Cycling in Portugal Alentejo Region
Cycling in Portugal’s Alentejo Region
By José Neves
Remote, quiet, with open landscapes and old medieval towns protected by hilltop Fortresses and Castles now converted into luxury hotels, the Alentejo Region in Portugal offers an unmatched cycling experience.
Riding in Portugal in Alentejo Region
By José Neves
Remote, quiet, with open landscapes and old medieval towns protected by hilltop Fortresses and Castles now converted into luxury hotels, the Alentejo Region in Portugal offers an unmatched cycling experience.
Alentejo is the biggest and the widest region of Portugal. If you are searching for a remote area of Portugal with beautiful sceneries and landscapes carpeted with wildflowers here and there… visit Alentejo. If you are searching for a region without many cars, no traffic and no “confusion” in general where “the time is Time”, and with safe and quiet roads …visit Alentejo. Finally, if you are searching for the quietness and the timeless, vast landscapes and horizons, rural areas completed with many evidences of our History, the Alentejo Region in Portugal is for you.
Alentejo is also the region of some very known trees that characterize the Mediterranean climates: the olive trees and the famous, majestic and beautiful cork oak trees. Portugal is one of the biggest producers and exporters of Cork in the world. Maybe those cork stoppers that you extract from your wine bottles come from Portugal. Here (depending on the bicycle tour you choose) you can learn a lot about “cork in Portugal”. In Alentejo, besides the cork trees you will also see many fields with olive trees, to produce olives and the healthy olive oil, that is one of the main components of the Mediterranean diet.
Photo Portugal Bike – The Algarve West Coast mountain bike tour
The Alentejo region is also the land of the best Portuguese wines. If you are a fan of wine, in Alentejo you can drink very good wines; full bodied wines that are characterized by their mouth-coating density. Alentejo is a pretty flat region, comparing with the very hilly regions in the North of Portugal. The probability of rain in Alentejo is low, therefore the grapes get many hours of sun each day, giving us a full-bodied wine and, sometimes, with more percentage of alcohol, because of the sugar that is produced with the quantity of hours of sun.
Alentejo is the land of the most pure and beautiful marble. Here, and during some of our bike tours in Alentejo, you can visit some marble quarries, and see the workers at the bottom of the quarry. They look like ants, and the trucks down there look like small toys. It is fantastic and gorgeous! And because our marble is so nice, so beautiful and so pure, Portugal exports a lot of marble all over the world, mainly the white and the rose marble.
Alentejo is also the land of the black pig and the very tasty gastronomy, thanks to the aromatic wild herbs that exist in these vast fields. The black pig is also known as the native Iberian pig; its skin is dark or black and its meat is darker compared with the regular pig and it is very tasty. These animals are very shy, and sometimes we can only see them far away, running very quickly on the fields, trying to hide themselves in the middle of the cork trees. They usually range freely in oak forests and they eat what they can find, mainly acorns; that is what makes their meat so tasty!
In Alentejo region, you can also find some evidences of different periods of Portuguese History. Here, very close to the border with Spain, you can find many castles that are usually located on the top of a hill, so that you can have a clear picture of the vast landscape around and thus defend your place from possible invaders. Nowadays, those buildings still exist, and you can stay there and experience the ambience and the atmosphere where our nobles and clergymen used to live in the past. Many of these buildings (Castles, Palaces, Convents or Monasteries from the 12th to 16th century) are now called Pousadas. On some PortugalBike tours you can spend the night in these beautiful places and have a unique experience.
Alentejo region is the region of Portugal that is enclosed between the Center region of Portugal and the Algarve region, in the south. The border between Alentejo region and the Algarve region consists of a chain of hills in the Algarve, and the border between the Center region of Portugal and the Alentejo region is the river Tejo. This river starts in Spain (east side) and finishes in Lisbon where it meets the sea (west side); it is the biggest river in Portugal.
Did you know that the meaning of the word Alentejo is “Beyond Tejo” [Alen (m) + Tejo]? Portugal started as a country in the north and then we gradually came south conquering more land from the Moors. At a certain point we encountered the river Tejo and we had to cross the river to conquer more land “beyond Tejo” (Alem+Tejo). So, all the area that extends itself on the other side of the river we called Alentejo. This is the flattest region of Portugal (there are climbs, of course!) and there are many hours of sun per year. So, why don’t you have a bike ride in Alentejo?
However, I must tell you: Portugal is not ONLY the Alentejo region. There is much more to see in Portugal. Please, don’t forget this: Portugal is a small country but VERY diverse. North of Portugal is hilly, but very green and with a lot of History and with some Pousadas as well. Alentejo is flatter, but much drier and with open horizons. In Alentejo you have the inland side, and the coast side. The Algarve region is known as the region for beach vacations with many resorts, and it is almost impossible to go there in the summertime. All the right side of Portugal (the inland area) is much quieter and with less traffic, and all the coastal region, on the west side of Portugal, is busier and with more people. Please don’t think of riding a bicycle on the coast in the summertime. …Forget it – too many cars and many people everywhere!
If you are looking for a lifetime experience, you must consider all these items when you consider doing a bike tour in Portugal. We are here to help you and to advise you. Portugal Bike is a Portuguese company with Portuguese Guides, and we know our country very well. We have been organizing bike tours in Portugal for 25 years (we started in 1995) so, we know what to avoid and what to do. We are here waiting for you, with a big smile on our faces. ????
Our Bike Tours that cross the Alentejo region
Tour Type: Road Bike Tour
Duration: 7 days, 6 nights, 5 days cycling
Difficulty level: Intermediate (2.8)
Regions of Portugal: Alentejo
Tour Type: Road Bike Tour
Duration: 6 days, 5 nights, 4 days cycling
Difficulty level: 3 (3.4) Intermediate
Regions of Portugal: Alentejo
Tour Type: Road Bike Tour
Duration: 13 days, 12 nights, 8 days cycling, 3 non-cycling days
Difficulty level: 3 (3.4) Intermediate
Regions of Portugal: Alentejo, Center, Lisbon Region
Tour Type: Road Bike Tour
Duration: 11 days, 10 nights, 8 days cycling, 1 non-cycling day
Difficulty level: 3 (3.0) Intermediate
Regions of Portugal: Lisbon region, Alentejo, Algarve
Tour Type: Road Bike Tour
Duration: 7 days, 6 nights, 5 days cycling
Difficulty level: 3 (3.1) Intermediate
Regions of Portugal: Lisbon region, Alentejo, Algarve
Tour Type: Hybrid Bike Tour
Duration: 7 days, 6 nights, 5 days cycling
Difficulty level: 3 (2.7) Intermediate
Regions of Portugal: Alentejo, Algarve