Pinhão

Pinhão is a village of a few hundred people where the Pinhão stream joins the Douro, and it functions as the centre of the port wine country - the quintas that grow and make port cover the terraced slopes in every direction, and many of them run tours and tastings. Its railway station, on the Linha do Douro from Porto, is faced inside and out with twenty-four azulejo panels made in 1937 showing the harvest, the terraces, the rabelo boats and local costume, and it is one of the most photographed small stations in Europe. Rabelos - the flat-bottomed boats that once carried port barrels downriver to Gaia before dams and roads ended that - are moored at the quay and run trips. The train journey along the Douro from Régua is itself the reason many people come, running at water level through the gorge.

What you actually see

• The tiled station - twenty-four azulejo panels of 1937 showing the harvest and the river.
• The terraced quintas - port vineyards covering the slopes in all directions.
• The rabelos - the flat-bottomed barrel boats, now running river trips.
• The railway - the Douro line running at water level through the gorge.

When to go

September and October for the harvest, when quintas are working and some take visitors to tread; April to June for green terraces. A day, or longer staying at a quinta.

Honest expectations

The village itself is tiny with few services. Quinta tours need booking, especially in harvest. Accommodation in the valley is expensive. Summer heat in the Douro gorge regularly passes forty degrees.

Nearby

Peso da Régua and the Douro museum are downstream; São Leonardo de Galafura is on the ridge.