Northern Portugal and Galicia: The 4 most beautiful road bike tours in the north of Portugal
Sven Bremer
· 23.10.2023
You can find these tours in the article Northern Portugal:
Click here for the tour description
"Paralelo" is a beautiful word. It has a nice ring to it, as if it describes something clear, straightforward and beautiful. I'm hurtling down a descent at 65 km/h and I'm not really in a position to think about anything. I feel as if my cerebrum and cerebellum and everything else in my head are being shaken and jolted so much that nothing stays in its place. Because the descent in the Peneda-Gerês National Park in the north of Portugal leads along a road with cobblestones - in Portuguese: Paralelo.
Rattled on the cobblestones
Ricardo Felgueiras grins when I tell him about my shaking trauma experience on the Paralelos. "What do you want, it's a first-class massage," he says. Ricardo is an ex-professional and now works as a guide at the FeelViana Sport Hotel, which is located on the Atlantic coast in the far north of Portugal, just south of Viana do Castelo, a town of 86,000 inhabitants. "I love the cobblestones," Ricardo continues, "when you drive over them, you can almost be sure that you have the road to yourself - and it's usually very scenic." That's Ricardo's logic, but a few hours after the tour I'm still vibrating all over. His theory may be right - and it may not.
The cobblestone passages in the Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês undoubtedly lead through a breathtakingly beautiful and spectacular mountain landscape: not a car for miles around, fantastic views, waterfalls to the left and right of the road, reservoirs glistening in the sun. Sometimes I cycled through dense enchanted forest, then again over barren plateaus. But fortunately there are also many fine tarmac roads, and the surrounding landscape offers a natural spectacle no less magnificent than on the Paralelos. And to reassure all cobblestone phobics: To speak of the "Hell of the North" in Portugal in the style of Paris-Roubaix would be an exaggeration. The paralelos in northern Portugal are much easier to ride than those in the Arenberg forest in the north of France, and the passages are estimated to make up less than two per cent of a tour.
300 million year old nature
The high altitudes of Portugal's only national park are characterised by the granite rocks that rise out of bare high pastures, often covered only by heather, gorse and juniper bushes. A chaos of granite, wildly piled on top of each other, more than 300 million years old. Huge slabs of rock and boulders balance on smaller stones and as you drive past, you glance in their direction every now and then to make sure that one of them doesn't start thundering down the slope. Other rocks stand casually leaning against each other or even intertwined as if they have been good friends for thousands of years.
The houses in the few villages here are built from the same natural stone. In Germil, a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere, I have to slow down a little on my cobbled ride, the bends in the village are too tight. As I roll past, I see a few old women in black robes scurrying through the alleyways like ghosts, while the church bells clang more than ring.
With a little imagination, you can recognise all kinds of animals in the rock formations. Lions, giraffes and rhinos. Of course, they don't exist in the Peneda-Gerês National Park. But at least the Iberian wolf, wild cats, wild boar, otters and foxes are at home in this deserted mountain landscape. Lizards flit across the road, a golden eagle circles in the sky. There are often cows on the road - and garranos, semi-wild horses that like to trot in front of your bike. Pretty animals, but Ricardo had emphatically talked me out of the idea of stroking them. I could do it, he said, if I fancied a veritable haematoma on my thigh or a gearstick smashed by a hoof.
The Himalayas of Portugal
Because I enjoyed the first tour through the national park so much, I take the 50 kilometre drive into the mountains again the next day. This area was once known as the "Switzerland of northern Portugal" until a marketing person thought that Switzerland should be replaced by Himalayas. So now it's the Himalayas of Portugal - because of the green, terraced fields, which have been ingeniously irrigated for centuries. Livestock farming is also practised here. And so that the cattle had something to eat in the cold winters, the farmers grew maize. The fodder used to be stored in so-called espigueiros. These look like tombs, but were designed to store the grain - in such a way that mice and other animals could not eat away the valuable crop. In the village square of Sistelo, where there are several espigueiros, I have a galão, a latte. The tiny village lies on a slope above green terraces, similar to a village in the rice terraces of the Himalayan foothills.
The landscape changes around ten kilometres after Sistelo. Between Merufe and Riba de Mouro, the road climbs steadily up and down through vineyards before I tackle the stretch up to the chapel of Santo António. There are signs along the road - just like on the famous Alpine passes or Mont Ventoux - showing the current altitude and the percentage of ascent ahead. Who wants to know? Your thighs are already burning anyway, and the information that an average gradient of ten per cent is to follow is not exactly motivating. But at the top, at the highest point at just over 1,000 metres above sea level, I am rewarded with a magnificent view: here it is not so much the granite stones scattered wildly across the landscape, but rather veritable rock faces that tower up spectacularly.
