Douro Valley, Portugal

Torel Quinta da Vacaria

Price per night from$491.37

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 (EUR425.25), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Torel Quinta da Vacaria Photos

Style

River-eyeing epicurean

Setting

Storied wine estate

Explore

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At Torel Quinta da Vacaria, there are countless ways to immerse yourself in the Douro Valley’s bounty. This luxury hotel is set on a historic riverside wine estate, meaning vineyard tours and tastings galore. Regional produce shines at the laidback bistro and intimate fine-dining restaurant, and because every room faces the river, you can drink in classically Douro views without ditching your bathrobe. Or, you could go the literal route, soaking up wine-infused therapies at the spa.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A welcome drink each and, in your room, a bottle of wine

Facilities

Photos Torel Quinta da Vacaria facilities

Need to know

Rooms

33, including 13 suites.

Check–Out

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

More details

Rates include a buffet breakfast of freshly baked bread and pastries, yoghurt, seasonal fruit, cheese and cold cuts.

Also

One Executive Room with View has been adapted for guests with limited mobility, with grab rails in the bathroom.

At the hotel

Bikes and e-bikes to rent, paid laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, air-conditioning, tea- and coffee-making kit, minibar, free glass-bottled water, bathrobes, slippers and Oliófora bath products.

Our favourite rooms

You’ll be pairing your vinho with stellar views whichever room you opt for — each one has a river-facing balcony or terrace. For some extra spoiling, snag one with an outdoor soaking tub. The Duplex Suites work especially well for families — little Smiths will have their own space, with a sofa-bed in the downstairs living room.

Poolside

You’ll have a spectacular vantage point over the Douro Valley from either of the hotel’s pools. Your outside swimming spot is set on a river-gazing terrace — claim a parasol-shaded sunlounger and settle in for several hours’ staring at the verdant hillside. Post-massage, pitch up at the indoor spa pool, where a picture window frames the up-close view of the river. Both are open from 8am to 8pm (the spa pool is for adults only from 2pm).

Spa

Calla Spa echoes the Douro Valley’s sense of peace, putting organic ingredients and local botanicals to soothing use. Strike up a restful rhythm around the water circuit, slipping between the sauna, hammam, hot and cold Vichy showers and view-blessed pool, then unwind further with a massage or facial, where organic Oliófora and Codage products work rejuvenating magic. To truly prove your oenophile stripes, opt for the vinotherapy bathing ritual — pre-massage, you’ll soak in a wine bath. Personal training and yoga classes are available on request, either in the spa or outside in the vineyards, and there’s also a fitness centre. The spa is open from 8am to 8pm, with treatments available from 11am; accompanied children are welcome until 2pm.

Packing tips

Sturdy shoes will come in handy both for scenic hillside cycles and the walk back to your suite after a day of wine tastings.

Also

Designer Joana Astolfi deliberately wove o toque português — the Portuguese touch — into her interiors, so you’ll spot ceramics, basketry and woodwork made by local artisans throughout the hotel.

Children

Children are welcome. All room types have a sofa-bed except the Executive Room with View and Executive Deluxe Room.

Food and Drink

Photos Torel Quinta da Vacaria food and drink

Top Table

Spend balmy evenings backdropped by the verdant hillside out on the terrace at 16 Legoas.

Dress Code

Natural but neatly tailored, with a cashmere knit to throw on come sunset.

Hotel restaurant

Schistó is the hotel’s intimate fine-dining restaurant. A handful of tables cluster around (or more accurately, inside) the open kitchen, so you’ll have a front-row view as chef Vitor Matos’s team prepares the 10-course tasting menu, which spotlights homegrown organic produce and meat and fish from local suppliers. There are only 14 seats, so you’ll want to book well in advance. 

Seasonal, local flavours take centre stage at 16 Legoas (the name comes from a historic document describing the estate’s distance from Porto). Expect hearty, colourful dishes rooted in regional tradition, like Trás-os-Montes couscous with wild mushrooms and seabass with rice, pimento and coriander.

