Portugal with a 3 speed folding bike

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
Post Reply
User avatar
b1ke
Posts: 537
Joined: 30 Mar 2010, 2:17pm
Location: Brighton
Contact:

Portugal with a 3 speed folding bike

Post by b1ke »

Just checked the Brittany ferries crossing from Portsmouth to Santander and the price with a bike is £100 vs £65 for a foot passenger. On this basis I'm wondering about taking my Brompton style folder as hand luggage on the ferry and catching the coastal train over to Ferrol and then local buses south, before cycling down through some of Portugal.

My question relates to the terrain. I'm aware that much of Portugal is hilly and not really suited to a loaded up folder. I'm wondering if there is a flat(ish) option - perhaps a route close to the coast?

Any suggestions and/or links would be welcomed. Plus general comments about touring in Portugal. From what I've read, it seems to be a good option with cheap municipal camping.

Cheers in advance
http://www.farewellburt.wordpress.com - Europe on a Tandem....
http://www.thespokeandwords.wordpress.com - West Africa on a Tandem....
borisface
Posts: 360
Joined: 19 Feb 2010, 3:48pm

Re: Portugal with a 3 speed folding bike

Post by borisface »

Portugal is a great country in which to tour - quiet and smooth roads, friendly locals, great weather and cheap. However, with one notable exception, Portugal is a mountainous country and in parts its very mountainous. For the most part, doing 50 miles a day would bag you around 2,000 metres of vertical ascent. The Alentejo is the flattest region and very beautiful. It has rolling hills, an abundance of cork oaks and olives and really lovely towns and villages such as Elvas, Evora, Portelegra, Borba, Vila Vicosa, Marvao, Castelo de Vide, Moura, Mourao, Monsaraz. It is very sparsely populated which means that the roads can be very empty. It is pretty difficult to get to as there are few if any trains. There are good buses though. You might be better heading to Badajoz in Spain and then cycling across the border. Or alternatively getting to Lisbon and then the bus out. One word of warning - it gets very very hot in the summer, regularly 38-45 in July and August.
LeBrignall
Posts: 52
Joined: 12 Nov 2014, 6:20pm

Re: Portugal with a 3 speed folding bike

Post by LeBrignall »

I did a 10 day tour in the north on a big loop from Porto last sept and would agree with what's already been said. Lovely people very cheap good scenery - but some brutal climbs, and cobbles in the towns - which were a major pain. Traffic quite busy on all but the smallest roads. Road conditions at times poor.

The coastal roads are busy, but doable. The joy of a folder is to set off and if it all gets too much grab a bus or hitch a lift. Great cycle path on a former train line
http://www.ecopista-portugal.com/en/cyc ... tugal.html

good riding
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Portugal with a 3 speed folding bike

Post by iviehoff »

Never seen a campsite in Portugal, and I've done about 5 cycle tours there. That's probably because they are along the coast rather than inland where the better cycling is. One of the horrors of cycling in the coastal strip is eucalyptus plantations. For the first few hundred metres you think this is going to be OK, but after not much further you start to hate them with a growing hatred.

From somewhere between about Figueira da Foz (near Coimbra) and Nazaré, to Lisbon, the coast apparently has some reasonably interesting cycling. And with your folding bike you have a better chance of using public transport to get from Porto to Coimbra (it is easy to get from Porto to Aveiro with any bike on the commuter train - though you'll probably need a GPS, or at least a smartphone with mapping, to get out of Aveiro with a bicycle without being thrown onto a major road, such are the paper maps and signposts). I also learned that there is a new cycle route, largely segregated, along the coast from Viana do Castelo to Porto.

The best paper maps of Portugal are the Turinta ones, but although they are the best, that doesn't mean they always correspond very well to the roads you find on the ground, and they don't have the resolution to reliably get you out of a town onto a minor road, and you are always going to have problems being sucked towards major roads whenever they are in the vicinity. So these days it is good to have a GPS or smartphone to get an accurate local view, find that unmapped local road, work out what the hell is going on when the road goes somewhere different from what the map said.
MartinBrice
Posts: 464
Joined: 13 Nov 2007, 9:57am

Re: Portugal with a 3 speed folding bike

Post by MartinBrice »

if it's price that affects your decision you could take a proper bike by air and fly to Porto then head south along the coast to Faro. Spending two weeks on a Brompton to save £35?
Post Reply