2025 -  AmaVida – Flavors of Portugal & Spain  (August 20, 2025 - September 2, 2025)

This review is written for the sole purposes of promoting Travel.  If you have interest in this River Cruise or any other, please contact me for assistance.  Thank you! 

We just got back from a 2-week adventure with our Regency Travel Group starting in Lisbon and ending in Madrid.   We had a group of 28 people, 18 from our Regency community and 10 from the Bay Area and I’d say everyone had a phenomenal time…except for a few visits to local pharmacies for cold meds!

GETTING THERE:

Everyone flew to Lisbon on different flights.   We flew from Reno to SFO to Frankfurt and then Lisbon on a combination of United & Lufthansa flights.  We had about 3 hours layover in both SFO and Frankfurt, but we were able to enjoy the lounges in both airports.  We did fly Business Class and enjoyed a very comfortable flight overnight with lay flat seats.    I felt the service on Lufthansa was good, our seat configuration was interesting as we had 2 seats on the window side, which meant a window person had to crawl over the aisle person if you needed to get up for any reason.  Not a big deal if you know the person but if you didn’t that would be awkward.    The beds themselves were comfortable, and we both did get some sleep and felt refreshed once we arrived in Frankfurt.   

I’ve heard horror stories about Frankfurt airport, but we must have hit the lottery.  We had a very short line through immigration/passport control and though we walked about 30 minutes between gates, it was not a big deal.  It was an easy experience for us.  Our flight from Frankfurt to Lisbon did require that we board a bus that took us out to the aircraft and then the “Business Class” section was regular rows of 3 with the middle seat empty- kind of strange but it worked, and we were “served” like a Business Class.

Upon arrival in Lisbon, we retrieved our luggage and then followed our Ama Waterways instructions to exit the baggage to find out driver/greeter.   The Arrivals Hall was busy, but we found our Ama representative easily and as we were the only two to arrive at this time, she escorted us to our car/driver, and we were on our way to the hotel very quickly. 

LISBON:

We were booked into the Sofitel Liberdade in Lisbon as part of a 3-night pre-cruise package with Ama Waterways.   This package included the hotel, touring each day and our day trip between Lisbon and Porto with stops along the way to our ship.   Our room was very comfortable, though on the small side (typical for Europe), we had a great bed and that is what matters the most!   We unpacked and then went to our arrival party where we met our Cruise Manager, Andre.   I had already been in touch with Andre before the cruise, so it was lovely to meet him face to face and to unite with our group of travelers!  Some were still arriving but we eventually all made it to the hotel.   After the cocktail party, several of us went to dinner at our hotel restaurant and called it a night!

Our next 2 days in Lisbon were filled with a city tour, an evening Fado show, a day trip to visit the Pena Palace and the beach town of Cascais.   And on our transfer day to Porto, there were two options with different stops.  We took the option that stopped in Obidos and then Nazare before arriving at Porto just before dinner time. 

7 DAY CRUISE FLAVORS OF PORTUGAL & SPAIN

We boarded our River Ship, Ama Vida for our 7-night cruise along the Douro River to end in Vega de Terron.    I was pleasantly surprised with how much I loved this cruise and I think it’s partly because many Advisor friends had described their experiences with the Douro River cruises and they were describing something much different than my experience and I believe it’s probably because they did a roundtrip Porto cruise and I feel this river really works best with the one-way Porto to Vega de Terron.  Of course, the only drawback of the one-way cruise is that it ends in the middle of nowhere and you really need to take the cruise line’s extension to Madrid or at the very least the transfer to Madrid.

