Travelling by bike in Portugal: From Porto to Lissabon and from Lissabon to Faro

I have had very nice and relaxing holidays on my bike in Portugal during summer 001 and 2002.

After severe forest fires in Portugal in 2003 and 2005 the situation there may have changed. A portuguese neighbor told me about here home village: "It was not the landscape that had some burned spots in it, but within the ashes there were some spots of landscape - over some kilometres. I do not know, how fast nature can repair this damage.

Short information on two bike trips in Portugal

I do not want to bore anyone with the details of my trips. I chose the routes mostly along the coast: Once from Lissabon to Faro (630 km, 10 days) and another trip from Porto to Lissabon (670 km, 12 Tagen days). The direct routes are shorter, but I included some trips into the heartland.
I found good information for cyclists in the cyclings guides by Falk von Kriegsheim Fahrradführer "Portugal per Rad"; von Falk von Kriegsheim (in German),

ISBN 3-932546-01-6 (Bd. 2 Norden) More Information etc at Amazon.de bzw.

(Bd. 1 Alentejo, Algarve).More information etc at Amazon.de

Here i would like to add some general remarks from my own experience.
Mostly we took camping sites, in the bigger cities the hotel and in the hinterland of the Algarve in small Bed & Breakfasts.

Packing of the bike for transport via plane

We took a flight with LTU to Lissabon or Faro and had to pay an additional 30 EUR for transporting the bike. It is obligatory to mention the bike when booking the flight. It was no problem to get an open jaw flight from Düsseldorf to Lissabon / and back from Faro to Düsseldorf. (No air in the tires, dismounted pedals, handlebar set at an angle, saddle at lowest height, turn small pieces to the inner sides. Never take your tools into your hand luggage, not even the dismounted pedals (looks like a weapon in the x-ray!)

There are special cases for bikes - but you cannot transport them on your own tour and I still have not seen a good and cheap possibility to store them at the airport. As an alternative you may put your bike into bubble wrap. I have had luck on my flights so far: No greater damages. The biggest risk seems to me that people at the airport cannot see, wether certain parts of the bike are suitable handles.
On the trip you can carry wrap on your bike - or send it by mail to a certain (!) post office at your destiantion with the addition "posta restante" (poste restante). The portugues mail keeps such packages until the end of the following month.

Route, clima: Get from the north to the south with tailwind!

In the coastal region north of Lissabon there is - at least in summer - quite a strong wind from northwestern direction. If you do not want to fight against heavy head wind all the time, you should travel from north to south. With tailwind even a less sportive cyclist may reach 30 to 35 km/h with luggage on the bike - but there are only a few flat parts.

Portugal has much more hills even at its coast then I am used from home (Lower Rhine Area - flat like a dish. You cannot always read this in the guide that exactly. With a moderate speed and all the luggage on our bikes we travelled at an average speed of about 14 km/h. Top speed rolling down a hill: 79 km/h ;-)

Camping in Portugal

All the camping sites with two or more stars were quite okay. We had to pay for two persons i a small tent between 4 and 11 Euro per day. There is a portugues camping guide called Roteiro Campista, updated every year and available for about 5 Euro at the reception of most of the campings. The website ca ve found at www.roteiro-campista.pt. Quite useful, especially because it contains for example the opening hours of the receptions.

German version: Radreisen Portugal