine was included with the food market portion of the morning tour. Viking also arranged for a lovely coffee and tea break before we boarded the buses for the drive back to the ship, complete with lots of pastries and small sandwiches. 

The bus made a bathroom stop at the halfway point traveling to Salamanca and on the way back to the ship. There was a restroom on all the coach buses if any guests needed to use it during the drive. 

Pochinho, Folgosa & Régua (Day 7)

One of the cultural highlights of the cruise was a trip to Favaios Bakery. A guide toured us around a small museum in the charming little village to learn more about the famous Portuguese four corners bread and wine. These two products have historically sustained the village.

We ended the included excursion with a lunch at Quinta Avessanda, which had spectacular views of rolling hills covered in vineyards. It was a pretty sight even during late November, with some colorful leaves hanging on before winter arrived and roses still in bloom.

Régua & Vila Nova de Gaia/Porto (Day 8)

On the eighth day of our Portugal's River of Gold itinerary, we were docked back in Régua. A visit to the city of Lamego was included, where the highlight was a beautiful staircase covered in white and blue Portuguese tiles. Buses dropped guests off at the top of the hill, and they walked down during a guided tour. Afterward, there was free time in the city.

We skipped this tour because it was at the same time as the optional Cistercians and Wines tour we signed up for, which was fabulous. It was a favorite optional excursion, and we felt so lucky to be experiencing it.

The Cistercians and Wines tour started off at a 12th-century bridge. Then we visited a church where we learned how monks revived the area after the Moors left. It ended with a spectacular wine tasting in a beautiful 18th-century stone farm building, complete with slices of cheese and home-baked pastry bites.

If you want a tour that beautifully combines history, architecture, quaint towns, and wine, this is not to be missed.

Vila Nova de Gaia/Porto (Day 9 & 10)

The last full day of the cruise (day 9) included the Porto on Foot tour. A bus drove us to the start of the walking tour, which began with a leisurely walk across the famous bridge that spans both sides of the river, connecting Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. Locals call it “Gaia,” and that's where the ship was docked during our cruise. 

Then we visited the beautiful train station with murals painted on 20,000 tiles that took 10 years to complete; a work of art not to miss, but easy to do so if a guide isn’t directing you there to top and appreciate the art. We toured the cathedral, which had views of the river, and walked along Ria do Floras, Porto's most well-known pedestrian street.

During the tour, we were given 40 minutes of free time to explore independently. Some people opted to leave the tour and stay in Porto for lunch on their own, while others, including us, rejoined the tour after our free time. We walked with the guide to Porto's waterfront and enjoyed a 5-minute boat ride (which Viking paid for) to reach the other side of the river, where the ship.

We felt that the included Porto on Foot excursion gave us a solid understanding of the city's historic area and highlights.

The included Porto on Foot walking tour and Viking’s Panoramic Porto leisurely bus tour were given simultaneously. We heard the Panoramic Porto tour was fantastic. That tour took guests to the sea and to some other Porto areas we couldn’t get to with only a few hours exploring on foot. 

The optional Traditional Fish Cannery & Scenic Porto is a third option for €149/guest. It is offered at the same time as the included excursions. 

Free Time in Porto

Porto is a charming city that is easy to walk around. After lunch on the ship, Viking provided a shuttle bus for guests who didn’t sign up for an optional excursion to return to Porto for free time.

We took the provided shuttle into Porto and walked back to the ship on our own, stopping at sites along the walk downhill to the riverfront.  We shopped a little bit and saw the famous photo-worthy Livraria Lello bookshop (which you need to buy tickets for online in advance—we were able to get same-day tickets thanks to visiting during November's low tourist season).

To end the day, we bought tickets for a 30-minute tour of the historic Commerce Building. Tickets are sold in person. Just walk in and purchase tickets for the next tour in English.

After the tour, we enjoyed an early evening stroll along the waterfront and across the river. A pedestrian path that spans the bridge makes the walk easy. It's fun to experience the waterfront at night, when it's alive with diners at waterfront restaurants, people enjoying the riverside, and vendors selling art and such.

Three optional excursions are available during the afternoon in Porto the last full day of the cruise. (You disembark the next day.)

If you sign up for any of the optional tours, you do not have free time in the afternoon in Porto. Some people who attended the included morning tour stayed in the city for lunch and skipped lunch on the ship for free time. Then, they were back at the ship in time to go on one of the optional excursions that they signed up for in advance. The optional excursions that afternoon included:

• Quinta de Aveleda (€179/guest), an estate in the charming town of Penafiel, where you are treated to a wine tasting.
• Historic Guimaraes (€139), the original capital of Portugal, with a medieval quarter with palaces, monasteries, and squares.
• Port Wine Cellars (€89), a wine tasting experience steps away from where the ship is docked.

Since day 10 of the cruise was the day that we, along with many others, headed to the airport at 3:45 am, to board an early flight, we didn't sign up for an optional excursion in favor of free time. Yet we heard from fellow guests that the Port Wine Cellars tour was very good.

Portuguese Cultural Experiences We Loved

Some of our favorite river cruise experiences are the ones that immerse us in the local culture the most. There isn’t deep cultural immersion during most river cruises (the exception, in our opinion, was our experience on a Mekong River cruise). Still, moments that scratch the surface clue guests into whether or not they’d like to dig deeper into that culture in the future.

Highlights during our Douro River cruise included wine tastings in small cities along the river valley. Vineyards have been the focus of so many of these towns for centuries, and it was cool to be a part of that in a small way. 

Other cultural highlights included lunch in Coimbra, where we enjoyed the Fado performance. We also appreciated the demonstration to see how four corners bread is made at Favaios Bakery. It was short, but it made an impact. It was fun to see an expert baker craft roll after roll within seconds. It was also nice that we got to taste the bread! 

Wine Tastings During a Douro River Cruise

We want to take a minute to note that there aren’t as many wine tastings during a Douro River Cruise as you might expect. We felt there were far more included opportunities to taste wine during our Viking Bordeaux River Cruise. 

If you want to taste more wine than less in Portugal, we recommend signing up for some of the optional excursions that have wine tastings. Otherwise, there’s only one Viking excursion that is included in your cruise fare when you taste wine (at Quinta do Seixo and “Sandeman”) and it was more like a tour of the wine facility at Sandeman and a hurried serving of two glasses of Port wine before we were rushed back to the buses. 

Additionally, if you want the chance to have more vineyard experiences, try to cruise closer to summer or early fall, when vineyards have grapes on the vine and haven't been harvested yet.

There are plenty of wines to drink during lunch and dinner onboard the ship, which are included with your cruise. We’re happy to report that all the complimentary wines served onboard were Portuguese. But if you’re a true wine lover and are going on a Douro River Cruise for immersion in the region's viticulture, you’ll be disappointed unless you budget for the optional excursions focusing on wine tastings. 

We recommend Graham’s Port Wine Dinner, Cistercians & Wine, and Quinta de Aveleda or Port Wine Cellars to maximize your wine tastings with Viking's optional excursions.

Planning Tips for Your Viking Douro River Cruise Excursions

What to Pack for Excursions

Be sure you have a comfortable day bag. We prepared for each day with the following:

We also recommend packing motion sickness medication or remedies for the excursions during a Douro River cruise if you're prone to car sickness. Some of the windy roads in the Douro River Valley might make you a little queasy.