The title does not exaggerate. If you google the most scenic train ride in Portugal, it will take you to exactly where I'm going to take you today. From Porto through the Douro Valley to Pinhão and Pochinho to see these stunning views.
My train ride started at the Porto São Bento station, a station so beautiful that it's worthy of its own post, when I get around to it one day.
As soon as I got on the train and saw the carriages, I knew I would be in a treat for my 200km 3-hour train journey. There's something so nostalgic about it, cruising in these classic art deco looking style carriages along the Portuguese countryside. And the best thing was that there weren't many passengers on board. We could walk freely from side to side inside the carriage to admire the scenery. The windows could be pushed halfway down, opening up an unobstructed view outside.
And if you wanted a full length unobstructed view, there's always the open door! I was surprised to see us travelling like this, it would never pass health and safety in UK 😄
As the train slowly left Porto, we traveled east towards Spain. The scenery was pretty ok with a mix of urban landscape, rural countryside, villages, and the vineyards along the Douro Valley. It wasn't as impressive as what I'd seen on the internet, but the novelty of the train ride was still very high that I didn't mind too much.
Some of the stations were very small, and a few people got off. Then there was another bigger station called Pinhão, a big tourist group got off here and the train was nearly empty. We'll be coming back to Pinhão later on in the afternoon.
We continued our journey and about 2 hours in, we reached the best part of the train ride. The train was travelling along side the river now weaving in and out of the valley.
Gradually, the views opened up and it was nothing short of spectacular. It was a beautiful clear day, and the reflection of the undulating valley into the river was so breathtaking. There weren't many people left on the train and everyone huddled towards a window to get the best view. I was thinking of those poor tourists who got off at Pinhão, you missed out big time!!! This is the best part of this train ride.
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Pocinho
After three and a half hours we arrived at Pocinho, the end stop of my train ride. Pocinho is a very small station, and I couldn't see anything nearby, not even a shop. Apart from a couple of staff and the handful of train passengers, there was not another soul in sight. Snowpea and I hung around the station for a few moments, munching our packed lunch waiting for the next train to head back west.
Pinhão
On the return journey, we went pass the same amazing views again. This time I didn't take any photos, that's all been done on the incoming journey. I put my phone away and took everything in with my own eyes. The experience is so much better than through the lenses.
After a while, we arrived at Pinhão, that's the town where the group of tourists got off in the morning, and missed the best views. Many people come here for hikes and port tastings. After all, this what the region is famous for.
The other thing one can do at Pinhão is to take a boat ride along the Douro river. Two companies offer the boat ride here and their boats depart every hour. So between them, there's a boat ride every half an hour making it very convenient for visitors and fair for the two companies. The ride lasts about an hour and cruises a shirt section along the same route as the train because the train travels alongside the river. Despite the same route and scenery, there was a different feel between the two forms of transport. The boat was much slower of course, and we got to see both sides of the valley at the same time, as well as the vineyards and hotels dotted along the valley. I think it was definitely worth doing it to get a different perspective of the area.
We walked around town for a little while after the boat ride before catching the train back to Porto for dinner. Great day out and I highly recommend it if you're in Porto.
