The solar sparkles blue and gold; a heat breeze washes over your physique; leaves sway in the summertime solar and your thoughts is free as you roll over a small hill lined in colourful wildflowers. Across the bend, you see the van and trailer the place your gourmand picnic lunch is ready. The chef and tour chief, Andre, greets you with a heat smile and you then sit down at a small wood picnic desk, lean again and take within the beautiful view.
It’s solely then that you just notice you’re perched close to the sting of a grand seaside cliff, looking throughout a glowing blue ocean that sweeps off into the space so far as you may see. Birds soar off thermals created by the land that collides close by with the ocean, and within the distance you see a college of surfers, ready to leap into the Atlantic waters with their surfboards prepared beneath their arms.
As lunch is served, your style buds turn out to be immediately overjoyed. The meals is scrumptious, and distinctive, and fully Portuguese. Native cheeses, sea meals, servings of rice and deserts of all types are set earlier than you in an beautiful three-course meal.
After lunch, you soar again in your bicycle, and proceed down the shoreline – the remainder of your tour group following carefully behind. A mixture of grime, gravel and paved roads takes you for a number of kilometers via an orchard of cork timber, previous a large mattress of wildflowers, and alongside the sting of a number of scenic seashores, earlier than you ultimately make your technique to the resort – a picturesque oasis in the course of a valley.
After being proven to your room, you take away your footwear and place them by the door. The crimson tile beneath your toes is cool, however welcoming. It seems like residence, solely higher! After an excellent, lengthy day within the saddle, the nice and cozy bathe seems like heaven, and a brief nap in your mattress makes you are feeling as if you might be floating on a cloud.
Later that night, you make your technique to the eating patio, the place a flowery feast of meals is laid out earlier than you – one course after the following. Whilst you eat, you chat along with your new associates concerning the day you’ve simply had, whereas the solar units within the distance and a soothing wave of heat and peace washes over you. Together with your abdomen now full and your coronary heart stuffed with pleasure after a phenomenal day of bicycle touring, you’re taking a stroll across the property, smelling the flowers and soaking in the fantastic thing about your environment.
As you retire to your room, you may’t assist however assume, “This guided biking vacation with Bike Excursions Portugal is every thing I may have requested for… and a complete lot extra!”
Bike Tour Info
Tour Identify: Cruising the Coast
Tour Firm: Bike Excursions Portugal
Web site: www.biketoursportugal.com
Tour Kind: Guided
Tour Size: 8 days / 7 nights
Beginning/Ending Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Complete Biking Distance: Roughly 250 km
Value: 3,330 EUR per individual
My Expertise With Bike Excursions Portugal
That opening story is precisely how I felt after the third day of biking on the Cruising the Coast guided bike tour with Bike Excursions Portugal. The primary two days of the journey have been improbable, however there was a little bit little bit of magic on that third day that made me sit again and notice, “Wow! There’s one thing actually particular about this place, this expertise, and this bike tour.”
This previous summer season, I had the pleasure of collaborating within the Cruising the Coast guided bike tour with Bike Excursions Portugal, and it was significantly one of the memorable issues I did this yr. Every little thing got here collectively on this journey to make it the proper biking vacation. The climate was spectacular, the surroundings was stupendous, the tour leaders have been pleasant and educated, the meals was at all times excellent, and the biking was an absolute pleasure – from the primary day to the final. My expertise on the Cruising the Coast guided bike tour with Bike Excursions Portugal was nothing in need of an A+.
What Makes Bike Excursions Portugal Distinctive?
Bike Excursions Portugal is a high-end bicycle touring firm. They concentrate on luxurious biking holidays in Portugal and so they do a extremely good job of it. Their providers aren’t low cost, however they’re the most effective at what they do!
The tour is supported by a Mercedes Sprinter van and trailer, which is provided with a kitchen, toilet, and bike storage/upkeep services. If you happen to don’t wish to cycle at some point, you may journey alongside within the van. Or if it is advisable use the restroom throughout your lunch break, there’s no must pee on the facet of the street. The trailer is provided with a fully-functional toilet!
Whereas the breakfasts on tour encompass high-end buffets and the dinners are beautiful three-course meals consisting of native dishes and all of the seafood you may ask for, the gourmand picnic lunches served all through the tour are actually one thing distinctive. No different tour firm (that I do know of) is serving up such high-end lunches to their purchasers. You’re going to like stopping for lunch every day!
