Portugal is a popular destination for cyclists. Its rich culture, charming cities, and diverse landscapes make Portugal an intriguing choice when planning a bike tour.
Everything from rugged coastal paths to rural mountain rides are found in Portugal, and doing research ahead of your Portugal bike tour will ensure your trip gets off to a great start.
Becoming acquainted with the country’s best cycling routes, understanding camping laws, and knowing the best time of year to cycle Portugal are all important factors in the planning process.
In this guide, we’ll cover 11 of our best tips for cycling in Portugal that helped us immensely during our two week tour of the country. Following these tips will help you plan a Portugal bike tour effectively, allowing you to fully enjoy your time in this remarkable country.
Let’s jump in!
Plan your route in advance
There’s no shortage of cycling destinations in Portugal, from the rocky Atlantic coast to lush Douro Valley. For such a small country, Portugal offers a vast range of landscapes to cycle through.
Before arriving in the country to start your tour, it’s a good idea to have a general plan of where you want to cycle.
Recommended Portugal bike tour routes:
- The Alentejo Region, a quiet region of Portugal with rolling hills, small villages, castles, and reservoirs
- The Atlantic Coast, heading north or south along the western coast of Portugal
- Ecopista do Dao, a 49 km stretch of bicycle path on a converted railway
- Douro Valley, a lush valley known for its wine-making along the Douro river
A helpful website we used when planning our Portugal bike tour was Pedal Portugal. This website lists routes for some of the best bike tours in the country. Although we didn’t follow an exact route from the website, they helped us brainstorm where (and how) we would cycle through the country.
Know the best time of year to visit Portugal
Portugal is known for its beautiful weather, but not every month is a great time to cycle through the country. In fact, weather can vary drastically from region to region throughout the year.
If you plan to cycle in northern Portugal, the best time to plan a tour is in spring and fall, whereas southern Portugal is most comfortable from fall to late spring.
Summertime in Portugal can get extremely hot, especially in the country’s southern regions. It’s not unheard of to encounter temperatures in the 90’s and 100’s (32-37ºC) in southern Portugal, which can be downright uncomfortable on the saddle.
Winter, on the other hand, varies by region. Northern Portugal can encounter chilly temperatures and snow whereas southern regions—such as the Algarve and Alentejo—have clear skies and sunshine.
Can you bike tour Portugal outside of these months? Certainly. In fact, we biked through the Algarve in early June, and the heat wasn’t too unbearable provided we took breaks from the sun.
For optimal cycling, though, it’s best to plan a Portugal bike tour when the weather isn’t as extreme.
Pack light for a Portugal bike tour
Portugal is a small country; while touring, you’ll never be too far from a city or town. Therefore, we recommend packing light when cycling around Portugal. There’s no need to carry two weeks’ worth of food and outfits with you.
It’s always worse to regret packing too much than not packing enough, and believe us, if you pack heavily you’ll constantly ask yourself “Why did I pack so much?!” on every pedal stroke.
Pack light and go shopping for necessities in towns you pass through during your tour. Whether stocking up on snacks, shampoo, or even a new cycling shirt, you shouldn’t have much trouble finding what you need in towns and cities throughout Portugal.
Understand camping laws
Knowing where to sleep on a bike tour is an important step in the planning process. Deciding whether to camp, stay in hostels, or book homestays is a major decision to make. If you choose to camp, you’ll have to read through the destination’s policies and pack totally different gear than if you were to stay in hotels throughout Portugal.
Can you wild camp in Portugal? The short answer is yes. Portugal recently relaxed their wild camping laws, and you can pitch a tent without worry while bike touring. Note that wild camping is still prohibited in protected areas, which are those belonging to the Natura 2000 reserve network and areas covered by Coastal Development Plans.
Be sure to carefully choose a camping location while wild camping in Portugal. Avoid camping near busy roads, instead finding a quieter location further away from towns and homes. If in the countryside, locals may allow you to camp on their property provided you remain respectful.
Outside of wild camping, Portugal has many campgrounds where you can spend the night which may include facilities. It’s a good idea to search for campgrounds before starting your tour, as their locations can help guide your route planning.
Double check your bike before starting the tour
Before heading off on a Portugal bike tour, double check your bike to make sure everything is working properly before riding.
Like any bike tour, you may encounter flat tires, broken chains, and worn-out derailleurs while cycling through Portugal. Biking on a long distance tour–especially when it requires riding on Portugal’s cobblestone roads—is likely to wreak havoc on your bike over time.
We made the mistake of not checking my bike properly for our first ride in Portugal, and I ended up stranded on the side of the road in a rural area with a broken chain. If we checked my bike beforehand (and double checked that we had proper tools in our bag) we could have avoided the problem altogether.
