Douro Valley, Portugal

Octant Douro

Price per night from$342.49

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR306.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

New world

Setting

River deep

A wineland wonder seemingly suspended above its famous namesake river, Octant Douro brings daring modern design to a Unesco-protected valley. The tiered hotel is designed to maximise river views and the pool is cantilevered above it for a floating feeling. The spectacular scenery, though, is the star, with huge floor-to-ceiling windows, glass walkways and wide terraces all created to showcase the views (book a Douro-facing room with a private deck: you can thank us later). And it’s a spa hotel, so ambling about in dressing gowns is actively encouraged… but be sure to scrub up for a superb supper in Raiva, mind. 

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Regional green wine

Facilities

Photos Octant Douro facilities

Need to know

Rooms

61, including six suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm, also flexible.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Also

The hotel has a monthly changing programme for guests, ranging from meditation and kayaking to pizza classes and painting lessons, with a cinema club (including a late-night one for insomniacs). The hotel's Octant I boat is also available for hire (for an additional cost) and can accommodate a range of activities, including tours and wine tastings.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout, games room, gym. In rooms: air-conditioning, free bottled water, smart TV, Marshall speaker, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit and toiletries.

Our favourite rooms

Be sure to book a room with a full view of the river so you can fully appreciate its wide, whooshing majesty – bonus points for one with a terrace.

Poolside

There are three pools at Octant Douro: a glass-flanked, river-facing one inside at the spa, one on the middle storey of the retreat, and one on the roof with a bar and two levels of sunloungers.

Spa

The sleek, minimalist spa overlooks the Douro River and its tree-swathed banks. There are five treatment rooms alongside a hydrotherapy circuit, sauna and Turkish bath, all with floor-to-ceiling windows to make the most of the views. The products come from Irish brand Moss of the Isles, who produce vegan, ethical and sustainable products that are made from earth’s natural bounty. Their oils and creams contain herbs and botanicals that have been used for centuries, handed down by generations of healers and medicine men. Try one of the signature Moss treatments like the Body Renewal, a stress-busting session that rejuvenates body, face and scalp with the help of iris root, green mandarin, chamomile and geranium extracts. Guided yoga classes are also available for an additional cost (free on Sundays).

Packing tips

Your beginners' guide to grapes and clothes with elastic waistbands won’t go amiss.

Also

Some rooms have been specially adapted for wheelchair users and are accessible by lift.

Pet‐friendly

Small pets weighing in at under 10kg are welcome; beds and bowls will be supplied for €50 a night. See more pet-friendly hotels in Douro Valley.

Children

All ages are welcome. Cots can be added, some rooms can have twin beds on request, and the suites can accommodate one or two children. Babysitting for up to two children is available with two days’ notice for €15 an hour.

Sustainability efforts

Concerned for our bees? So is Octant Douro, which has its own hives (and, lucky for us, very locally sourced honey). At least 40 per cent of the menu items are from local farms, single-use plastics were banned in 2021 and energy and water conservation measures are in place. The hotel regularly organises beach clean-ups too.

Food and Drink

Photos Octant Douro food and drink

Top Table

The riverside restaurant has some pretty spectacular scenery – go for a table near the window or out on the Douro-facing deck.

Dress Code

This may be a spa hotel, but best change out of your dressing gown and make at least a bit of an effort, to match the first-class food.

Hotel restaurant

Raiva pays tribute to the region’s cuisine, and its amazing produce: you’ll enjoy freshwater fish, kid and veal, with nods to noble Portuguese cooking traditions such as vinha d’alhos (meat cooked with wine and garlic) and lagareiro (oven-baked octopus and potatoes). Breakfast is a bountiful spread of local jams, wood-oven-baked bread, just-squeezed juice and honey from the hotel bees. 

Hotel bar

The A Terra wine bar serves cocktail classics, along with an impressive list of Portuguese wines and a series of fire-cooked food. There’s also the Porto Club, with a fireplace and library for peaceful port imbibing. Children are welcome at A Terra and there’s a dedicated menu. 

Last orders

The bar is open all day, from 11am until midnight (1am on Fridays and Saturdays). Raiva serves dinner every night from 7pm till 10.30pm.

Room service

A selection of salads, pastas and comfort dishes can be served in-room.

Location

Photos Octant Douro location
Address
Octant Douro
Estrada Nacional 222 km 41, 4550-631 Castelo de Paiva, Portugal
Raiva
4550-631
Portugal

Octant Douro is on the banks of its namesake river, east of Porto in Portugal’s wine region and close to the town of Castelo de Paiva.

Planes

Porto’s airport is a 50-minute drive from the hotel. Transfers can be arranged for €90 each way.

Automobiles

It’s 40 minutes by car from Octant Douro to the centre of Porto. The hotel has a car park a short distance away, so drop your bags off first; if you want to see more of the area’s port producers, a car will come in handy – but then again, you’ll probably want to sample some, so it might not.

