Manor Houses of the Minho

We loved the Inntravel suggested first day's walking trip in Porto especially as the city was so busy. It greatly helped us find our bearings. We also greatly enjoyed exploring the markets in Ponte de Lima - bric a brac and antiques on Sunday and food and clothing on Monday - they gave us a real glimpse of the local community.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: This customer did our city add-on in Porto followed by our walking holiday 'Manor Houses of the Minho'.

Paco de Vitorino was superb. The room was amazing and the pool facilities excellent. The staff couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. Our favourite walk was through the nature reserve at Ponte de Lima.

As always a well put together holiday in beautiful surroundings. An extra day at Ponte de Lima was well worth it. The Porto city add on rounded off the holiday beautifully.

Beautiful places to stay and friendly and helpful hosts. Easy walking generally. Enjoyed the town of Ponte de Lima with choice of places to eat and drink. 

Five of us did the Manor Houses of the Minho tour. We found the written walking directions easy to follow. The host at the Quinta de Malta told us how to avoid the trail overgrown with brambles on the circuit hike. We picked up lunch along the way at a small grocery store and liked the short visit to the chocolate factory in Durraes. In Ponte de Lima we enjoyed the Mecearia da Vila, its central location, and breakfasts. Several of us walked out and back on the escovia on the free morning. We later went to the Vinho Verde museum and had a good conversation about the local wines with museum staff. One of our group wanted to go by bus to Ponte de Barca, but the bus never showed up after she waited almost an hour. Another InnTravel couple we met had the same bad experience with the Ponte de Barca buses on a different day and time.

Journey Along the Camino de Santiago - A Self-Guided Journey

A well organised journey with a few hiccups on our particular trip. The railway travel was generally very good although the sector from Leon to Monforte de Lemos was a problem. This was planned to be late in the day, unfortunately, but ended up being 2 hours late, meaning we didn’t arrive at the Parador until 10:30pm and so we were too late to have the ’included’ dinner, just getting a bar meal. On the accommodation side, this started well with us being upgraded at Hotel Tayko in Bilbao to a river view room, but after that things were not as expected. The Meson del Cid hotel in Burgos was fine, with a room in the annexe, but the hotel’s ‘elegant restaurant’ mentioned in the notes was closed. The room we were given in La Posada Regia, Leon was a very low ceilinged attic room with only a skylight so it was dark, with no views and a few bumped heads! The hotel restaurant here, billed as ‘one of the best places in town’ in the notes, was also unfortunately closed for holidays during our visit. The Parador in Monforte de Lemos was lovely (except we didn’t have long enough there, as mentioned above!). Hotel Virxe da Cerca in Santiago was fine and the hidden garden was a bonus however, the only food available in the evening was a snack from its cafeteria not a ‘restaurant offering traditional Galician fare’.

Manor Houses of the Minho - A Self-Guided Walking Holiday

 Having met the delightful Count of Calheiros at the Inntravel event at Cheltenham race course in 2017 we were keen to go on this particular holiday but were foiled by Covid until this year. Overall the holiday was enjoyable although a lot of the walking routes were rather boring, with more road walking than we expected. Also the title of the holiday and the website description: ‘You stay mostly in 16th and 17th-century traditional mansions’, is rather misleading since only 2 of the 4 places used were mansions. The big disappointment was the accommodation in Ponte de Lima where we were originally told there would be availability at Mercearia da Vila, the standard hotel but, despite requesting a booking the same day, we had to accept the alternative Arc My’Otel and pay a supplement. As other reviewers have commented, this hotel is just not up to normal Inntravel standards for accommodation. The room we had was a tiny cell, made worse by a black wall, with barely room to get round the bed and no storage other than a wardrobe rail … the bathroom was more spacious!! Breakfast was OK (except for the tasteless juices) but not a patch on those at Mercearia, according to the accounts of our fellow travellers staying there.

The distances were not too far, the countryside interesting and the welcome at the end of the day, wonderful.

This holiday surpassed our expectations on every level, beautiful historic places to stay, so friendly and relaxed and lovely to walk parts of the caminho. Both Pacos would be lovely places for special event holidays.

Arrival at the first hotel made us feel special and that meant the holiday started off very well.  The picnic was even presented in a drawstring embroidered bag.  The lunch stop detour on the first walking day was well worth the effort although it would have been nice to be advised that the chocolate factory would be closed - we may have changed our departure date to accommodate it. Ponte de Lima was a lovely change and to arrive during a festival weekend was even better.  

The trip exceeded my expectations in the variety of walks and accomodations. The mansions are really special and provide a perspective that we wouldn't otherwise have on a trip. We loved going in the Camino, and would have enjoyed spending more time on it. We highly recommend for someone who wants a relaxing, mellow walk, without anything strenuous.

A beautiful part of the world. The portuguese were incredibly friendly and helpful. The accomodation and staff were excellent.

Don't know about the first choice hotel in Ponte de Lima but the Arc My'Otel is definitely not up to Inntravel standards.

