Quinta São Luiz The Vine House Douro

Breakfast was decent, a small buffet, ignoring the ubiquitous hotel staple of overcooked cold scrambled eggs. Good fresh OJ, good bread. The pool is outstanding, cold, but not impossibly. A nice lounge.

I inexplicably booked the cheapest room, which I never do, so have only myself to blame, but…. The River view was somewhat obstructed and only there if you stood at the window. There was no balcony as I had been thinks there was. The room was one of three on the lower floor, accessed by a long (beautiful) winding staircase. The staff did help with the luggage but it would not suit someone with mobility issues and I don’t recall any mention of that when booking. I was disappointed with the room. Specify an upper floor The other issue is that once breakfast is over there is no restaurant until 7:30. To be fair you can order some things at the pool via WhatsApp. However, you need a credit card because the restaurant and winery are “a separate company” and the hotel doesn’t have any connection. I found this annoying, especially the first day. Better integration of the hotel and food services would be nice.

Staff was very friendly and attentive. They gave us good recommendations and also reorganised the wine tasting tour to an hour that worked better for us. The hotel is absolutely splendid, views are wonderful and the entire place is decorated very well. Breakfast was excellent.

Beautiful views. Nice pool, lovely room with large view terrace

Breakfast not very good, put out at 8 and not refreshed. Limited choices, too many sweets, limited healthy choices. It isso remote up a very narrow and windy road it's not possible to go out for a dinner with wine and then drive 20 minutes back in pitch dark winding narrow road. Ok for one night but 3 nights too much.

The pool here is stunning - I've never been in a pool with such incredible views. The water was so refreshing in the heat of the valley. Also liked the complementary tour of the on-site winery, with good tastings. The room was good, and the views from the balcony are terrific.

Dinner - the setting, the price (55 Euros a head, before drinks), the dish descriptions from the waiter, the show of wearing gloves and pouring your main dish - would get you thinking you're going to have an exceptional dinner. But what we got was the exact opposite - tasteless food, and in the case of the Octopus dish - with a presentation which was insulting. This was easily the worst dinner we had in Portugal, and a direct contrast to absolutely fantastic meals we had in our 2 previous nights in Dajas Douro Valley, as a comparison. I hate writing bad reviews, but this one is due. Breakfast was not better, sorry to say. The scrambled eggs had that "I've been here for a while" crust on them, and the overall look and feel had nothing to do with what you'd expect from a hotel which charges premium prices. Considering the fact that most people coming to hotels like this prefer eating on-location, the dinning experience is something to think about.