Launching pads in the Serra d'Arga
Ricardo Felgueiras is a local patriot through and through. He is delighted with my enthusiasm for the routes in the national park. But the tours around Viana do Castelo are particularly close to his heart. So I let him advise me once again. We put our heads together and scroll through digital maps on the laptop. Suddenly Ricardo points his hand diagonally upwards. That's how steep the climbs are on the tour into the Serra d'Arga, he says. Then he tilts his head a little, checks again what he has indicated and corrects himself. Unfortunately not downwards, now it looks as if it must go straight up into the sky. Ricardo smiles mildly. "It's steep, but not too long, and when you get to the top, you'll be rewarded with fantastic views."
So it's back over the bridge over the Lima, designed by a certain Gustave Eiffel, and a few kilometres east into the hills of the Alto Minho, into the gently undulating terrain of a pretty farming area. The rolling here is flawless, and I even manage to push away most of the small climbs on the large chainring. Hydrangeas bloom in many colours along the roadside, the sun is shining. I've long since forgotten Ricardo's warning when the road suddenly rears up steeply: ten per cent, 15 per cent and more ... But as it happens, once you reach the top, your body releases plenty of happiness hormones. And the backdrop of the Serra d'Arga is just as spectacular as that of the national park, so Ricardo hasn't promised too much.
In Arga de Baixo, the ex-professional told us, he sometimes stops and knocks on the closed door of the Taberna do Horacio. "The landlord is very old and isn't always open, but he's always happy when racing cyclists come in. He'll make you a coffee and switch on a TV channel that's guaranteed to be showing a bike race." Now I'm travelling at a time when there's nothing going on in international cycling other than the Tour of Estonia. So I don't knock on the door, but keep on going, rattling through the towns of some sleepy villages via Paralelos and finally having a well-earned after-work beer in the beach bar of the FeelViana Sport Hotel after the tour. Surfers are just returning from the waves with animated smiles, the sand in the bar crunches under my bare feet and I suddenly realise: I live right on the Atlantic and haven't done a tour by the sea yet. That has to change!
Coastal glider
So the next day, I set off on a tour that guarantees the sound of waves. First, however, I cycle through the hills again, then along the Minho, which marks the border between Portugal and Spanish Galicia. The terrain is flat to undulating - and it could have stayed that way the whole way round if Ricardo hadn't added the Monte de Santa Trega. The 341-metre-high mountain - the road leads up to 330 metres - was the summit finish of the second stage of the World Tour race "Gran Camiño" in February 2023. Shortly before the summit, the pros had to tackle a cobbled section that was more than 20 per cent steep and ran alongside the road. The climb is hard enough for me even without Paralelo. Jonas Vingegaard won the stage back then and he probably rode as fast uphill as I did downhill. But I was certainly able to enjoy the fantastic view of the Atlantic and over the Minho more than the Jumbo-Visma pro.
From Moledo, the route back to Viana do Castelo runs along the coast, sometimes on a small road and even on a combined footpath and cycle path directly along the Atlantic. This is definitely nicer than the national road, but you have to share the route with the numerous pilgrims walking along the Portuguese Way of St James towards Santiago de Compostela. And that gets on my nerves - so I return to the national road. The coast may be a paradise for surfers and an alternative to the overcrowded main route for pilgrims on the Way of St James. For cyclists, it is rather bland; no comparison to the varied routes in the national park or in the Serra d'Arga. The remaining 20 kilometres to Viana do Castelo are so flat that I arrive at the Sport Hotel as exhausted as if I had tried to compete with Vingegaard. As Hape Kerkeling once said when he set off on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela: "I'm off then." After 120 kilometres a day and the three mountain stages beforehand, I can only say: "I'm exhausted."
Information for a road bike holiday in northern Portugal
Journey
Car: It is around 2200 kilometres from Frankfurt am Main to Viana do Castelo. For the route across France and through the north of Spain, ADAC Maps charges around 170 euros one-way motorway toll.
Flight: The Portuguese state airline TAP, as well as Eurowings and Ryanair, fly directly to Porto from several German airports. If you book early, you can fly there and back for less than 300 euros. An express bus runs from Porto airport to the centre of Viana do Castelo for little money; the FeelViana Sport Hotel offers a transfer from and to the airport for 120 euros each way for up to four people.
Railway: Environmentally friendly, but complicated. As a rule, the route leads via
Paris, from Hendaye in the French Basque Country you take the train in the direction of Lisbon and change trains either in Coimbra or in the capital to Porto. From there, take the regional train to Viana do Castelo.
Taking bikes on the train is even more complicated than the train journey itself; the easiest way is therefore to transport the dismantled bike in a suitcase or bag - this way you can also use express trains.
