26 Sep 2025
We paid for a half day tour which included a boat cruise under 6 bridges on the Douro River. This tour was a 5 hr tour.
Everything was going well until our tour guide Carlos stopped at a pastry shop to allow people to buy a bite to eat. My husband came out with pastries and tour guide was gone. Two other people were looking for him as well. We walked around for 10 minutes looking for him in a busy area of Porto.
My husband suggested we go back to ticket office. The 4 of us did so… they contacted him and then took us to meet a bus that the group was on. Basically he left without knowing if his group was all there.
We ended that part of the tour and were expecting to be taken to the riverfront and board tour boat. Instead we were handed a voucher for 2 people and told to walk down to riverfront to a vendor and present voucher for boat ride. We did this .. walking 15-20 minutes. When we presented voucher we were told the next available boat was in an hour and 20 minutes. Unbelievable… as we didn’t expect this and thought we would get on a boat within half an hour.
Boat ride is 50 minutes. This meant we wouldn’t get back until 3:20 — the tour started at 9am.
We were very disappointed with this tour.
It’s not detailed well in the description on line.
It doesn’t say anything about a tour on the land and then getting a boat voucher and getting yourself to the boat! Our tour guide Carlos should be aware if people missing in his group. My husband walked beside him at length. He had to know we weren’t with him.
Unacceptable when you pay $$$