If you had requested me 10 years in the past if I loved a river cruise, my reply would have been a tough no. But a decade later, river cruises have come a good distance, child! We just lately boarded the Avalon Alegria in Porto, Portugal, for a cruise into the Douro Valley. This European River cruise felt extra like the small ship expeditions we’ve taken in the previous than the previous normal river cruises that stopped at packed ports and spent extra time on the bus than exploring the vacation spot.
What’s it Like on a Douro Valley River Cruise
We boarded our all-suites ship in Porto, the place we started our journey into the beautiful hills of the Douro Valley. The Avalon Alegria was designed to make the most of the most house whereas creating the final enjoyable and splendid expertise.
The Ship – Avalon Alegria
The Avalon Alegria is the latest of Avalon’s ships. It is an all-suites ship with 14 deluxe staterooms or 37 Panorama Suites. We toured all of the rooms, and irrespective of which room you select, you may be completely happy. All Panorama Suites function floor-to-ceiling home windows that open to show your room into one big balcony, and all beds face the water.
Onboard facilities embrace a bar and dance ground, nightly leisure, a eating room, a membership lounge, and a health club. The Sky Deck has a swimming pool, outside grill and bar, and loads of lounge chairs and tables. If the climate is sweet, that is the place to be to soak up the attractive vistas of the Douro Valley.
Avalon Alegria Suites
Let’s start with the suites. With a most capability of 102 folks, each room is spacious and splendid. We stayed in one among the fourteen 200-square-foot panorama suites, which was excellent for our journey.
While different cruise strains we’ve taken line their beds up towards a wall with a view of the different wall, the Avalon Alegria ship units every mattress dealing with the floor-to-ceiling home windows for views of the river. We loved afternoon siestas in our room whereas watching the Douro River views go by.
But that’s not all. Most folks need a balcony when river cruising, nevertheless it’s troublesome to provide everybody one as a result of the dimension limitations of the river and the locks. Avalon has mounted this downside by creating floor-to-ceiling home windows that open huge, remodeling your suite into an open-air balcony. By taking away the outside balcony, they’ve created 30% extra residing house.
We loved breakfast in our room every morning with our home windows open to see the hills of the Douro River. With plush robes, slippers, and beautiful views, we by no means wished to depart our room! Oh and did I let you know that they not solely have a pillow menu, but additionally a mattress menu? There are 4 completely different settings for the mattress. Just let the crew understand how you want your mattress, and so they’ll set it up for you.
Club Lounge
Next to our room, the Club Lounge was our second favourite house on the Avalon Alegria. Before breakfast, we walked to the lounge in our robes and slippers to seize a cappuccino, freshly baked cookies, and vitamin water.
I liked filling my refillable water bottle with my selection of water for the day. Would it’s Vitamin B water? Sparkling grapefruit or ginger. The decisions had been superior.
Normally, cruise ships reserve this house for upgraded suites, however Avalon makes this coveted house at the stern of the boat open for everybody. You can sit again and loosen up, have tea, or ship an e-mail on the quick Star Link Wi-Fi that’s included in the journey.
Avalon, the Greenest Ship on the Douro
We know the rap cruise ships get, however Avalon works onerous to journey sustainably. Avalon has partnered with locations to generate sustainable electrical energy whereas docked. They use shore energy every time they will and have put in LED lighting all through their ships.
You will discover that I discussed a water station above and Avalon has zero plastic onboard. There are glasses you can refill, however we advocate packing your individual water bottle to tackle excursions. We weren’t supplied bottled water on our excursions (which I used to be grateful for), so we crammed up our bottles earlier than leaving the ship.
They have diminished paper by 80%. Unlike different cruise ships, you received’t see your every day schedule and a great deal of paper in your beds. Avalon has an app for visitors to make use of with schedules on the TVs.
They have additionally partnered with The Ocean Cleanup to help of their mission of eradicating 90% of ocean plastic. This is a frightening job, and I do not know the way it will occur, however with firms investing and partnering, good issues can occur.
Honestly, in at the moment’s world, we’re all contributing to the destruction of the planet, so the solely factor firms can do is give again. Avalon crops two bushes for each passenger on a cruise, has state-of-the-art oil filters to maintain oil adjustments to a minimal, and is trying to swap to electrical ships in the close to future.
What’s Included – Avalon is About Choice
Since we talked about premium coffees and free web, I believed we’d contact on what’s included in your Douro River Cruise with Avalon Waterways. The phrase we stored listening to was the Avalon is about selection. Passengers have flexibility relating to eating, excursions, and issues to do onboard.
Meals
All meals, together with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, are included. Breakfast will be loved in your stateroom or in the eating room. Lunch is a buffet in the eating room or mild snacks in the bar. You can even at all times order sure meals, like burgers and sandwiches, off the menu.
Dinner is a scrumptious multicourse meal of native and worldwide dishes paired with high quality native wine. Portugal has incredible wines, and I really like that Avalon serves solely native wines. When I’m in Portugal, I don’t need to be ingesting a California Chardonnay; I need a wealthy Douro Valley crimson, and that’s precisely what they delivered.
