Limited Edition Route

This Limited Edition Route is a beautiful Halfday Tour experience to the northwest coast of the Porto district. On this route, you will be enchanted by the right bank of the Douro River to the sea. Along the way, we will pass through some historical neighborhoods that border the river, from Miragaia, through Massarelos, to Lordelo do Ouro. Then we will enter Foz do Douro, a place that only in the late nineteenth century became part of the municipality of Porto. This beautiful garden near the mouth of the Douro River was designed by the German landscape architect Emílio David, author of the well-known gardens of the Crystal Palace and Cordoaria. The route continues along the Atlantic avenues of Brazil and Montevideo to the city of Matosinhos, an important seaside resort area. We will cross the movable bridge of the Leça and Leixões Harbor and continue on our way to the unique seaside resort of Leça da Palmeira with its fantastic white sand beaches. When we get close to the lighthouse, we will be dazzled by an amazing piece of national architecture, the Boa Nova Tea House—built on the rocks and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean by the award-winning architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, a fascinating restaurant run by the renowned chef Rui Paula. We continue our journey north, following the road along the Atlantic coast, to our final destination, the incredible site of Castro de São Paio. It is the only Maritime Castro in the Portuguese part of the Peninsular Northwest. S. Paio is a rocky outcrop essentially granite, on the sea, near Moreiró, in the extreme south of the municipality of Vila do Conde. Near it flows the river Onda. Geomorphology, archeology, and landscape make this site a place of distinction where the Chapel of S. Paio and a Castro are located, a small Iron Age settlement that, in its surroundings, presents traces attributed to the Paleolithic. A fortified village from the first millennium B.C. that corresponded to a settlement of people from the Peninsular Northwest that the Romans called Calaicos. A jewel of national archaeology, the Castro de S. Paio is the only example of a Castro on national territory where the sea touches the defenses. A fishing village and probably a salt production site, S. Paio was abandoned by the Romans around 20. C. In the surroundings, several points of interest are related to the historical past, geomorphology, biology, and landscape.