Related: Bicycle tour mistakes—the rookie mistakes I made on my first cycling trip
To avoid any potential pitfalls during your Portugal bike tour, do a thorough check of your bike to ensure everything is working properly and that you have all necessary repair gear. If anything seems funky, you can visit a bike shop in Lisbon or Porto before setting off on the tour.
Learn basic Portuguese phrases
English is widely spoken in Portugal, but it’s mainly limited to larger cities and towns. Bike touring through Portugal means cycling through remote areas in addition to cities, so knowing a few basic Portuguese phrases will come in handy during your tour.
Here are some of the most useful Portuguese phrases to know when bike touring in Portugal:
- Olá: Hello
- Bom dia: Good morning
- Boa tarde: Good afternoon
- Obrigado/a: Thank you (male/female)
- Por favor: Please
- De nada: You’re welcome
- Quanto custa: How much does it cost
- Prazer: It’s nice to meet you
As a romance language, Portuguese is not particularly difficult for English speakers to learn, especially if you’ve studied Spanish before. However, pronunciation can be tricky, so watching a few YouTube videos before the trip can help you understand how to say basic phrases in Portuguese.
Be sure to download Google Translate on your phone before your Portugal bike tour, too. Google Translate can help with translating menus at restaurants, reading signs, and asking for help if you encounter any mishaps during the tour.
Utilize bike paths in Lisbon
While Portugal is not as cycle-focused as countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, the amount of cycle paths in Lisbon pleasantly surprised us.
Neon green or red two-way cycle paths are found throughout the city, and although they do not all connect perfectly, it’s easy to figure out how to get from place to place on bike path.
As most cycle tourists in Portugal will begin their tour in Lisbon, it’s helpful to know where bike paths are located to ensure you can avoid busy traffic. Luckily, most paths are located along the waterfront, meaning you can traverse the city while avoiding the worst of Lisbon’s hilly landscapes.
Check out a map of Lisbon’s bike paths here.
Ride the train through Portugal
Portugal has an excellent train network, and fares are relatively cheap. You can take trains to almost every corner of the country, and most trains permit bikes provided the bicycle spots are not sold out.
There are three types of trains in Portugal, each with varying bike rules:
- Comboios de Portugal (CP): Portugal’s national train operator runs transport throughout the country. Two bikes are permitted in each train carriage for free, provided there is bicycle availability on the train route.
- Alfa Pendular: Portugal’s high speed trains only permit bicycles if they are disassembled and packed in luggage
- Regional and urban trains: Regional trains, such as the train line through the Algarve region, allow bike transport free of charge, provided there is room in the train car.
On our Portugal bike tour, we rode trains several times throughout the country when we wanted to avoid busy roads. We started our tour in Évora instead of Lisbon, for example, and spending 90 minutes on a train to avoid Lisbon’s traffic was well worth it.
However, it’s important to understand that bicycle transport on trains is subject to availability. In busy tourist areas during peak season, it’s possible that bike spots could sell out on a train. Reserving tickets in advance and being flexible with travel times can help ensure you and your bike make it on the train without issue.
Take time to relax
It’s easy to preoccupy yourself with chasing miles or kilometers, but remember to enjoy the journey. Portugal is a beautiful country with diverse landscapes, food, and people. While you can certainly clock 12 hours a day on your bike, we recommend taking time to relax throughout your tour.
Whether it means spending an off day at a beach resort, enjoying a long lunch at a winery, or drinking a beer with locals in a small town, remember to appreciate the day-to-day moments instead of only the cycling.
Download maps offline
Downloading maps offline is always helpful on a bike tour, especially if you’re cycling through the countryside in areas with spotty cell service.
Before your Portugal bike tour, download offline maps of your route. You can download maps from Google Maps or from a more specialized outdoor app such as Kamoot or OsmAnd.
While we did not encounter issues with cell service on our Portugal bike tour, you don’t want to get lost without cell service. To be as responsible as possible for your tour, download offline maps.
The Algarve isn’t the best place to cycle in Portugal
Before our Portugal bike tour, we had heard amazing things about cycling through the Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost region, but this region ended up being our least favorite cycling area of the whole tour.
In our experience, the Algarve has many busy roads and little cycling infrastructure. It was nothing like the quiet country roads we had encountered in Portugal’s Alentejo region, and we quickly found ourselves hopping on a train to avoid the busiest road sections of the route.
As another drawback, the Algarve is the most popular region in Portugal for tourists, especially in cities like Albufeira, Lagos, and Faro. We much preferred cycling and spending time in other areas of Portugal.
That being said, one of our favorite destinations of the whole trip was Sagres, the country’s most southwestern town, but we still wouldn’t consider this area the most cycle-friendly in the country.