Hotel bar

You’re not short of enticing places to nurse a porto tonico around here, but be sure to add Barbus, the hotel’s lounge and pool bar, into the mix. There are panoramic river views, plus a menu of light bites, from indulgent toasties to Portuguese cheeses and charcuterie.

Last orders

Breakfast is served at 16 Legoas from 7.30am to 11am, lunch from 12.30pm to 3pm, and dinner from 7pm to 9.30pm. Schistó is open for dinner Tuesday to Saturday, with seatings at 7.30pm, 8pm and 8.30pm. Barbus is open from 11.30am to 11pm.

Room service

You can order to your room around the clock; there’s a reduced menu outside of restaurant hours.

Location

Photos Torel Quinta da Vacaria location
Address
Torel Quinta da Vacaria
Quinta da Vacaria
Vilarinho dos Freires
5050-364
Portugal

You’ll find Torel Quinta da Vacaria on a riverside vineyard estate in the heart of the Douro Valley.

Planes

The hotel is under two hours’ drive from Porto Airport. Staff can arrange transfers on request for an additional charge.

Trains

A scenic railway route runs from Porto along the Douro Valley. The nearest stop to the hotel is Régua, a 15-minute drive away and just over two hours from Porto. Transfers can be arranged request for an additional charge.

Automobiles

A car will come in handy here, and there’s free private parking at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

The weekly activities at Torel Quinta da Vacaria shift with the seasons, but oenophiles will be well looked after year-round. Start with a wine and olive oil tasting on the estate, and meet the winemakers to learn more about the viticultural process. If you visit at harvest time (September until mid October), you can try your hand (or foot) at grape-picking and traditional grape-treading. Explore the rest of the region on a sommelier-led winery tour, with stops guided by your tastes. Back at the hotel, ask for a picnic basket to be packed (with a wine pairing, of course) and tuck in under the orange trees of the riverside garden.

Walking tours will shed further light on the region’s history and ecology. To see the best of the Douro Valley’s vine-strung landscape, take a driving tour of the local viewpoints; and when you’ve gazed long enough at the river to be tempted out on the water, the hotel can arrange a private cruise on a vintage boat. There are water sports for the more adventurously inclined, and hill trails to tackle on a mountain biking expedition. Then, bring your pulse back down with a spa workshop, making botanical scrubs or serums tailored to your skin.

Local restaurants

At Castas e Pratos in Régua, a converted railway warehouse makes an atmospheric backdrop to the polished, contemporary Portuguese menu. Plan to linger at tapas bar Pecados de Vinho — tasting flights of Douro wines, paired with cheeses and charcuterie from handpicked regional producers, invite a leisurely approach to timekeeping.

Local cafés

If you’re out and about in Régua, stop by sunny neighbourhood café Galripo for a latte and a little sweet treat.

Local bars

Libatio is a rustic wine bar beloved by Régua’s in-the-know locals. Take a pew amid the gigantic barrels, order a few petiscos and ask Maria and her team for their recommendations from the thoughtfully curated cellar.

Reviews

Photos Torel Quinta da Vacaria 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 view-blessed hotel in Portugal and unpacked their bottles of touriga and botanical balms, a full account of their riverside break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Torel Quinta da Vacaria in the Douro Valley…

Torel Quinta da Vacaria is a distinctly contemporary hotel — the sleek-lined interiors, cosseting spa and tempting infinity pool make no secret of that. But beneath the modern polish, this luxury stay has deep roots in the Douro Valley.

The vineyard estate it calls home dates back to the 17th century, so every tasting and behind-the-scenes tour is backed by hefty wine-making heritage. You’ll get an equal sense of history strolling the estate’s olive groves and watermills, tucking into traditional local flavours at the two restaurants, or toasting timeless valley views from your private balcony as the river meanders beneath the terraced hillside.

Here, centuries of experience in the Douro Valley simmer down to one piece of received wisdom — that this is a landscape worth celebrating, whether that’s with a spectacular ten-course tasting menu, a sunset river cruise, or by simply splitting another bottle before bed.

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Price per night from $491.37

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