The River Ships on the Douro are about 50% smaller than those on other European Rivers, so this also means smaller staterooms.  The room itself was fine, but the bathroom was super small with too many doors- the shower door, the toilet door and the bathroom door, but we managed.    There was plenty of storage space with closet and drawers and a small desk area which worked fine for the little work that I needed to do while away.   The balcony was just large enough for 2 chairs and a small table and you had to get creative to get into the chairs, but once you were seated, all was good, and we did enjoy some time on the balcony while cruising in the mornings and going through some of the locks.    I did take advantage of the swimming pool on this ship one afternoon; it’s about thigh deep but it worked for a relaxing day while I was nursing a head cold.    I love having a coffee machine to make your own latte or cappuccino, also a water station to fill your bottle with still or sparkling water and always a variety of cookies for off mealtime snacks. 

Our Dining Room service was excellent.  Breakfast was a buffet with a few things you could order off a menu, and they also had an omelet/fried egg station available.  I prefer this for breakfast as you are usually getting ready to tour and want to eat something but want to do it quickly.   Lunch was also a buffet with a few items you could order, and the egg station became a pasta station, which always speaks to my heart.   Again, you are arriving back on the ship at different times and might have another excursion, so this helps you to get something to eat as quickly as possible, but you have the option to take your time too.    Dinner was full service each night and we did manage to get our groups of 18 and 10 seated together most of the time.   I also had the honor of dining at the Captain’s Table one night.  Though it is an honor, it can also be awkward and intimidating – mostly due to other guests that you don’t know and forced to make small talk.  

During our cruise, we started with 2 nights on the ship in Porto.  We took a night cruise the first night to see Porto all lit up, which was gorgeous and a nice way to start our cruise experience.  We then docked in Porto for the night (All Douro River cruising is during daylight hours, Portugal law), so we enjoyed some on board entertainment and called it a night around 11pm.   Our next day included a Porto City Tour both walking and by bus ending via tram.   After lunch, some of us walked to a nearby winery where we went Port tasting.   We cruised the next morning and went through our first of five locks and ended up in Entre-os-Rios where we did an excursion to Casa de Quinta for a tour, wine tasting and delicious lunch. 

Our next day was filled with many things.  An early morning lock transit got us all up early and we met on deck at 830am with our coffee in our robes.  How fun it is to have 18 people all show up in their robes to experience the grandest lock of our journey together.   After lock transit, we all went to breakfast together- yes, in our robes.   Ama Vida was cruising for a few more hours and then after lunch, we learned how to make Pastel de Natas and then we arrived at Regua, where we took an excursion to visit the Mateus Palace & Gardens.

We spent the night in Regua and the next day took an excursion into Lamego where we climbed 686 steps to the top of the Holy Staircase at the Nossa Senhora dos Remedios (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies).    After we went down the steps, we were rewarded with tapas “Bolas de Lamego” and a sparkling wine tasting “Espumante”.    Then our ship cruised a bit more down the river, through our third lock and we docked in Pinhao where we had an excursion to Croft Winery for a tour and port tasting and then back to the ship for dinner and entertainment!

Our next day in Pinhao was a down day for me as I finally got the head cold that had been moving around our group, so I decided to medicate and try to speed up the virus so I could get back to the fun.  It worked!   We skipped the morning hike to the train station and then Bill went to the Quinta da Avessada Lunch which he said was very good and I was sorry to miss, but I enjoyed some quiet time by the pool and a few others in  our group stayed behind, so I had some company and felt much better for the evening festivities.

The next day we went through 2 more (our last) locks and then docked in Barca D’Alva/Vega de Terron for our excursion to Castelo Rodrigo where we visited this medieval town on the hill with great views, had wine/cheese tastings, almond tasting, olive oil tastings.   It was a beautiful place and fun to cross over a bridge where it became Spain halfway over the bridge.

MADRID POST-CRUISE EXTENSION

Everyone on our cruise, all 94 passengers opted into the Madrid post-cruise extension.   We left AmaVida in the morning and made our first stop in Salamanca where we enjoyed a walking tour, followed by a buffet lunch with paella and tapas and then we enjoyed a taste of flamenco dance.   We said good-bye to our Portuguese Bus Drivers and our Ama Tour Guides who were going to be joining passengers that would be boarding AmaVida that day from Salamanca and we said hello to our new Spaniard Bus Drivers and Ama Tour Guides who would be with us for our time in Spain.   Of course, we still had our wonderful Cruise Manager Andre who stayed with us until the very end of the trip!    We left Salamanca after lunch and headed to Madrid with a brief comfort stop along the way to use the restrooms and get something to drink or snack on for the rest of the bus ride.   It’s a long day, but AMA knows how to make it not feel so long!  Everything was done very smoothly. 