For us, meeting and interacting with the proprietors of four very different establishments -- a farm, a small hotel, a family-run guesthouse, and a manor with a titled owner -- made this trip more than special. It was a real opportunity to learn a great deal about a part of Portugal we'd never visited before. Post-Covid Europe can be crowded and even difficult at times, but our expedition, including the walks between the overnight accommodations, proved to be a welcome exception to that pattern. General comments about the Porto extension: Hotel Ribiera Porto was satisfactory, but we wish we had stayed at the Hotel Pestana Vintage Porto. For the Port Wine tour we highly recommend the one offered by Viatour, "Port Wine Lodges Tour Including Seven Tastings." Two restaurants we enjoyed were Fish Fixe and Ode Porto Wine House.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers combined our city add-on in Porto with our walking holiday 'Manor Houses of the Minho'

This was a part of Portugal that we didn't know at all. It was truly beautiful in a very gentle way, with lovely streams, paths and rolling hills. The towns are welcoming with good food and relatively unspoilt. A lovely place for a walking holiday!

The whole trip was a highlight. We couldn't believe the luck we had with our experiences throughout the trip.

The Manor Houses were fascinating but the holiday was so badly let down by the Arc My'Otel. We had a small box of a room painted totally in black. Breakfast was very ordinary and the picnic inedible. Staff were indifferent. Not even a bottle water certainly no place to get a hot or cold drink. As the main selling point of the holiday was its accommodation this was a massively disappointing.

Highlights were Sobreiro and Paco. Latter really quite amazing. Suggested excursions in Porto vg. Lunched twice in Rua Clerigos in Formo de Clerigos. Also vg.

The hike into Ponte De Lima was especially nice. It was a beautiful entrance to a charming city through a tree lined walkway with the ancient Roman bridge in the distance. We happened to arrive during an international kayak racing event which made it even more special. 

We found the paper maps to be of limited value. While they may be of some value to provide an overview, they are of no value for navigation purposes. 

Details of local cafes in Calheiros would be helpful especially seeing that there is no service (even tea/coffee making facilities) available at the accommodation.

Overall we had a very good holiday - thank you.

Do stop at the chocolate factory. You may find you include chocolate in your picnic!

Upgrade at Hotel Infante de Sagres was excellent and well worth the extra. Inntravel customers might appreciate knowing in advance when local Fiestas are on, which could influence choice of dates. Taxis are good and reasonably priced, and open up the opportunity to visit other places, like Braga and Viana de Castelo on wet days.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers added on a stay in Porto to our Manor Houses of the Minho walking holiday

A faultless holiday which exceeded our expectations. The section on Day 1 Around Durraes (page 45) the way was indeed blocked by thick brambles (long trousers and long sleeves needed!). It would be useful in the guide to Ponte de Lima to mention the open air swimming pool and kayak tours. 

Our holiday was excellent overall, with each walk being sufficiently different to the previous days.
A particular highlight for us was the trip to the Lagos nature reserve near Pont de Lima as it was so well laid out. We spotted 3 Kingfishers among many bird sightings. We also stopped at the Festival gardens on the walk back and was most impressed; well worth a visit.
During our stay at Paco de Calherios the Count was the perfect host throughout. We were fortunate enough to be there at the same time as he was hosting a large family wedding and we treated to local folk dances for the bride and guests.
On reflection it was a perfect holiday.

Other than Arc'Otel, the hotels had charm and character. All staff were welcoming and the organisation was excellent, as ever with Inntravel. The walks were relatively short and quite easy but we knew we had made that choice when booking. The Minho Valley is a beautiful part of Portgual and we had an opportunity to see its highlights.

This was a little different from previous Inntravel holidays and we decided the best word to sum it up was “characterful”. We loved the two older Quintas that we stayed in and particularly appreciated the hospitality at each place, especially the delicious meal provided by Ruth at Sobreiro.

We found the walking a little disappointing – the walks were very short, we often arrived before expected – and the countryside was much less interesting than on other Inntravel holidays – especially the rather long straight walk along the Eco Via towards Ponte de Lima. The overgrown section of the first walk would have been distinctly unpleasant if we hadn’t been mentally prepared by the six Inntravellers who were one day ahead of us!

Ponte de Lima is very attractive and we enjoyed wandering around the International Garden Festival as well as exploring the streets and other gardens. However, our visit there was considerably overshadowed by the extremely loud and monotonous canned pop music from a large gathering on the river to celebrate the Nativity of St John the Baptist, which on one night continued without a break until 2am…..  We were possibly affected more than others as the Arc'Otel is situated slightly above the river and the sound travelled very clearly across.

We highly recommend the restaurant La Petiscas, right next door to the Arc'Otel in Ponte de Lima, where we had two delicious meals.

The Paco de Calheiros is definitely a major highlight – the Count was rather preoccupied during our stay but his lovely dog, Leo, was attentive. The views from the house are wonderful and we were lucky to have two beautiful clear evenings there. We very much enjoyed walking around the perimeter wall through the vines, sweet chestnut woods, olives and orange groves.