Plus, the employees at Bike Excursions Portugal is the most effective. They’re pleasant and educated, however removed from stuffy and stuck-up. They’re robust cyclists, however received’t flip your bike tour right into a race. They perceive that your time with them is supposed to be an pleasing expertise – from begin to end, in order that they’ve gone out of their technique to design a guided bike tour that meets and exceeds your wildest expectations.
Day by day Overview of the Tour
A day-by-day account of the Cruising the Coast guided bike tour will be discovered on the official Bike Excursions Portugal web site, however my additional notes and feedback have been added right here. As well as, you may watch all the bike tour unfold, from starting to finish, by viewing the movies under every day’s description.
Day 1: Arrival in Lisbon, Portugal
On the primary day of the Cruising the Coast guided bike tour, you may be transported from the airport in Lisbon, Portugal to your first lodging within the close by fishing village of Sesimbra. It’s an pleasing 1-hour journey within the van from the airport to the resort, permitting you to see a little bit little bit of Lisbon earlier than heading to the quaint little seaside village the place your resort is situated. The Sesimbra & Spa Resort is a large, white, luxurious resort situated on the sting of the Atlantic Ocean. From the water, the property seems to be like a large cruise ship parked on land. The rooms are huge and trendy, with spectacular views of the seaside and ocean from virtually each room. When you examine in, you could have the remainder of the day to stroll alongside the seaside, take a swim within the resort pool or do something you please earlier than dinner is served within the resort restaurant later within the night.
Day 2: Sesimbra to Tróia
On the second day of your luxurious biking vacation with Bike Excursions Portugal, you’ll eat a scrumptious buffet breakfast within the resort, earlier than loading your belongings into the tour van and being outfitted along with your bicycle – offered by the tour firm. After a brief welcome by the tour leaders, you’ll start your journey out of city and down the coast. Half-way via the day you’ll cease for the primary of your many scrumptious picnic lunches, and also you’ll end the day by taking a brief ferry journey throughout the water to the Tróia Peninsula and your lodging for the evening, the Tróia Design Resort. Located on the very tip of an infinite peninsula of golden sand and pine timber, the Tróia Design Resort is a big, trendy, multi-story resort outfitted with all of the luxuries you’d anticipate in any top-tier resort. The view out of your room is spectacular, as you may look out throughout the water towards the roads that you just have been biking on earlier that day. Dinner is served within the resort restaurant and afterward, you may retire to your room or take a romantic stroll on the seaside.
Day 3: Tróia to Herdade Barradas da Serra
After one other unbelievable buffet breakfast, you’ll hop in your bicycle and say goodbye to the Tróia Design Resort. It’s an extended, flat, pleasing journey south down the peninsula, throughout which you’ll journey previous huge sand dunes and tons of of small pine timber. Out of your bicycle, you may see the water on either side, with nothing however flat, easy tarmac in entrance of you for so far as the attention can see. Within the tiny city of Comporta, you’ll go to the native vineyard, the place native Alentejo wines will be tasted and the vineyards will be seen up shut and personally. Your gourmand picnic lunch is served at one in all Portugal’s most lovely seashores (Praia do Carvalhal), and because the day attracts to an in depth, the panorama will change from sea cliffs and ocean breezes to wildflowers and fields stuffed with cork timber. On the Herdade Barradas da Serra, you’ll fall in love with the intimate and alluring lodging and also you’ll have an opportunity to go mountain climbing on one of many close by trails or take a swim of their pool. Dinner is served on the patio as you loosen up and soak up the fantastic thing about Portugal’s Alentejo area.
Day 4: Herdade Barradas da Serra to three Marias
Breakfast is served inside (or on the patio) on the Herdade Barradas da Serra. Afterward, you’ll load your belongings into the van and take off down the street. It’s an extended 40 kilometer journey earlier than lunch, however the biking is a few of the greatest on all the tour. Small rolling hills lined with timber and wildflowers, gravel roads with little or no site visitors and a few of the greatest seashores on the planet await you on this explicit day of biking. After a seaside picnic lunch, you’ll proceed biking down the shoreline to the charming village of Porto Côvo. It’s right here that you just’ll start your bike tour within the Vicentine Coast Pure Park, the place greater than 750 vegetation and 200 species of birds have been recognized. Eagles, falcons, fox and linx are additionally identified to dwell throughout the space. On this explicit evening, you’ll be sleeping and eating on the 3 Marias guesthouse – a novel countryside property surrounded by fields of yellow flowers and the occasional wandering donkey and/or ostrich.