Worth getting out of bed for

This is the Unesco-approved Alto Douro region, so there’s a whole lot of ravishing riverine countryside out there. Before you hit up the local quintas and villages, make sure you check out the hotel’s spa and three swimming poolsPorto is roughly 45 minutes away by car if you fancy a day trip, otherwise the hotel can help arrange sails down the Douro, visits to vineyards, wine and port tastings and romantic walks. The hotel also offers a range of paid activities such as wine tastings, taster menu experiences, boat trips, guided walks, electric biking, canoeing, kayaking and paddle boarding. 

Local restaurants

The hotel’s own restaurant is the finest for miles, but the concierge can arrange trips out to a neighbouring quinta for lunch – including Quinta da Gricha, home of Churchill’s Port, where you can enjoy tastings and a tour of the vineyards and the 19th-century lodge before a meal in the orange grove.

Reviews

Photos Octant Douro reviews
Hannah Dace

Anonymous review

By Hannah Dace, Smith scribe

'The best of Portugal’s wine will never leave the country… we have it all, right here,' reveals the sommelier at Octant Douro in a hush-hush tone. Vinho verde – a white wine crisper than a ginger snap – is the tour de force of this particular part of the Douro Valley, close to the mouth of the Atlantic. And it was during a tasting of said vinho that I learnt that the Portuguese have been benching their best players, then drinking them.

The house tasting, named ‘Douro Through the Ages’, has its wines paired with other bounties from the valley. The first, a shot of extra virgin olive oil, is served in a golf-ball sized opaque blue glass. What starts as buttery and smooth turns peppery and tangy — and you’ll be encouraged to follow it with another sip of the Verde Douro 41 (produced by nearby boutique maker Casa de Vila Nova), which becomes thicker and creamier than before. The tinto — a Zom Grande Reserva Touriga Nacional – comes with paper-thin slices of ham, and a manchego-like cheese (I didn't catch the name... hic) complements the 20-year-old wood-aged tawny port.

Aside from the fine Portuguese wine, there’s also the views. On the banks of a curve just 41 kilometres along the 897-kilometre Douro River, the landscape of Octant Douro is more pines than vines. And nature is visible from every corner. Solid walls of glass frame the gentle current in the cubist-style rooms; oblong windows in the hallways, lobby and bar throw slender planks of sun onto the curl-up worthy corners and dark wood armchairs.

Being on the cusp of Gen Z and Millennial (enough, in itself, to instigate an identity crisis), I’d already studied the Instagram location tag in great depth. But even so, the soft-focus views and distinct tranquillity stopped me in my white-slippered tracks every single time we entered our river-view room. Everything appears naturally dewy, haloed even — like a filter made to smooth every pore. Interiors are muted: comforting creams and tones of beige (a bold choice, it could be said, given the likelihood of wine being present). It’s the kind of room that incites self-indulgence in its purest form: lounging. So much so, that post-wine-tasting, I had a nap.

Then there’s the spa. One of three glorious pools can be found here (the other two are outdoors), plus a steam room and ice sink. But I found myself gravitating towards the sweat-inducing sauna, where an afternoon of wine left my body like a sacrificial offering. Perfect, I thought: cleansed and ready for dinner and, naturally, more wine.

Dinner in the Raiva restaurant is an affair. Sommeliers dance their way between tables, sometimes with a glass of rosé, other times a magnum of port. Pourings are theatrical, and the menu itself is a show — a curtain call of Portuguese flavours, where every dish is labelled by the number of kilometres along the river that it was sourced. At least 40 per cent of the ingredients are from local farms, the others — while perhaps grown slightly further afield — are still traceable. We started with shrimp and Portuguese sausage ravioli (47km), then moved on to poached Atlantic sea-bass (1km), and the confit pork belly (41km). Alternatively, go the whole hog with a four- or five-course tasting menu, which also has a vegetarian edition (but not vegan, which is a shame).

Yoga classes run every Sunday, and so in the spirit of soul cleansing, we decided to book before breakfast the following morning. In good weather, these sessions are held alfresco. But with this being an uncharacteristically drizzly April, the class was inside — a far less serene back-up plan, thanks to the open-plan split-floor spaces, which have no way of blocking out children running to the lobby and the games room just downstairs. In all honesty, those visiting off season might prefer to stick to a shavasana in bed.

There’s plenty more to be getting on with, though. Boardwalks and river-hugging paths stretch for miles in both directions from the hotel, with strategically placed picnic benches along the way. You can rent paddleboards and kayaks for free — an offer we took up, despite the less-than-inviting water temperature (something Mr Smith became well accustomed to, what with having to clamber in and out of the kayak once he’d pushed me, and it, away from the shore). From the water, the hotel is imposing — a huge structure of natural stone, shale and glass clinging to the steep banks like butterflies clustering on a rock. Despite its brutalist style, there’s a gentleness to it, perhaps because of the amount of care put in to prioritise the surrounding natural beauty.

With much to do and much to drink, you could easily bed down at Octant Douro for your entire stay. But given the diversity of the valley, we’d suggest a road trip – make for the winding, quinta-dotted N-222 and stay a further night or two at a traditional winery. And so calls the siren song of yet another wine-induced slumber…

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Price per night from $342.49