- Six visits, from 23 to 170 EUR. Sandeman publishes all of them with duration, number of wines and which room you taste in.
- Per glass, the 35 EUR visit is the cheapest at 7.00. The 23 EUR one works out at 7.67, because it pours three wines instead of five.
- The chocolate experience adds no wine. 32 EUR against 23 for the same three ports: the nine euros are truffles.
- It is in Gaia, not Porto, 18 minutes on foot from the centre, like every other port lodge.
- 4.4 out of 5 from about 2,800 Google reviews. Solid, not exceptional, on a sample big enough to trust.
Cheapest visit
23 EUR, 50 min
Best per glass
1790 Visit, 7.00
Dearest
170 EUR, 6 wines
Google rating
4.4 from 2,800
Where
Largo Miguel Bombarda 47
From the centre
18 min on foot
Prices read
1 October 2026
The six visits and what they cost
Sandeman is the port house everyone recognises, because of the caped figure of the Don on the label and on the roof of the lodge. It is also, unlike Graham's, Taylor's, Calem and Ferreira, a house that publishes what its visits cost, which is why this page can exist at all. Our guide to the port wine cellars covers which houses do and do not.
| Visit | Price | Length | Wines | Per glass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porto Sandeman Visit | 23 EUR | 50 min | 3 | 7.67 EUR |
| Wine and Chocolate | 32 EUR | 1 h | 3 | 10.67 EUR |
| Sandeman 1790 Visit | 35 EUR | 1 h 30 | 5 | 7.00 EUR |
| Old Tawnies Visit | 53 EUR | 1 h 30 | 4 | 13.25 EUR |
| Port Wine Workshop | 100 EUR | 3 h | 5 | 20.00 EUR |
| Exclusive Experience | 170 EUR | 2 h 30 | 6 | 28.33 EUR |
Per glass, the 35 EUR visit wins
Here is the thing the price list does not tell you, because it needs a division. The Sandeman 1790 Visit at 35 EUR is the cheapest wine in the building, at 7.00 EUR a glass. The entry level visit at 23 EUR comes out at 7.67, because it pours three wines against five.
So the real decision at the door is whether twelve euros is worth two more wines and forty more minutes. Put that way it is a much easier question than "23 or 35", and it is the question nobody is helping you answer.
Above that the price per glass climbs steeply and stops being about volume. The Old Tawnies visit at 53 EUR pours four wines at 13.25 each, but they are Sandeman's 10, 20, 30 and 40 year old tawnies, which you would not get in the cheaper tastings and which cost a great deal more by the bottle. The 170 EUR Exclusive Experience works out at 28.33 a glass. Those two are buying the wine, not the tour.
The chocolate one adds no wine
This is the clearest trap on the list, and it is only visible when the tastings are lined up. The Wine and Chocolate experience costs 32 EUR and pours three ports. The Porto Visit costs 23 EUR and pours three ports.
The nine euro difference buys chocolate truffles and ten extra minutes. That may well be worth it to you, and the point is not that it is bad value: it is that the price list makes it look like an upgrade in the tasting when it is an addition alongside it. If what you want is more port, the 1790 Visit is three euros more than the chocolate one and pours two extra glasses.
On your own or on a guided tour
Sandeman on its own is not the only way in. Guided tours of several lodges exist, and our cellars guide works out where the line falls: a guided tour of three cellars with seven tastings costs 54 EUR, which is 7.71 a glass.
Compare that with the 1790 Visit at 7.00 a glass and Sandeman alone is still the cheaper wine, though not by much. What the guided tour buys is three different houses and somebody walking you between them. What Sandeman alone buys is more time in one place and no schedule to keep.
The arithmetic that actually matters is the one in the cellars guide: going on your own wins for one or two lodges, and the guided tour wins from three onwards.
Getting there, and it is in Gaia
Sandeman is not in Porto. It is at Largo Miguel Bombarda 47, in Vila Nova de Gaia, on the opposite bank of the Douro, and so is every other port lodge. This surprises people constantly and it is the single most useful thing to know before you plan the day.
Sandeman's own figures from the centre of Porto are 18 minutes on foot, 12 by public transport and 8 by car. The walk crosses the Dom Luis I bridge and is one of the better ones in the city, though our neighbourhood measurements note that the Gaia quayside has no metro station within 500 m, which is the catch if you were counting on the metro.
