Quinta do Merouço - Casa do Rio

<p>Casa do Rio sits on the bank of the Douro at Quinta do Merouço, with a private dock and a boat slip — which puts it in a small category of Portuguese rental houses where arriving or leaving by water is a real option rather than a brochure line. Eight bedrooms, sixteen guests.</p><p>The pool and terrace face the river. Inside there is an indoor fireplace and the kind of living space a group of sixteen needs if the house is going to work over a week rather than a weekend. Beach essentials are provided for the river shore below.</p><p>The Douro here is wide and slow, and the far bank is terraced to the skyline. River cruises pass, port quintas sit within a short drive, and the landscape is the one UNESCO listed rather than a version of it seen from a distance. For a group that wants the river as the centre of the stay — swimming, boats, long afternoons on the bank — this is the address.</p>