Day 5: 3 Marias to Touril Nation Home
After a memorable selfmade breakfast on the 3 Marias guesthouse, you’ll proceed your biking vacation by biking via the Vicentine Coast Pure Park, which is greater than 100 kilometers lengthy and is Portugal’s largest stretch of protected shoreline. The journey right now is extraordinarily coastal, with numerous alternatives to cease and take photographs of Portugal’s most scenic seashores. Along with having yet one more gourmand picnic lunch at a phenomenal coastal seaside location, you’ll cycle previous the Cabo Sardão Lighthouse and dozens of windswept sea cliffs earlier than arriving on the Touril Nation Home, the place grazing donkeys welcome you to your luxurious lodging within the countryside. Sip a lemonade on the bar or take a dip within the saltwater swimming pool.
Day 6: Touril Nation Home to Monte do Cardal
This can be the shortest journey of all the bike tour (at about 30 complete kilometers), nevertheless it’s a motorcycle journey that may take you to a few of the greatest seashores in all of Portugal, if not the world. Watch the video under and also you’ll see what I imply. After a buffet breakfast on the Touril Nation Home, you’ll soar in your bicycle and take off down a mixture of street surfaces to at least one scenic seaside after the following. Just a few small hill climbs are rewarded with downhills that may make you smile from ear to ear on the opposite facet. Horses race to the roadside to greet you as you cycle previous, and within the small hillside seaside city of Odeceixe, you will see that lodging on the Monte do Cardal – a novel lodging choice through which giant flats and small Portuguese homes have been remodeled into luxurious lodging for visitors from all all over the world. For dinner tonight, you’ll be taken into the middle of city, the place you’ll dine with the locals at a restaurant that focuses on native seafood dishes.
Day 7: Monte do Cardal to Sagres
On what will probably be your final day of biking on the Cruising the Coast guided bike tour, you’ll start your day such as you did on all the times prior – with a scrumptious breakfast buffet. Afterward, you’ll start biking south towards Portugal’s south-western most level. You’ll take pleasure in your final gourmand picnic lunch in what may be one of the spectacular locations of all, and you then’ll proceed your bike journey south towards the St. Vincent Lighthouse. As you look out throughout the Atlantic Ocean, attempt to think about the Portuguese sailors of the previous launching their boats from this location and crusing off into the unknown in the hunt for new and distant worlds. Only a few kilometers of biking later, you’ll arrive within the metropolis of Sagres, the place you’ll examine into the Pousada Sagres, which is a big resort sitting on high of a powerful cliff overlooking the enormous, blue ocean. As a bunch, you’ll take pleasure in one final dinner collectively earlier than retiring to your room and calling it an evening.
Day 8: Driving again to Lisbon, Portugal
Lastly, on the final day of your luxurious biking vacation with Bike Excursions Portugal, you’ll have breakfast within the resort, pack up your whole belongings, load them into the help van, after which put together your self for the lengthy journey again to Lisbon. It takes roughly 3.5 hours to drive from Sagres to Lisbon, nevertheless it’s an pleasing journey, and the time within the automotive means that you can assume again on all of the unbelievable recollections you’ve created over the previous week.
The Lodging
A part of what makes the expertise with Bike Excursions Portugal so memorable are the distinctive lodging that you just’ll be staying in all through the tour. No two locations are alike, which makes it enjoyable to reach at your lodging every evening, not realizing what to anticipate or what particular treasures you would possibly discover there when you examine into your room.
Sesimbra & Spa Resort – Sesimbra, Portugal
This massive, cruise-ship fashion resort takes up a overwhelming majority of the beach-side actual property within the tiny city of Sesimbra. Inside, the resort incorporates a modern design, with giant rooms and balconies providing spectacular views of the ocean under. The resort’s restaurant is first-class, with breakfast, lunch and dinner being served there. My favourite a part of the resort is whenever you take the elevator all the way down to the seaside/pool and end up in a big tank-like room embellished with a large mural of undersea life.