Best time to travel
The north of Portugal is significantly cooler than, for example, the south with the famous Algarve. And it also rains a lot more there. It is ideal for road cycling from May to the end of June and in September and October. However, in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, with mountains over 1500 metres high, it can still be cold in late spring. While it is popularly said that Portugal is a country with nine months of hell and three months of winter, it is said of the national park in the north: "Three months of hell and nine months of winter."
Food and drink
Fish and seafood are served on the Atlantic coast, and menus usually feature arroz de marisco, a rice dish with the fish of the day (peixe do dia), mussels, prawns and squid. From Viana do Castelo, fishermen have been going out to sea to catch cod for centuries. So a bacalhau dish with salted, air-dried cod is a must. As in the whole of Portugal, the "bitoque", a sometimes tough beef steak (bife de vaca) with a fried egg on top, is ubiquitous in the north. A vegetable soup (sopa de legumes) is recommended beforehand, and for dessert you have a choice - the Portuguese can do desserts and cakes!
Vinho verde (green wine), whose grapes ripen in the Alto Minho sub-region and are considered the best of their variety in Portugal, is recommended. Vinho verde has a fairly low alcohol content and a slightly sparkling carbonic acid and is called "green" because young, not fully ripened grapes are harvested for it; surprisingly, it is also available as a red wine. And if you want to finish off with an espresso, don't order a "bica" like in Lisbon or the Algarve, but simply order a café.
TOUR restaurant tip
Viana do Castelo: Casa Primavera - Taberna Soares, Phone 00351/258821807, www.facebook.com/TabernaSoares. The traditional restaurant serves fresh fish and seafood, prepared without much chichi. At lunchtime in particular, the place is bursting at the seams when shipyard workers, fishermen and neighbours take a break. Lunch for 7.50 euros including coffee.
Bike service
The FeelViana Sport Hotel (see accommodation) rents out racing bikes and gravel bikes including water bottles, helmet, repair kit and pump. High-quality models cost 70 euros per day, three days 180 euros, seven days 365 euros; inexpensive models and gravel bikes cost 50/135/255 euros. FeelViana also offers guided tours, which cost between 45 and 60 euros depending on the length. If you want to set off on the tours in the Peneda-Gerês National Park, you can book a shuttle service, from 20 euros per person, depending on how full the minibus is.
Don't miss it: Everyman Race
"L'Étape Portugal by Tour de France" has been stopping off in Viana do Castelo since 2022. Three routes are on offer: 50, 100 and 147 kilometres. Information at portugal.letapebytourdefrance.com
Every year at the beginning of June, the "Reconco Gerês Granfondo" through the national park. There are also three distances: the Minifondo with 46 kilometres and around 1,000 metres of altitude, the Mediofondo (96 km, 1,872 m) and the Granfondo (150 km, 2,258 m). Information at bikeservice.pt/event/geres-granfondo/granfondo-geres-granfondo
Viana do Castelo
You can either cycle, walk or take the historic Elevador, a funicular railway, up to the Citânia de Santa Luzia above the city. From the pilgrimage church, which was modelled on the Sacré-Cœur on Montmartre in Paris, you have a magnificent view over the city, where the museum ship "Gil Eannes", commissioned in 1955 as a floating hospital to accompany the cod fishermen of Viana do Castelo on the high seas, is moored in the harbour. Information at www.fundacaogileannes.pt
Ponte de Lima
Just upriver from Viana do Castelo lies Ponte de Lima, one of the oldest towns in Portugal.
General information
www.visitportugal.com/de
Info on site
The tourist information office in Viana do Castelo (Viana Welcome Center) is located on Praça Eixo Atlântico between the cultural centre on the riverbank and the old town. Telephone 00351/258098414, www.vivexperiencia.pt
Literature & Maps
Travel guide "Northern Portugal", Michael Müller Verlag, 2023, 276 pages, 19.90 euros.
Map Michelin 591, Regional "Portugal North", 1:300,000, 2023, 11.95 euros.
Accommodation
Viana do Castelo: FeelViana Sport Hotel, telephone 00351/258/330330, feelviana.com. The Sport Hotel is located between the Praia do Cabedelo, a wide sandy beach bordered by a strip of dunes and pine trees, and the banks of the Minho, south of Viana do Castelo. The stylish, cosy 4-star superior hotel specialises in surfers and cyclists. In addition to bike hire and guided tours, FeelViana offers yoga and surfing courses. It has a bike and surf shop, a wellness area including massages for tired cyclists' legs, indoor and outdoor pools. The excellent breakfast is served in the restaurant, and the best place to have a nightcap after the tour is at the beach bar. All this comes at a price: a standard double room costs from 180 euros.
