Portuguese Camino Cycle - Lisbon to Porto

Do you like gravel or MTB bike riding? Then this is the trip for you. Do you only like road bike riding? This isn’t the trip for you. While there are sections on smooth backroads and bike paths, there are many sections on cobblestones, single track, forest trails, lumpy, bumpy and rocky paths. Some of these trails will be too steep or too rocky to ride and you will need to push your bike up these sections. There will also be times (mostly on day 1), where you will need to carry your bike up and down the stairs of flyovers of railway line crossings. There will also be times where the gps/Camino trail takes you down one way streets. There will also be a few times when the gps track differs from the Camino trail markers - we defaulted to following the Camino trail markers. The challenge is worth it. Experiencing different scenery, visiting interesting towns, meeting walkers (we didn’t meet any other riders).

We travelled the Camino from Lisbon to Porto on bicycles on their self guided tour. Online tracks were provided for each daily section of the Camino we travelled, luggage transferred to the next prearranged hotel. All we carried was whatever we required for the day, food, water, rain gear. Overall the hotels met our expectations, some days the tracks were hard to ride and we needed to unload and push our bikes through the difficult sections. Nothing insurmountable, so some character building along the way. It was a memorable trip.

We chose electric mountain bikes. As over 60's recreational cyclists only, this was the only feasible option for us. That said, it was still very tough, but it was an adventure and a great experience.