Tróia Design Resort – Tróia, Portugal
This spectacular, trendy resort within the coronary heart of tiny Tróia stands towering over another constructing within the space. It’s vibrant exterior design seems to be a bit like white sails flapping in the summertime solar, whereas the resort’s inside is far darker and calmer – extra just like the bowels of a large boat. The resort employees speaks English, there’s a phenomenal little eating room and bar, in addition to a complete host of services you’d anticipate finding in any modern-day resort. Inside your room, you’ll discover that the toilet services are virtually contained in the room itself, with solely a big glass tank (of types) separating the toilet from the sleeping space. Step out onto the balcony, and also you’ll be capable to soak up some spectacular views of the ocean, sailboats cruising previous, and the scenic cliffs that sit far off within the distance.
Herdade Barradas da Serra – Grândola, Portugal
The Herdade Barradas da Serra in Grândola, Portugal was my favourite of any of the locations we stayed at throughout the Cruising the Coast guided bike tour with Bike Excursions Portugal. This sleepy little ranch home is located in center of an unlimited valley stuffed with grass and wild flowers and cork timber. What was very seemingly as soon as a big ranch-style residence has since been remodeled right into a high-end luxurious way of life guesthouse in the course of a tranquil nature resort. The swimming pool, mountain climbing trails, open terrace and free WiFi solely add to the general impressiveness of this distinctive lodging in southern Portugal.
3 Marias – Vila Nova de Milfontes, Portugal
Located within the stress-free (and considerably distant) countryside of Northern Alentejo, the Tres Marias (or 3 Marias) guesthouse welcomes you in from the very begin. You roll in on a dust street surrounded by yellow wildflowers on all sides. Donkeys graze within the distance and an ostrich comes as much as the fence as you stroll previous – wishing you good day. The rooms are white and clear, located on two totally different ranges, with a small front room on the primary ground and the mattress/toilet on the second ground. Surrounded by the Agro-forest Ecological Reserve on all sides, the three Marias is a good place to spend the night (or perhaps a few days) as you discover the native space. I liked their buffet breakfast within the morning!
Touril Nation Home – Zambujeira do Mar, Portugal
In-built 1825, the Touril Nation Home is a small, however inviting vacationer resort situated alongside the Vicentine Coast of Portugal. This massive, 365-hectare property provides a salt-water pool, free WiFi and lodging with non-public verandas. There’s a soothing poolside bar, a romantic indoor studying room, and a eating space the place scrumptious 3-course meals are served within the night.
Monte do Cardal – Odeceixe, Portugal
Located within the coronary heart of the hillside city of Odeceixe, the Monte do Cardal is a B&B-style lodging choice for these wishing to discover the sweetness and surprise of Portugal’s south-western seashores and nature resorts. Every condo inside Monte do Cardal is exclusive, with no two flats that includes the identical inside design. Whereas my room at Monte do Cardal was good, it was nothing to jot down residence about. Nonetheless, the opposite {couples} in my group stated that this was their favourite evening of lodging on all the bike tour.
Pousada Sagres – Sagres, Portugal
Lastly, the Pousada Sagres is a big, rectangular resort located on the cliffs looking throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The constructing is a little bit dated, however there’s a big eating room and the views from the rooms behind the resort (going through the water) are to die for. The Pousada Sagres was a fantastic place to finish our week-long biking vacation with Bike Excursions Portugal.
My Official Bike Tour Abstract
Bike Excursions Portugal has gone out of their technique to orchestrate the most effective bike tour in all of Portugal. The corporate is organized and on high of every thing. The reserving course of is a complete breeze; they’ve high-end bikes out there so that you can journey (making it simple so that you can merely present up in Portugal and revel in your biking vacation); the tour employees is pleasant and educated; the meals is totally scrumptious and offers you a style of what Portuguese delicacies is all about; and the lodging every evening are charming, distinctive and opulent.
Each a part of the tour, from the second you get up within the morning to that final second earlier than you lay your head down in your pillow at evening, is so extremely nicely thought out. I can’t consider even a single unfavourable factor to say concerning the tour.
Ultimately, this bike tour in south-western Portugal isn’t simply one other biking vacation the place you cruise down the coast in fashion. It’s a 250+ kilometer bicycle touring expertise you’ll bear in mind for the remainder of your life!
To study extra about this bike tour or any of the opposite luxurious biking holidays organized by Bike Excursions Portugal, make sure you go to their official web site at www.biketoursportugal.com
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