Agritourism in Portugal

Rural tourism has become increasingly popular with travelers and vacationers in recent years. Urban dwellers from all over the world travel to farms where they are taught to dry hay, pick grapes, make cheese, and bake bread. Portugal boasts a wide variety of on-farm tourism services. Farming is the most important sector of the country’s economy. Many crops are grown there, livestock is raised, bottle corks are manufactured, and world-famous wine is made. In general, this country is great for having a break from the hustle and bustle of the city and gaining farm experiences.

One can search for a farm tour using special websites. For example, the www.portugalfarmexperience.com portal offers the information about types of agritourism in a particular region of Portugal, and gives the addresses of farms and contacts of their owners. Farmers welcome their guests warmly, conduct excursions and hold workshops for them, and sometimes offer to take part in harvesting.

Traveling to the Douro Valley in ‘search of the truth’

Port wine is among the symbols of Portugal. However, this country produces both sweet wines and the wines of all types and colors. Light sparkling vinho verde, unusual volcanic wines from the Azores, unique autochthon wines from the central part of the country - all this can be tasted, purchased right at the winery, and watch the wine production process during a tour of a winery.

Some wine regions are the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, for example, the Alto Douro (upper Douro) region. If ‘the truth really lies in wine’, then it is worth looking for it in this area. There are reasons that the Douro Valley is considered one of the most beautiful wine regions in the country. A picturesque road with viewing platforms runs along the hills, and there were a lot of wineries on the hill slopes, many of which are open to visitors throughout the year.

Tourists can spend a whole day trying to choose, from an embarrassment of riches, the tour they like. A variety of excursions is offered to suit every taste and budget, some of them last only a couple of hours. During this time, tourists can walk around the farm, admire the vineyards, and taste several wines. The cost of such tours starts from ten euros, depending on the program. If tourists want, they can order a picnic in the vineyards or a full dinner with delicious food and a stunning view. Such tours cost more, from 25 euros.

The price of wine tours can reach 100 euros and more. The more expensive the excursion is, the more varied leisure program is offered. For an additional fee, tourists can ride horses along the growing bunches of grapes. Some wineries offer tourists to go down to the cellars and try to make their own assemblage of wine, a mix of several wines. One day is enough for tourists to become winemakers and not only get memories and gain experiences, but also take a bottle of unique wine made according to their own recipe and bring it home. If they want to stay longer, hospitable hosts are happy to offer them to stay overnight right at the winery. This service is also fairly popular with the tourists coming to the winery.

A special experience can be gained at a winery in the fall. Some farms offer tourists not only to pick and taste ripe berries, but also take part in stomping grapes to make wine, an ancient practice used by our ancestors for centuries and replaced now by machine processing.

Of course, such excursions are offered not only in the Douro Valley, but also in other regions of the country. However, tourists should start getting acquainted with winemaking in the Douro Valley.

Fairytale Forest

Portugal is famous not only for its wines, but also for its wine corks made from the local bark of cork oaks. The first cutting of oak bark is made when a cork oak tree reaches 25 years of age. This oak bark scraped is called ‘male cork-bark’ (male cork). This material is quite rough and is of a low grade. All subsequent oak bark scraped allow the manufacturers to collect high quality soft cork-bark. Anything can be made from it - from shoe soles to umbrellas and hats. During its life, one tree produces up to 16 harvests.

In Portugal, there are huge plantations of cork oaks. As a rule, travelers have two options for visiting these fabulous forests: a walking tour or a jeep tour. During the excursion, guides tell how to collect and process the cork bark, how it turns into various objects, and many other interesting facts. Visitors can touch real cork bark and try to make a souvenir. Some farms offer the tours of the factories having a solid history, often combined with wine or farm product tasting sessions. So, tourists have an opportunity to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ and immerse themselves deeper into the Portuguese culture.

‘Liquid gold’

When looking at Portugal from above, tourists can see more than just vineyards and cork oak forests as there are also many olive tree plantations in the country. Olive oil produced in this country is often called ‘liquid gold’.

Autumn is the best time to visit olive farms. Tourists have an opportunity to join the olive harvesting in this season only. However, they can gain interesting experiences during excursions at other times of the year, too.

As part of an olive tour, visitors are usually told about the process of olive oil production - from olive harvesting to pressing - and they see the equipment used and enjoy tasting sessions. Farm workers share their secrets and help to choose a bottle of good olive oil, teach how to read labels correctly and tourists are told about different categories of olive oil. After the tour of an oil making factory, visitors can walk through the olive groves and treat themselves to a satisfying, high protein snacks like cheese and farm-made bread!

Honey is also often called ‘liquid gold’. For people with a ‘sweet tooth’, Portugal offers many tours to bee-gardens in different regions of the country. Beekeepers are happy to tell tourists about the life of bees, how they communicate and work. Visitors can put on special overalls and examine the beehives from the inside to find the queen bee (also called a ‘mother bee’), try to distinguish worker bees from drones (male bees) on their own. Sometimes beekeepers offer to watch the honey harvesting or join this process. A tasting session of different types of honey is part of an excursion around a bee-garden.

What else to harvest?

Madeira Island is famous not only for its fortified (strong) wine, but also for its rum. In this region, tourists can take part in sugar cane harvesting and see how sugar cane turn into a delicious drink. Tourists are offered to taste several types of strong wines and rums or choose a tour of the factory and immerse themselves in the production process.

Delicious fruits, including exotic ones also grow on the island. Here, tourists can visit one of the small-scale family farms with banana trees or passion fruit plantations. Tourists are explained how to distinguish different types of bananas and take care of the trees. During the tour of a farm, they can join the banana or passion fruit harvesting and, of course, taste ripe ones.

In other regions of the country, travelers can also taste something. Near the city of Faro, there are farms where the farmers teach to pine nut hunt and make pesto sauce from pine nuts. Those who like walnuts should go to the outskirts of Lisbon where the excursions start with a jeep ride and end with a special walnut tasting session combined with wine tasting.

Gastronomic pleasures are not limited to nut hunting and harvesting fruit and vegetables. In the town of Torres Novas, tourists can visit a farm where shiitake mushrooms are cultivated. They can also choose a tour, during which tourists get some idea about medicinal herbs.

Many Portuguese quintas-estates offer to taste unique varieties of cheeses. For example, in the mountainous region of Serra da Estrela, a special cheese is produced from sheep’s milk with a liquid in the center; this cheese annually wins prizes in various competitions. Guests of local farms are offered not only to enjoy cheese tasting, they visit a sheepfold, watch the cheese ripening process, learn the secrets of cheese making, and walk through a thistle field.

As for fields, tourists can see a lot of hay sheaves at the end of summer. Probably, everyone has taken a photo against the background of beautiful hay sheaves at least once. But have you tried to make it on your own? If not, then you can learn how to do this in Portugal. Not far from Porto, in the city of Penafiel, tourists are offered to immerse themselves in rural life and join haymaking. This leisure activity is available during the harvest season only. Visitors are explained how to dry and bale hay, and then tourists start collecting hay sheaves on their own and move them to the barn.

Now, you know where a tired urban dweller can escape from ‘deadlines’ and the noise of cars. The main thing is to check the agricultural calendar in advance and go to gain new experiences.