From the airport the house gives 20 minutes by car and 1 hour 10 by public transport, which is a long way off the 27 minutes to Trindade that the metro timetable gives for the city itself. Gaia is the expensive end of every transfer for exactly that reason.
What 2,800 people think of it
4.4 out of 5 from about 2,800 Google reviews. That is a big enough sample that the score means something, and what it says is solid rather than spectacular. For comparison, the tours this site has compared across Porto sit between 4.6 and 4.97, so Sandeman sits below the average of the guided experiences, with far more people weighing in than any of them.
One thing worth repeating from the cellars guide. The cheapest port lodge product on the booking platforms is rated 3.1 from 129 reviews, and paying the house directly gets you a better rated experience for less money. The pattern is the same here: book with Sandeman, not around it. Graham's goes as far as putting a warning about third party sellers on its own Google listing.
What this page does not tell you
Nobody from this site has taken a Sandeman tour. Everything above is either published by the house or arithmetic done on what it publishes. Specifically:
- No opinion on the guide, the rooms or the wine. Whether the tour is engaging and whether the tawny is any good are not things we can verify from here.
- The per glass figures are a ratio, not a verdict. Four aged tawnies at 13.25 a glass may be far better value than five young ports at 7.00, depending on what you came for. The division tells you the volume you are buying, not the quality.
- Prices change. These were read on 1 October 2026 and matched the figures taken on 19 September, but a house can reprice at any time and the booking system is the only thing that binds.
- No comparison with houses that hide their prices. Graham's, Taylor's, Calem and Ferreira do not publish what a visit costs, so this page cannot tell you whether Sandeman is dear or cheap against them. That is their choice, not an omission of ours.
If you would rather see several lodges in one go
Our pick
Port lodges tour with seven tastings
- Price
- From 56 EUR
- Duration
- 3 hours 30 minutes
- Rating
Three lodges and seven tastings, which is 8.00 EUR a glass against 7.00 at Sandeman alone. What it buys is the other two houses and somebody walking you between them.
Price checked 29 Sep 2026
Check availability
Three cellars, seven tastings, twelve people maximum
- Price
- From 54 EUR
- Duration
- 2 hours 30 minutes
- Rating
The small group version, capped at twelve. An hour shorter than the one above for two euros less, on a quarter of the reviews.
Price checked 29 Sep 2026
Check availabilityQuestions
How much does it cost to visit Sandeman in Porto?
From 23 EUR. That is the Porto Sandeman Visit: 50 minutes and a tasting of three ports, white, ruby and tawny. Five other visits run from there to 170 EUR for the Exclusive Experience with six wines. Prices read from Sandeman on 1 October 2026, and they were the same on 19 September, so they are not moving week to week.
Which Sandeman visit is the best value?
The 1790 Visit at 35 EUR, and it is cheaper per glass than the 23 EUR one. It pours five wines in 90 minutes, which works out at 7.00 EUR a glass, against 7.67 for the 23 EUR visit with three wines in 50 minutes. For twelve euros more you get two extra wines and forty extra minutes.
Is the Sandeman chocolate experience worth the extra?
That depends on how much you like chocolate, because it is not buying you wine. The Wine and Chocolate experience costs 32 EUR and pours three ports, exactly the same number as the 23 EUR Porto Visit. The nine euro difference is the chocolate truffles and ten extra minutes, not an extra glass.
Do you need to book Sandeman in advance?
Sandeman sells every visit through its own booking system and each one has a fixed duration and a set tasting, so turning up without a slot is a gamble, particularly in summer and at weekends. Booking direct is also the only way to get the published price: this page lists what the house charges, and resellers do not always match it.
Where is Sandeman in Porto?
It is not in Porto, it is in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the river: Largo Miguel Bombarda 47. Sandeman puts it at 18 minutes on foot from the centre of Porto, 12 by public transport and 8 by car. Every port lodge is on that bank, which is the single most common surprise for first time visitors.
Is Sandeman worth visiting?
On the public evidence, it is solidly rated rather than exceptional: 4.4 out of 5 from about 2,800 Google reviews. That is a large enough sample to mean something. Nobody from this site has taken the tour, so what we can tell you is what it costs, how long it lasts, how many wines you get and how that compares with the alternatives across the bridge.
Header photograph: Bodega Sandeman, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, 2012-05-09, DD 05 by Diego Delso, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped to fit.
Written by Diego Fresno, who divided each Sandeman tasting by the number of glasses it pours, because the price list does not. Verified quarterly: last review September 2026. About the author →