Portugal Bike & Hotel Tours

“My wife and I did the 12 day bike trip from Porto to Lisbon in early September. We did this self guided. For the most part, we felt that the hotels that we stayed in were nice and that there were plenty of great places to eat in the various towns. The downside was that many of the dirt roads were so bad that in many instances, we were only making 5 miles an hour as the roads were so bumpy or loose sand, and gravel that you couldn’t go any faster. The effect was it made many days relatively easy rides quite difficult and not enjoyable. There were a few instances where the climb exceeded a 20% grade and that again was on loose Gravel and we were forced to walk up that instead of trying to climb that on a heavy bike out of the saddle and risk a wreck. Due to the length of time we rode our bikes on bad roads we ended up not spending as much time in the various cities as we had hoped to do. So I think in the future, we’ll try to figure out how we can stay in a few select cities for multiple days so that we can enjoy the area a little bit more.” Less

“What a FANTASTIC trip - we couldn’t have asked for better.  BikeTours.com and their local partner, did a terrific job!  We’ve been doing self-guided hiking and biking trips for over 20 years and this company was by far the best.  They are great communicators and always responded quickly and thoroughly - we worked with Taylor and she was fantastic!  They created interesting routes with easy to follow GPS.  On day 1 the local rep spent over an hour thoroughly reviewing the bikes and how to use the GPS.  The local company texted at the end of each day to see how our day went.  There were no hiccups with daily transfer of our luggage.  We booked the Premium Hotel package and loved most of our hotels especially the Herdade do Touril in Zambujeira do Mar, the Praia do Canal Nature Resort in Aljezur and the Cascade Wellness Resort in Lagos. The only disappointing hotel was the Hotel Vila Nova de MIlfontes. We had some incredible dinners in restaurants recommend by the tour operator, Artistas in Lagos and Tasca do Celso in Vila Nova de Milfontes, as well as eating at the Herdade do Touril hotel - be sure to make a reservation a few days in advance for all. I would highly recommend working with Taylor at BikeTours.com to book all future bike tours.” Less

“Two couples, seniors, very experienced road bike riders, taking on the six day self-guided Castles and Wine Portugal Tour route in late September 2026. For some, this was their first experience with ebikes. The weather was perfect the whole time and the towns had an uncrowded off-season feel to them, which suited us fine.

The bikes: Rating: A
We were all issued some configuration of the Cube Touring Hybrid One. Loved these bikes! They were our trusty work horses for the week. No mechanical issues, comfortable seats, so much battery that you could ride in sport and turbo mode as much as you like without concern of running out of battery. The step-through design on these models helped with sudden dismounts while riding a 50+ lb e-bike. Even our least experienced e-bike riders were able to rocket up the rugged 15-20 percent cobbled approaches to the castles without worry! The integrated rear racks held a roomy bag supplied with chargers, tools, tubes, with room for extra clothes and snacks.

The App: Rating: B-
We were supplied with access to the Roadbook for Discovery app for our phones, which included day-by-day routing with points of interest noted along the way. All day use (recommended) of the app requires a backup phone charger (you supply). They had rubber handlebar phone mounts for your ebike, which were a bit of a hassle to get your phone in and out of to take photos. Would have liked a better bar-mounted quick release method. With two of us running the app concurrently, we had a couple of instances where one phone said “off course” and the other did not. We had also asked the biketours.com people for the GPX files in advance to run our own software (Wahoo, Garmin, Ride w GPS), but one of the GPX routes supplied before the first day was the wrong map and got us temporarily lost on private property. Better to stick with the Discovery app which was the “official” version of the tour, use your Garmins and Wahoos for recording the rides only. Other than that, the Discovery app got us from place to place well enough, just remember to carry extra battery chargers!

Accomodations: Rating B+
All accommodations were welcome sights for us weary old riders. That said, Most Favorite: Mar de Ar Muralhas, Evora (2 nights). Good storage and recharge room for bikes, poolside food and drink served, walk to excellent restaurants. Close second: Pusada de Estremoz, Estremoz. Least Favorite: Hotel Solar do Alqueva, Reguengos de Monsaraz. Nothing was wrong with the hotel, service was good, adequate breakfast, just a small economy hotel compared with nicer places on the tour.

Support: Rating B
Staff for Tours Portugal were available for our questions through the What’sap. Didn’t need them for any mission critical issue other than the first day’s issue with getting on the right route group.

Overall: Rating B+
This was our first self-directed bike tour and six days was a lot of riding, would have preferred 4-5 days if available. That said, we loved the spirit of adventure as we set out each morning to the beautiful countryside and the megaliths, black pigs, ancient castles and wineries. I have done European cycle tours on road bikes in the past but now favor ebikes as they accommodate all levels of riders as a group.” Less