Stan H.
Yelp
If you are lucky enough to reserve a wine barrel room, good for you! I almost had a chance because of how planned I started off but outside logistics held me up. The rooms are real nice but you do pay a premium for them.
In about 2016, business for winery stays started booming.
Before then, there were about 15 rooms with zero people staying most of the time.
If you are doing it on your own, sometimes you can get a deal like free boat ride or if you tour agent/company books at a certain time or has a relationship with said hotel, they can maybe get these extras as well.
Fresh juices and food abound. I wouldn't be able to provide the freshness they do but I can tell.
Staff went out of their way to help me find restaurants and discuss opinions of which day I should do this or that etc.
An experienced male staffer made me an americano free of charge and the night before, a lady brought my bags up w a cart even though I would've wanted to do it myself for the exercise but I was really tired from a not so great navigator and my phone not being navigation ready without using too much bandwidth to download this and that.
Cheese , tomato, fruit, and meats are typical for Portuguese establishments.
All of these offerings are so fresh. Wow.
3 hamlets in the premises.
Red fruit drink does not have a label for what fruit it is and I cannot tell. They also offer fresh peach juice and not so surprisingly fresh squeezed orange juice. A travesty for a place in Portugal not to offer this as oranges are apparently cheap here and the process is easy enough (not easy to me haha).
Breakfast is served between 830-1030. This seems to be a Portuguese standard. It is hard to fit everything in a day sometimes if your time is limited and since many things open at 9 despite this. Sometimes , I wish breakfast was typically available earlier but I know that that is the American in me.
To get into your hotel room, you push the door open instead of pull it. The wine barrel rooms may be different.
I had a free boat ride included with my purchase, but I didn't drive since the train ride to Pinhao is picturesque. The train was late and the directions to find the boat ride weren't the best. Even using Google maps, you have to realize that you have to go past the point to meet and then kind of turn around by crossing tracks, going on the side of a hotel, down through a garden until you find the exit to the dock area, and finally you find the company.
The company has an app they want you to download for an audio tour but since I am not from the country, I have to be mindful of the data plan. I did get an international plan but there are still limits.
The experience to get the boat ride and everything else was 4 star but I think the place is 5 star overall. They don't have to offer it at all.
I had asked for this information in advance but they didn't want to give me the company name before I arrived in case I would cancel the hotel and go stay elsewhere. Another possibility is that they didn't decide the boat company until last minute.
An included shuttle to/from Regua train station would be nice as it is recommended to do the train ride to Pinhao for the scenery. I personally didn't feel the hype but don't feel it is a bad thing either- so there is that.
Winery tastings were excellent. I ended doing two and both were on site - one was free and the other included a more in-depth facilities tour- since it was supposed to rain with thunderstorms that day. Slight rain but no thunderstorms. You never know with these things. I was recommended to wait last minute to sign up for Pinhao winery tour because logistics with time might've been an issue and they would supposedly have spots but this dynamic is no longer true. Probably used to be late June - August but now probably need to book things in advance if May -September if easily accessible by train.
They will add a guest relations person who can help with more thorough directions for future boat rides. They should consider a shuttle to and from Regua train station and also things like an arcade, board games, and a place for children as it is very family friendly except for the lack of activities for kids. IfnI could speak Portuguese and be paid well enough, maybe I could've been their guest relations person, haha
I also used their pool, mini-gym, and had dinner at Pacheca.
They comped me for the tour. Breakfast was already included in my stay. Pricy but I made sure to get
the most I could for what I paid.
Some locals I have bumped into feel this is overpriced for what you get and that there is fresh food offered at any of the locations because it is in a rich soiled valley where they can grow things and serve it fresh from their gardens directly.