Douro Valley, Portugal

Quinta São José do Barrilário

Price per night from$292.55

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 (EUR252.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Quinta São José do Barrilário Photos

Style

Cloud wine

Setting

Vineyard-laced valley

Explore

More hotels in Douro Valley More hotels in Portugal

Like any fine wine, Quinta São José do Barrilário​ hits all the right notes. Set on a lofty vantage point in the Douro Valley, everything at this retreat takes cues from its vinho-crafting locale. Elevated fare celebrates the region’s larder and changes with the seasons, but your constants are its locally made labels and sweeping views. There’s a pool with panoramas, too, and the spa uses vinotherapy to put the aah in terroir…

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of wine and cheese board in your room

Facilities

Photos Quinta São José do Barrilário facilities

Need to know

Rooms

31, including four suites.

Check–Out

Noon, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include a Continental and buffet breakfast, served daily at the restaurant.

Also

One of the Double Rooms has been suitably adapted with grab rails, emergency pull cords and a roll-in shower. There isn't a chair-lift at the swimming pool, but otherwise, all areas of the hotel are wheelchair-friendly and there’s lift access to all floors.

At the hotel

E-bikes to borrow, charged laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, air-conditioning, minibar, coffee-making kit, free bottled water, bathrobes and organic bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Rooms are masterfully designed to pay homage to this region’s rich wine-making legacy, with curved headboards that replicate barrels and vineyard-framing windows. But the Junior Suite has taken our hearts for its views of the rolling hills and Douro River from its private, dual-aspect balcony. If you’re honeymooning and seeking sultry soaks, it has to be the Suite Superior for its freestanding, in-room tub.

Poolside

A rooftop showstopper, Quinta São José do Barrilário’s outdoor heated pool (open 10am to 6pm) echoes the vines etched into its surrounding scenery with its ribbon-like long design. Siesta-inducing loungers and a bite-serving pool bar watch over the valley, and even underwater dips come accompanied with vistas, courtesy of the pool’s glass-panelled walls.

Spa

The Terroir Vineyard Spa is as sweet as a glass of local port. Grapes from nearby wineries are harvested for the spa’s handmade scrubs, oils and moisturisers and used to soothe adventure-weary limbs across its two treatment rooms. There’s also a sauna, Turkish bath and sensory showers, as well as hot and cold plunges.

Packing tips

Your cribsheets and pens for around-the-region wine tastings.

Children

Welcome, although this wine-focused retreat is better suited to over-18s.

Sustainability efforts

Quinta São José do Barrilário is working towards a complete ban on single-use plastic, and they’ve installed solar panels, LED lighting and sensors to help conserve water and energy.

Food and Drink

Photos Quinta São José do Barrilário food and drink

Top Table

With views like these, it has to be a window-side seat.

Dress Code

Reds and yellows to complement your arcadian scenery.

Hotel restaurant

At Restaurante Panorâmico, soaring views and local labels are your refined pairings accompanying seasonal cuisine. Menus have been deftly concocted by head chef Luís Filipe Guedes as an elevated ode to the Douro Valley, and each dish is prepped in the open kitchen with ingredients from the region’s rich surroundings. If you’re hoping to dine within the vineyards, rather than admiring them, staff can put together picnic baskets for amatory alfresco grazing. 

Hotel bar

Centred around a striking marble counter, the hotel’s bar brings relaxed counterpoint to activity-filled days. Hole up with a good book and cocktail during the afternoon; and come evening, bottles of wine are produced so closely you can almost see the grapes being picked from your panoramic vantage point. There’s also a pool bar for whisked-to-your-lounger light bites and tipples.

Last orders

Breakfast is available from 8am to 10.30am, lunch is served between 12.30pm and 3pm, and dinner is from 7.30pm to 10pm.

Room service

Dishes can be delivered to your door at all hours.

Location

Photos Quinta São José do Barrilário location
Address
Quinta São José do Barrilário
Rua de São Joaninho
Vacalar
5110-661
Portugal

Hidden between verdant valleys and vineyards along the Douro River, Quinta São José do Barrilário sits on a secluded estate near Armamar, in northern Portugal.

Planes

Most European — and some US — hubs have direct routes to Porto’s Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, which is around an hour and a half from the hotel by car. Private transfers can be arranged for between €200 and €250 each way.

Trains

Your nearest station is Régua (a 15-minute drive away), which sits on the Linha do Douro rail line and offers direct routes to Porto, Pinhão and Pocinho. Connections on to Lisbon run from Porto, too. Staff can organise private transfers for €30 each way.

Automobiles

Unless you’re planning on staying put, this arcadian pocket of Portugal requires a car; there’s free parking and valet services at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

In the Unesco-listed Douro Valley, it’s only natural that days be rooted around pastoral pursuits; pick up an electric bike from the hotel to explore its vine-lined hillsides on two wheels. There are plenty of hiking trails, too, and traditional rabelo boat tours along the Douro River can be arranged by the hotel. Wine tastings are hosted at almost every vineyard, and some also offer olive oil tastings. 

Back at Quinta São José do Barrilário, cooking classes and cocktail-making workshops are your hands-on pastimes, and during the summer, the hotel’s resident beekeeper sweetens schedules with lessons in honey harvesting. 

Reviews

Photos Quinta São José do Barrilário reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this wine-focused retreat in northern Portugal and unpacked their bottles of port and terrincho, a full account of their bucolic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Quinta São José do Barrilário in the Douro Valley…

With a name deriving from the Portuguese word for ‘barrel’, it’s only natural that Quinta São José do Barrilário? puts this wine-rich region’s heritage at the root of all it does. 

Much like the Douro Valley’s rolling vineyards, every part of this boutique hotel is intertwined with detail: the architecture intentionally curves with the shape of the landscape and interiors echo the wineries’ casks with arched silhouettes and light-wood accents. 

But looks aren’t all that nod to locality. The restaurant’s produce is sourced from the valley’s suppliers and paired with sommelier-selected bottles from neighbouring makers. Spa treatments spotlight vinotherapy, and views from the rooftop pool roll all the way down to the river’s winding banks. And if your bucolic backdrop prompts a hankering to explore, daily activities are tailored to showcasing this pocket of Portugal in all its grape glory.

Book now

Price per night from $292.55

Hotels nearby

Villas nearby

Recently viewed