Pousada Viana do Castelo: Phone 00351/258800370, www.pousadas.pt. An alternative to FeelViana is the pousada located 180 metres above Viana do Castelo on Monte de Santa Luzia. A dignified historical ambience, magnificent views over the town, river and Atlantic. Double room with breakfast from 140 euros.
Tour character
The cobblestone passages in the north of Portugal are not as brutal as in Paris-Roubaix, but at least you get a good shaking on the local crossings, as well as on some sections in the Peneda-Gerês National Park. Perhaps it's like the one-day classic Paris-Roubaix, the "Hell of the North": some people love the bumps, others hate them. Otherwise, you will often find the finest tarmac in the north of Portugal. Tip: As the wind usually blows from the north, you should plan the tour to Monte de Santa Trega in such a way that you roll back southwards along the coast. The two tours from Viana do Castelo don't really climb very high, but there are a few nasty ramps in the Serra d'Arga, especially north-east of Viana do Castelo. On the two tours through the Peneda-Gerês National Park, you gain around 2000 metres in altitude over a good 90 kilometres, but the climbs are rather moderate.
Orientation
Viana do Castelo is located in the north of Portugal's Atlantic coast, which is rich in sandy beaches, at the mouth of the River Lima, and is part of the Alto Minho sub-region in the "North" region. It is a good 30 kilometres to the Spanish border in the north and around 70 kilometres to Porto in the south. The estuary and coastline of the city are characterised by shipyards and a fishing port. However, the old town is a gem and the Praça da República is considered one of the most beautiful squares in Portugal. Alto Minho is known for the cultivation of first-class wines, almost exclusively Vinho verde is cultivated. The Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês, Portugal's only national park, founded in 1971, is located between Alto Minho and the historic province of Trás-os-Montes - which literally means "behind the mountains". It borders Spain in large parts, with its highest mountains rising around 1,500 metres into the sky. The national park can be reached by car from Viana do Castelo in three quarters of an hour.
The four most beautiful tours
We present our four most beautiful tours in the region.
Tour 1: Visit to Spain
120 kilometres | 1400 vertical metres | max. 12 % gradient
From Viana do Castelo on the moderately busy EN 202 towards Ponte de Lima. After a good six kilometres, the route heads off into the hills, through pretty farmland. The grapes for a first-class vinho verde grow to the left and right of the road, a little further on eucalyptus trees exude their scent before the route leads to the banks of the Minho after just under 40 kilometres. At Vila Nova de Cerveira, you cross the border river between Portugal and Spain and roll to A Guarda, where the ascent to the 341 metre high Monte de Santa Trega awaits (the road is just a few metres below the summit), from where you have beautiful views of the coast. Return along the coast southwards to Viana do Castelo. You can cycle along small roads parallel to the N 13, sometimes even on a cycle path.
Tour 2: Into the Serra d'Arga
84 kilometres | 1340 vertical metres | max. 18 % gradient
From Viana do Castelo, this time on the EN 202 for just under 20 kilometres before turning off onto a small road that winds its way through the hills towards the Serra d'Arga. From Estorãos onwards, the road becomes brutally steep and the landscape wild. At an altitude of around 600 metres, the Serra d'Arga is barren and lonely: goats, sheep and cattle graze on the high pastures adorned with broom bushes between mighty granite rocks. After a descent, the route leads through partly wooded hills and sleepy villages back down to the Lima - and along the main road back to Viana do Castelo.
Tour 3: In the Portuguese Himalayas
95 kilometres | 2300 vertical metres | max. 14 % gradient
After a drive of just over 50 kilometres from Giela (near Arcos de Valdevez), a well-maintained road leads through the green valley of the Rio Vez, often referred to as the "Himalayas of Portugal". After the showcase village of Sistelo, the road climbs steadily up and down through vine-covered hills before the ascent to the Santo António mountain begins at just over 1000 metres and the rocky slabs of the Serra Peneda tower up to the east. However, you should save some energy for the almost twelve kilometre-long climb, as there are two more climbs on the last third of the route through the green foothills of the national park into Val de Vez.
Tour 4: Peneda-Gerês National Park
93 kilometres | 2200 vertical metres | max. 14 % gradient
After a transfer to Entre Ambos-os-Rios, you first roll along the Lima towards Spain on a wide road with hardly any traffic. After the spa town of Lobios, you return to Portugal in the Peneda-Gerês National Park. Waterfalls cascade down to the right and left of the road as you race down the hairpin bends towards the eponymous spa town of Gerês. From there, the route leads back into the lonely mountain landscape. On paths that are sometimes no wider than a towel, you pass villages such as Germil, where time seems to have stood still for centuries. Even the road surface has not yet arrived in the modern age, as you rattle over cobblestones for a few kilometres.
GPS data
You will find the tour data for free download (GPX format) here.