Unlike different cruises, passengers are supplied flex eating and might eat anytime inside the eating window. Seating is versatile, with tables for 2, or you possibly can be part of massive teams.
Drinks
Speaking of wine, beer and wine are included at lunch and dinner. All specialty coffees, delicate drinks, and water are additionally included. And, in contrast to different cruises, the Douro Valley River cruise gives free cocktail hour drinks. And let me let you know, they make scrumptious cocktails.
Tours
Avalon Waterways actually stands out with its excursions and shore excursions. They have damaged down excursions to swimsuit completely different wants. You can select from Classic, Discovery, or Active Excursion choices. Each day you are able to do one thing completely different from energetic adventures that embrace kayaking and climbing to cultural experiences that take you to historic districts and meals and wine excursions to get pleasure from the Douro Valley Wines and Ports of Porto.
There is one thing for everybody, relying in your mobility and exercise degree. Plus, there’s an onboard journey host that leads yoga in the mornings.
Entertainment
Each night after dinner, there’s native leisure. We loved a Fado Show of proficient native guitarists sharing their tradition, tales and music.
The subsequent night time was an impressive quartet of strings placing their very own spin on fashionable rock and pop music.
We additionally loved being serenaded by a finalist from The Voice and had nightly dancing. This is a type of journeys that brings the native tradition to you.
The Crew
Something that actually stands out on the Avalon Alegria cruise by way of the Douro Valley is the employees. Your hosts could make or break a visit and the Alegria employees goes above and past. Within the second we stepped onboard, they felt like previous associates.
At cocktail hour, they knew precisely what sort of cocktail I’d be in the temper for and even created specialties not on the menu.
Dave has a Gluten allergy, and the waitstaff paid cautious consideration to providing him options and informing him of what we might eat and should keep away from.
They had been at all times smiling, and you can inform that they actually loved their jobs. It wasn’t an act; the crew liked what they had been doing. From the guys grinning from ear to ear as they tied the strains to the entrance desk, answering our each want.
Ports of Call
Don’t fear, you’re inspired to get off the ship and luxuriate in the native ports of name. Avalon docks downtown or near the city facilities the place a brief (and low cost) Uber experience can take you to the place you need to be.
8-Day Itinerary – Vineyards & Villages Along the Douro
The cruise begins in the UNESCO World Heritage City of Porto. We counsel arriving early to essentially soak on this lovely vacation spot. Avalon gives a guided tour of Braga and Guimaraes, which we extremely advocate seeing. But you also needs to spend at the very least two days in Porto to get pleasure from the Historical Center, the Gaia District, and the beautiful waterfront.
The cruise then leaves in the night to cease at completely different areas alongside the Douro Valley. The 8-day itinerary consists of these stops after which returns to Porto for one more day of touring. We selected the possibility of wine tasting in Gaia with a tour of the Cork Museum, which was fascinating and scrumptious!
Porto Embarkation
Porto day tour to Braga and Guimaraes.
Peso da Regua – a go to to one among the oldest farms in the Douro Valley
Poncinho – Douro Valley Vineyards
Barca d’Alva – Salamanca, Spain – This is the place you possibly can add one other nation to your itinerary.
Ferradosa-Leverhino – Day tour of Amarante
Can Solo Travelers Join Avalon?
We at all times journey as a pair, however I do know many individuals surprise about solo journey on cruises. Avalon waives the solo complement. On Avalon, you by no means really feel alone. From my observations, a river cruise is a good possibility for solo vacationers.
Avalon is About Choice
Most folks select the Danube or Rhine Rivers for his or her first river cruise. We did 10 years in the past, and it turned us off river cruising for a decade. When Avalon invited us to pattern their Douro Valley route, we had been intrigued to provide it one other attempt. I’m glad we did. This river cruise was precisely the sort of journey we love—small ships with fewer passengers and loads of choices for shore excursions.
Fewer ships are on the river, and the stops really feel intimate and untouched. With solely 102 passengers on the Avalon selecting from completely different excursions, we had small group excursions that felt tailor-made to our wants.
The Douro Valley is one among the most lovely locations to cruise in Europe, with rolling hills and terraced vineyards. It is really a bucket checklist cruise the place immersing in tradition and experiencing the native delicacies is at the coronary heart of the itinerary.
These are the hottest routes crammed with different river cruises and crowds at ports of name. I’m not saying to by no means do one, however I believe the Douro Valley is the excellent introduction to river cruising.
So there you will have it—our Douror Valley River Cruise—the first European River Cruise we’ve taken in 10 years. Will we do one other one? You guess! As we age, we love the concept of unpacking as soon as and crusing by way of Europe’s most lovely countryside.
When you get to ports, you don’t need to observe the guides; everyone seems to be free to do as they please. Remember, Avalon is about selection, and our selection is to return quickly.