Riding in Portugal

[ronen_st]

Hallo all, we are a group of 5 riders from Israel intend to ride in Portugal may/June 2019. All of us are experienced riders (age 32 up to 60) riding on a daily basis in Israel. prefer the nature instead of the city and small villages riding on side roads.

We need some advices in some issues:
1. Best place where we can rent motorbikes in Lisbon.
2. Weather at this time of the year (rain, cold, hot..)
3. Any recommendations for the riding? (Places, roads, adventures..)
4. Any other advices would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Stolarski Ronen.
My personal email is: ronenst1@gmail.com

[Vaufi]

I've only been in and around Lisbon, which is a very interesting city. Not far, to the north-west is a little town called Sintra. People in Lisbon recommended it, saying it has a beautiful old city centre. Otherwise I have only made a short blast through the Serra da Estrela when travelling along the western border of Spain. Was sure worthwhile, great landscape.


Here is a link that might be of interest: https://www.adventurecountrytracks.c...tugal/?lang=de


May/June should be warm and dry.

[chris gale]

Go online to Ride Magazines site, look up the routes section and there is one for Portugal and Spain. You can then download these onto ur satnav

[ronen_st]

Thanks all, appreciate it.

[bordo55]

hi try to get in touch with joao gomez ,very helpful based in porto, organising tours and bikes to hire ,see my post in morocco section.good luck. we had a great day out from porto following the douro river over the mountains then food and wine @peso da regua. hope to get down that way again soon.

[AnTyx]

I used https://www.lxrent.pt/en when I was there a couple of years ago - very nice people, recommended. Their shop is just off the main seaside tourist square in Lisbon.

I only did a daytrip on a Vespa 250, but I went to Cabo da Roca (westernmost point of Europe), had a great time riding around Sintra and the roads and historical monuments there, then stopped by the Estoril F1 track on the way back and took a photo with the Ayrton Senna statue. Generally, if you follow the coastal main road west out of Lisbon past Cascais, then go up into the mountains around Sintra, there's plenty of good riding there. It's touristy though, so I think the further north you go, the better it will be.

My usual advice is: open Google Maps and look for areas filled with green, with white squiggly lines.

Weather in May/June will be hot (I was there in February), but I guess if you're from Israel, you're used to it. In fact I think Lisbon and the coast of Portugal will be less hot than Israel, since the Atlantic winds do moderate the weather quite a bit.

Bring your riding gear from home if you can. A rental agency will give you a helmet and maybe gloves. From what I remember, most people in Portugal ride without special protective gear, especially the scooter riders. I'd brought all my gear from home except the helmet, because it was a shakedown for a longer trip and I wanted to check how I can pack and transport it; I was by far the most-protected scooter rider in Lisbon on that day!

[PanEuropean]

Hi Stolarski:

Welcome to the HUBB community.

Although I live in Canada, I keep a motorcycle in Europe, and Portugal is one of my favourite countries to ride in. It's a delightful place and the cost of accommodation and food is below the European average.

I can't help you with any recommendations for bike rental. But, if you plan to ride in Europe for more than 3 weeks, I suggest you consider shipping your motorcycles from Israel to Europe. I say that because 3 weeks is about the break-point for North American residents... if we are planning a European ride that will last longer than 3 weeks, it's generally cheaper for us to ship our motorcycles (by air) to Europe than it is to rent bikes in Europe.

You might not have many options for air shipping from Israel to Europe, because El Al operates narrow-body aircraft (Boeing 737s) on routes serving continental Europe, and motorcycles only fit into the cargo holds of wide-body aircraft. But, you might be able to easily stuff all your motos into a 20 foot container and ship it by sea - that would likely cost less than air shipping.

It is very easy to arrange insurance for your Israel-plated motorcycles - heck, your local insurance company might even be able to extend your coverage to include Europe.

As for the weather, May and June are perfect months. The weather will be pleasant (very temperate) up in the north, where the mountains and nice twisty roads are, and quite warm down in the south.

Personally, I like the north of the country more than the south - there's more history, more varied topography, more interesting roads to ride, and fewer tourists. But, the whole country is interesting, and it's not that big a country... you can easily move from one end to another over the course of 3 or 4 days of relaxed touring (or 1 day of hard slogging). The portion of Spain that is directly north of Portugal is also great riding - the Picos de Europa are just a half-day's ride to the north-east of Portugal, and that whole area of Spain is spectacular.

The only other advice I would offer is to bring good quality safety gear (helmets, gloves, riding jackets & pants, etc.). The roads are twisty, and Portugal's auto accident record is pretty poor relative to the rest of Europe.

Regards, Michael