Portugal - casual cycling

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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spaman
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Joined: 21 Mar 2016, 6:20pm

Portugal - casual cycling

Post by spaman »

We are travelling through Portugal in May this year using our campervan and hoping to do a bit of day-cycling from the campsites. The approximate itinerary is Granada/Seville/Lisbon/Oporto/Penada-Geres Nat Park/NW Spanish border.

We like to park the 'van for a few days at each stop and cycle or use public transport to see the sites.

Can anyone pass on their advice/experiences please?
Thanks
rotavator
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by rotavator »

One unusual law is that bicycles cannot be attached to the outside of a vehicle but I don't know if the law is acually enforced.

When I was there in the early 1980s I saw plenty of bad and dangerous driving and I guessed that this was partly due to intoxication. Whether driving standards and enforcement of drink-driving law have improved at all I cannot say but I would hope so.
bohrsatom
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Joined: 20 May 2013, 4:36pm

Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by bohrsatom »

Take a look at the free advice/routes listed on https://pedalportugal.com/

In 2015 we rode from Faro to Porto and found it a great country to tour in. There were plenty of quiet roads, good scenery, reasonably-priced food and accommodation and to top it off nice weather as well!

Didn't find the standards of driving to be particularly bad compared with other European countries (or even the UK). If you choose your routes carefully and avoid the most populated areas you'd be fine IMO
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mjr
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by mjr »

rotavator wrote:One unusual law is that bicycles cannot be attached to the outside of a vehicle but I don't know if the law is acually enforced.

That's not true, is it? https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/po ... acks.2026/ says it's only that they cannot be at the rear of a car (so if you have a van or whatever, I guess it's fine), while http://www.towforceuk.com/category/cycle-carriers/ says towball carriers are fine. I suspect roof racks are also fine, but I've no source for that and it doesn't look like it's a question here so I've not looked too closely. If using a rear-mounted carrier of any sort, I suspect you need to put a red/white diagonal stripey plate on the back in Portugal, as shown on the towball link.
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borisface
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by borisface »

Hi, I live near Castelo Branco in central Portugal. The area between Lisboa and Oporto and say 25 miles inland from the coast can be fairly built-up and busy. Basically, the further inland you go the quieter it becomes. You'll find some good cycling in the Serras de Aires and Candeeiros, the Serra de Lousa, the area just north of Figueira do Foz, and the area around Bussaco and Lusa. In both Lisboa and Oporto are cycle paths which follow the rivers to the coast and, certainly in the case of Oporto heads north through Matasinhos. There's a really good cycle path between Santa Comba Dao and Viseu (50kms each way dead flat) which is very well maintained - although the entry at Santa Comba is hard to find.

Geres has some great cycling especially up towards Brufe and Terra do Bouro. Be aware that the weather around Geres can be very wet, and the weather in Portugal in May can be variable - some years we've had temperatures of 9 degrees and very wet and others have been 30 degrees. The roads are generally of very good quality and away from centres tend to be quiet. They do, however, in mountain regions tend to be hard work.
faik
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by faik »

Hi borisface, i'm a newbie on this forum. please excuse if I broke any etiquette! Two of us are planning a cycling trip from Faro to Porto end of May this year. Would you have any route recommendation from Evora >>> Castelo Branco >>> Viseu >>> somewhere suitable to pick up a train into Porto/airport. The plan is to stay in the interior and avoiding the coast as much as possible. Thanks in advance.
whoof
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by whoof »

faik wrote:Hi borisface, i'm a newbie on this forum. please excuse if I broke any etiquette! Two of us are planning a cycling trip from Faro to Porto end of May this year. Would you have any route recommendation from Evora >>> Castelo Branco >>> Viseu >>> somewhere suitable to pick up a train into Porto/airport. The plan is to stay in the interior and avoiding the coast as much as possible. Thanks in advance.

If you want somewhere to stay in Porto I can recommend the Rivoli Hostel. We stayed there last June at the start of a,tour. A room for two was good value, included breakfast and there was storage for our bikes in a cupboard on the ground floor.
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Graham O
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by Graham O »

Borisface is the expert on Portugal, but I had a great tour from the Douro valley down the border to Sabugal, then Viseu and Porto, last year. Very quiet roads (inland), long, but nice gradients, good food and accommodation and especially the people. Very few spoke English, so I had a chance to practice my Portuguese. I'll be heading further south through Castelo Branco in September this year.

Sabugal to Guarda was okay, but the weather in late May was a bit cool that day.
Guarda to Viseu was a wonderful day, just fantastic.
Viseu to Aveiro on the coast was fabulous until I hit the coastal plain and that was not nice - too busy and too many potholes.
Aveiro to Porto had some good bits, but was mostly a long slog.

As Borisface says, avoid the coastal plain. This year, I'll take the train to get me over the coastal plain and into the interesting bits.

Accommodation - a mixture of youth hostels and hotels.

Edit - to catch a train to Porto, you could head north from Viseu and get the Linha do Douro from somewhere like Regua. Bikes go free, but there are only 2 spaces on most trains.
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ConRAD
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by ConRAD »

First of all it would be worth to get a little bit acquainted with “PORTUGAL ROADS CURRENT CLASSIFICATION/DESIGNATION” … not always very clear (IMO) !! These are the roads that you’ll encounter:
[ CMxxx ] - Caminho Municipal/Very Minor Municipal Road: absolutely FREE TO BICYCLES
[ Mxxx/EMxxx ] - Estradas Municipais/Municipal Roads: absolutely FREE TO BICYCLES
[ Rxxx/ERxxx ] - Estradas Regionais/Regional Roads: absolutely FREE TO BICYCLES
[ Nxxx/ENxxx ] - Estradas Nacionais/National Roads: absolutely FREE TO BICYCLES
[ ICxxx ] - Itinerarios Complementares: absolutely FREE TO BICYCLES
[ IPxxx ] - Itinerarios Principais: absolutely FORBIDDEN TO BICYCLES
[ Axxx ] - Autoestrada (Motorway): absolutely FORBIDDEN TO BICYCLES

Often Autoestradas (Motorways) overlap to some stretches of IC’s but in this case you have NOT to worry about because there’s always at some roundabout clear signals to get out of the forbidden road !!

For the rest, apart frequent severe steep climbs, Portugal is a true cycling paradise.

PS: … and don’t trust too much to local people. Cristoforo Colombo was an Italian explorer and navigator and not the son of the “Infante Dom Fernando Duque de Beja” … as they use to say !!

HERE MY TRIP THROUGH PORTUGAL

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bigjim
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Re: Portugal - casual cycling

Post by bigjim »

I rode Porto to Faro a couple of years ago. I found the coast road as far as Aveiro quiet and really good riding. After that the mental logging trucks started to appear and it is too dangerous, IMO. Time to turn inland. Lots of hills and climbing ok as long as you stay away from the river valley. Look on the Pedal Portugal site for good routes and advice. I did a guided tour with them based around the Algarve. Had a brilliant time.
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