One unexpected highlight was the night-time chorus of a variety of frogs and toads. It took a while to work out some of the curious nocturnal sounds, especially at Calheiros where we eventually discovered that the strange electronic pinging at night was not a faulty security system but the mating call of the Midwife Toad!

We will gloss over the airport and flight experience. Apart from this, it was an enjoyable and memorable holiday.

This was our first holiday with Inntravel and we loved it. We thoroughly enjoyed this region of Portugal and the Manor Houses provided a nice historic link. Our itinerary coincided with two other couples (and partly overlapped with a third); this, for us, provided a perfect balance between independent walking during the day and socialising in the evenings. We will come again.

HIGHLIGHTS: The walk around the Paco de Calheiros. The bridges in Ponte de Lima and Durraes (Ponte das Tabuas & The Viaduct). The walk into Pont de Lima.

TIPS: Visit the Taberna Porta Vermelha by the Jardim da Freiria near the Arc hotel in Ponte de Lima. Masks are still mandatory on all buses and trains and is strictly enforced. As is ticket validation etc. There are lots of ticket inspectors travelling on the trains. it is best to buy your ticket in advance and not rely on on-board purchase. If travelling by Metro from the airport to Campanha station change at Lapa (same platform).

Highlights: Staying at the Quintas with their superb gardens. A lovely area of Portugal. Very friendly people.

We loved the Solar do Castelo hotel in Lisbon (we added on stays in Lisbon and also in Porto). Graham's port tour and tasting and meal at their restaurant was the highlight in Porto. The whole walking tour experience was very relaxing and enjoyable. Having an extra day at Paço de Calheiros gave us a really relaxed end to the trip.

 This is a very easy walk, the short distance travelled each day allows time to properly explore the area and to chat with other walkers. The first 4 or 5 days the sun shone from a clear blue sky, the detour day one to avoid the tangled vegitation was easy to follow, muddy patches encountered along the way were reasonably dry and we even had time to sit by the pool at Quinta do Sobreiro in the late afternoon sun. However this was northern Portugal in early May so we were not surprised when the weather changed drastically, rain and thick cloud touched the hill tops around Calheiros on our last day so the walk to admire the route of the path we had travelled from Durraes was not to be, we just put on our waterproofs and walked lower down. Could missing this last days walk possibly be an excuse to do it all again? Who knows, we have the Thames path to look forward to later in the year and by then the 2023 Inntravel brochure will have landed on the doormat.

Our highlights:

If staying in Durraes try the cafe down from the train station for an introduction to local life.

Paço de Vitorino presented a slightly forbidding exterior as the gates were closed due to Covid (April 2022) but when you enter you are provided with an interesting tour of a lovingly restored Manor House with all modern conveniences.

Paço de Calheiros, the Count is very passionate about promoting local tourism and provides another intersting tour but the beautiful grounds are best discovered walking his lovely dog, Leo.

Grahams Port Tour exceeded our expectations and the restaurant looked lovely,with great views over Porto, however a reservation was required.

Casa de Casal de Loivos, has stunning views overlooking the Douro.

Casa do Visconde de Chanceleiros is set in beautiful gardens with an amazing view and facilities, from swimming pool and hot tub to tennis court and pool table.

INNTAVEL NOTE: these customers combined our walks Manor Houses of the Minho and Valley of Gold

As usual with Inntravel, we very much enjoyed being taken to accommodation that we might not have found ourselves and appreciated the variety of different places. The friendly hosting and excellent food at Quinta de Sobreiros were a particular highlight of our week.

The quintas were very beautiful especially at Calheiros, and we enjoyed the gardens. It was a "slow" holiday in lots of ways - no bustle anywhere except Ponte de Lima market which was amazing. (but only fortnightly). Not a holiday for anyone wanting "usual" hotel service such as choice for meals, room service etc but a very relaxing time with lovely walking and fascinating places to stay. Ponte de Lima was a delight and a good change from the remoteness of other places. We found we needed cash rather than credit cards in many places (except restaurants).

The trip was up to the usual Inntravel standards and being entertained by The Count (just him and us for aperitifs and dinner) was huge fun, and very interesting.

The Quinta De Malta was excellent (save for the very hard mattress!). We didn’t mind having an unscheduled extra day there as they were so nice and the home cooked food excellent all round, including picnic. Paco de Calheiros was superb all round.
An excellent long awaited walking holiday. Thank you Inntravel. The Pandemic created circumstances of the last 18 months are unprecedented and you have all coped admirably. We are grateful that the holiday could run, in spite of three airlines rescheduling/cancelling flights and accommodation changes after the holiday had started! When you told us of these various alterations, which were completely beyond your control, there was always a solution presented. This is the gold standard way of coping with these sorts of problems.
Well done to everyone concerned. We will definitely be back travelling with Inntravel.

Probably the best pure walking holiday we have had for a few years, but  accomodation apart from Ponte de Lima was disappointing. Paco de Calheiros could be outstanding but I suspect the Count is immune to change! Spend more time in Ponte de Lima. The gardens are fabulous and it is such a great City. For us, the treat at the end of a walk is a beer/glass of wine in a village square. Maybe the Manor Houses are too remote?