Welcome to the Douro region of Portugal. We are staying in two amazing hotels
and we are also going to share those with you, so you know what some of the accommodations are like.
On this trip, we're staying in a mix of some modest accommodations and some that are fantastic. This
is the first of our fantastic stays. This is the Quinta do Bosque in the Douro Valley, and there
are so many special features here that even though we hadn't planned on recording where we're staying,
we're recording where we're staying. Let me show you around, starting with the bathroom.
Now the bathroom might not seem that special, but when you've been staying in some modest
accommodations and you end up with a bathroom the size of a bed, it's amazing. You have everything
you need including a hair dryer, the first washcloths that we have had in Portugal,
beautiful marble walls, and we have his or her bathrobes,
and these are slippers, a full-length mirror. This is a luxury - these are the things you
take for granted in your house! Some welcome fruits, some almond cookies, a closet [oh no] - a
closet that rivals one in any house, complete with tea making facilities, some instant coffee,
full width drawers,
I mean, really full, width...
How does this go? In the middle -
Who brings this many shoes while they're on vacation??
You do! I don't!
A spare blanket, two throw blankets - we'll show you why in a minute - and look at how amazing this
is! Here are your pool towels and your Instagram-ready hat! But honestly the best part of this room
is the view and the balcony. Somebody send me my belongings and dog; I'm not coming home!
I think I found what the blanket is for.
The day has been filled with pretty much rain the whole day, a bit chilly,
and the sun just came out to play - and it's stunning.
Like many Quintas in the area, ours offered an amazing dinner.
Spinach soup.
Veal with rice.
Apple crumble with homemade vanilla ice cream.
Now we are headed to our next hotel where we're staying for only one night. Why one night? Well,
this place, it's a bit of a budget buster. It is something that is so unique that we
couldn't resist staying there, even if it was just for one night. Wait until you see!
Oh wow. After quickly checking in, we were whisked away on a golf cart to our room -
which is a pretty amazing way to arrive somewhere.
When I heard that you could stay in an accommodation like this, I made a reservation
pretty much without telling Bill about it. That's right, we're staying in a wine barrel!
Let me show you around inside, starting over here by the door. We have storage and
one of the coolest things. Breakfast is included with where we're staying. You can have it brought
to you, but you don't want anyone waking you, you don't have to put your mask on,
ladies we don't want to put our makeup on. They have a pass-through door and they will knock on
the door and let us know when our breakfast has arrived, and we will retrieve it through
there without ever needing to leave our room! If that isn't an amazing idea, I don't know what is.
This is luggage storage. Let's see if everything topples out when I open it! Ta-da!
In here we have more storage, plus we have slippers again, we have slippers - and they probably won't fit
me - a hairdryer, spare toilet paper, and bathrobes. Here is the outside of your bathroom - your sink
and body lotion, which smells appropriately froofu. It's lavender. Then coming around here, we have
the bathroom. Now you might notice - yeah, you can see through the bathroom door. It's not fancy enough to
darken or anything while anyone's in there, so you have to decide whether you're comfortable
with that, because the toilet is right on the other side. Then the bed can't just be a rectangular bed, noooo.
The bed is round, which I think is okay if you're 5'3",
but if you are a 6'1" individual like Bill... Yeah, all right. I just can't have my feet over here.
I can have them here. So it passes the 6'1" test, as long as you let him sleep in the middle.
Up above me is a skylight which has a darkening shade that you can lower at night.
Your stay in a wine barrel would not be complete without
a complimentary bottle of port, which you can see we've already opened. You do not have to go
all the way around your wine barrel in order to get to your deck - which we might have gone all the
way around to get to our deck at the beginning - but then we found you can open your wine barrel,
with your hip! As I was saying, you can open up your door all the way!
How cool is this round door? There's a shade on the inside,
that is completely room darkening so at night you have a very dark wine barrel that you are
sleeping in - but for now I gotta go get ready for our complimentary tasting. See you later!
The phone eats first. I got a traditional green broth with crispy chorizo, and Bill got watercress
cream with croutons and ham, and we are ready for some soup. Bon Appetit!
Tomato carpaccio.
Behind the scene shot. I'm listening for the magic breakfast elves to show up.
This is titillating stuff, I know. Bill wanted to film this from the outside, but I said, "don't
wreck the magic." [Dream killer, dream killer!] This is like Harry Potter level stuff.
Oh my gosh, this weighs a ton.
I hope you're hungry. They asked us, "do you have any food allergies?" We said, "no." They said, "so is there
anything you want? Pancakes, eggs?" We said, "sure." This is what we got. Some decaf coffee for Bill.
Some regular for me, because I need my caffeine. See what we got. This is cold, whatever it is.
Okay, so fruit. Yeah, that's warm. I'm not sure what this is - okay, some meats and cheeses,
and bacon and eggs. Those look really good.
Fresh squeezed, maybe, orange juice, and then we got some pancakes and maybe crepes.
I guess we put it back for the elves.
All done. Just wanted to take a minute to compare the two places that we stayed at.
The wine barrel hotel, that Quinta, I would say that one was like the pinnacle luxury experience.
If you're looking for an upscale more spa-like luxury stay while you're in the Douro Valley,
I don't think you can go wrong with that Quinta. It is a larger one. The service is impeccable.
The food's delicious, the view is incredible over the town as well. The first place we stayed at
was also a fantastic experience. It was a much smaller Quinta. They maybe had five or six rooms.
The food there was also fantastic. The price was significantly less than the wine barrel experience,
so depending on what you're looking for when you come to the Douro,
I could easily recommend either place. We're off now to our next adventure in Portugal,
and it's raining out so this could be even a little bit more of an adventure than what
we're looking for. We'll have to see when we get there. It was shut this weekend, it opened up today.
You're going to have to tune in to the next video to see where we head next. It is a record breaker.