Once we arrived in Madrid, we checked into our hotel, the NH Madrid Paseo del Prado and unpacked and then had an evening at leisure.   I had a hair blow-dry appointment nearby, so we walked to the salon and afterwards returned to the hotel to meet up with friends to find a local spot for dinner.  We ended up finding Funambulista Bar a few blocks away from our hotel.  It was very “pub-like”, but it served its purpose for our dinner and some cocktails. 

The next day we had a walking tour of Madrid and then we met up with our buses who took us to farther places including the bullfighting ring, which was cool to see.  We had a free afternoon, so some of us went to the Prado Museum which was across the street from our hotel.  I am not a museum person but felt “when in Madrid” that I needed to say that I went to the Prado.  Afterwards, we found a delightful Italian restaurant 2 blocks away from our hotel, La Mafia se sienta a la mesa.  They seem to have several locations in Madrid and other places, and we thought the food was excellent.  We enjoyed our afternoon and headed back to our hotel for some down time before our evening festivities took us to a true Flamenco Show.   Good thing that I had a substantial lunch because many of the tapas served at this dinner show were not things I ate, but everyone we sat with did enjoy the food and I enjoyed a few things.  The show was fantastic, though the place was very small and there were a lot of us crammed into the show.  Live candles are a thing, and I was nervous that someone was going to hit a table and knock one over and we’d make the news at 11pm.  Thankfully, that did not happen but truly was looking for escape routes if a fire were to break out.

Our final full day in Madrid took us to the very charming medieval town of Toledo.  WOW, what a cool place to visit.  We stopped at some lookout points for amazing views and then began our walking tour and then had some free time to grab lunch and do some shopping before walking back to our buses which were located down several long escalators.  Toledo is perched up on a hill, so you have amazing views of the walled town from below but also have amazing view from the hilltop!  Afterwards, we were free the rest of the day.  We made sure we had finished our shopping, met up with friends for cocktails and then most of us met up at an amazing rooftop bar, the Circulo De Bellas Artes, to celebrate our last night together before we all continued our journey home on separate flights and different departure times.  It was a beautiful evening up on the rooftop, we were all taking photos, talking, laughing and sharing favorite memories of our two weeks together.   Those of us who did not have a super early flight the next day ended up going back to La Mafia for dinner and we eventually made it back to our hotel.    The next morning, we said farewell to our Cruise Manager Andre and each boarded our different shuttles to the airport to make our way home.

GETTING HOME:

Ama Waterways took us to the airport and for those who wanted escorted service to the ticket counters, they were there to assist.  We were comfortable navigating the airport, so we walked ahead and ended up having no line and we were in the airline lounge probably 30 minutes from leaving the bus.  Priority Security access was super smooth.  We were flying Air Canada from Madrid to Montreal and then to Denver with a short layover in Montreal and then connecting to United Denver to Reno.  Our Air Canada flights were very nice; I try not to sleep when coming back to the US so that I can get a good night sleep upon my return and adjust to local time.  I watched several movies on board and organized my photos from the trip.   Our flight from Montreal to Denver was delayed due to a passenger medical emergency, which caused us to miss our flight to Reno, but knowing we could file with the insurance company we purchased tickets on Southwest to get home the same day.   Once we got home, I spoke to United and they said our luggage would be sent to Reno on the next available flight and sure enough, the next day our bags had arrived by 930am.

We had a wonderful trip with an amazing group of friends and we can’t wait to do it again!!

PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT MANY MORE PHOTOS HERE: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamstravel/albums/72177720330128248/