Casa Das Pipas Quinta Do Portal

“Hiking the Douro Valley. Great place to stay after a day of climbing steep hills.”

We were hiking the Douro Valley. The hotel sits in the middle of a vineyard and the view is fabulous. The pool is large and picturesque. The rooms were quite large. We had a king sized bed. There was coffee and tea in the room. We were very comfortable. The restaurant is a bit of a walk from the ho… more

We were hiking the Douro Valley. The hotel sits in the middle of a vineyard and the view is fabulous. The pool is large and picturesque. The rooms were quite large. We had a king sized bed. There was coffee and tea in the room. We were very comfortable. The restaurant is a bit of a walk from the hotel, and the hotel sits back away from the road in the vineyard. I would definitely stay there again.

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“Great stay for Douro Valley”

Wonderful fusion of modern convenience and old world charm. Ambiance is one of calm and peacefulness. Beautiful setting amongst meticulously manicured vineyards sweeping over the rolling hills of the Alto Douro. We stayed one night in the main building while touring the Douro Valley. The 20 min… more

Wonderful fusion of modern convenience and old world charm. Ambiance is one of calm and peacefulness. Beautiful setting amongst meticulously manicured vineyards sweeping over the rolling hills of the Alto Douro. We stayed one night in the main building while touring the Douro Valley. The 20 minute hairpin drive from Pinhao to Celeiros includes some of the best vistas in the Douro Valley. Our room was clean, comfortable, nicely decorated and with good comfortable bed and plenty of hot water in the large walk in shower. Public areas were beautiful with stone walls from the original structure, high vaulted ceilings and antique furnishings. We didn't eat dinner at the separate Restaurant which seemed a bit too nouveau cuisine for our simple tastes. Breakfast buffet was OK, but we didn't learn until afterwards that the only hot dish, poached eggs, were only available upon request. Replenishment of the buffet was slow and some items were gone by 9:00 am. Nevertheless I would highly recommend The Manor House for your Douro Vally trip.

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“One of the best”

This is a wonderful place to be. It's such a warm welcome and the restaurant is the best we had since times. The people were very friendly and gave us very good advice of the wine and the meals. The restaurant normally is at another place on the site, but was now under construccion. For us even b… more

This is a wonderful place to be. It's such a warm welcome and the restaurant is the best we had since times. The people were very friendly and gave us very good advice of the wine and the meals. The restaurant normally is at another place on the site, but was now under construccion. For us even better, we didn't have to go outside to have the dinner. The rooms were not that big, but very comfortable. We surely come back.

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“Interesting but did not meet expectations”

Beautiful setting for this hotel but it missed the mark with a few issues. The good was the olde worlde charm with some lovely sitting areas in the main hotel building, sadly very little lighting so very dark. There were no people sitting there so assume others felt as we did. Staff helpful and… more

Beautiful setting for this hotel but it missed the mark with a few issues. The good was the olde worlde charm with some lovely sitting areas in the main hotel building, sadly very little lighting so very dark. There were no people sitting there so assume others felt as we did. Staff helpful and breakfast reasonable but not overwhelming with no hot options offered to us. There is an honesty bar fridge which in the absence of a hotel bar worked well for us. If thinking of staying here you should be aware that the hotel restaurant for dinner is a considerable walk from the main hotel building and even further from Casa do Lagar, as it was dark we drove between the two. We actually stayed in a family room in Casa do Lagar, three adults and the room was beautiful, just a little different to the norm. The metal spiral staircase challenging for older people but I’d imagine very worrying with young children, it did however suit our needs. The bathroom was clean, with a big shower but the mirror was so high I could only see the top of my head, I commented at the time it must have been put up by a tall man! We had a good nights sleep and were not disturbed by the farm traffic however we were aware of the road right behind the building. The bad! These rooms in the converted olive press are not well sound-proofed! We had been aware of our neighbours changing for dinner but hadn’t really taken too much notice however, after dinner in the hotel restaurant we retired to our room and sat chatting quietly. The very bad …… Now there were three of us, one aged 79, one aged 69 and one aged 44, we were chatting quietly, not holding a riotous party nor were we shouting and arguing but at 10.30pm there was a knock on our door and a lady was standing there in her nightdress complaining we were keeping her party of four in the next room awake! We were ‘told’ to stop talking immediately! When we investigated the next morning there is a huge unsealed gap between the wooden dividing the ceiling areas and the roof, this needs filling in and sound proofing looked into. It is such a shame as these rooms are very quirky and different.

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