Encostas da Baronesa

<p>Encostas da Baronesa is the Douro house to take when the group is genuinely large. Seven bedrooms, ten bathrooms, eighteen guests — and, unusually for that size, no sense that the last two bedrooms were an afterthought. It sits above Alijó with the river in the distance and the hills close.</p><p>The facilities are the reason to choose it over something smaller. There is a spa with a sauna, an outdoor jacuzzi positioned for the view, a gym, a games room with billiards, and a wine cellar. Two dedicated workspaces make it viable for a group mixing a holiday with something else. Indoors, a fireplace and generous living space keep eighteen people from feeling like a crowd.</p><p>Alijó is proper Douro — port country, terraced slopes, quintas that have been in the same families for generations. For a milestone birthday, a family reunion or a company retreat, the combination of scale and setting here is rare enough to be worth planning a trip around.</p>