trip on Portugal

A

A-Mistral

Guest
Hello
I'm living in Moscow, Russia.
I and my friends want to do tourist's trip on Portugal at the september of this year. Probably our route will be Porto-Coimbra-Lisboa.
I'm looking for a necessery information about riding on a bike at your country.
I have some questions and I'm looking for answers :)
Can anybody help me?

Thanks for your attention and possible answers!
 
3

350plus

New Member
Hi A-Mistral.

Feel free to ask any questions here. Here you will find a lot of people able to help you prepare the trip.  :wink:

What do you want to know exactly?
 
B

Branca

New Member
ЗдорОво, Мистраль!
Видишь, мне никто не отвечает, видно конкретней формулировать нужно.
Буду следить и за твоей веткой тоже. Аня Ли ;)
 
A

A-Mistral

Guest
Hi, 350plus!
Thanks for your answer. I will try to ask my questions (sorry for my English :) )
1. Can I go by bus or by train with my bike at Portugal?
2. Do I have to use a helmet when I ride to bike at your country? Or is it not obligatory?
3. Usually we travel with ours tents. Can we do in the same way at Portugal? Where I can stand my tent (free place or campings only)?
4. Can I make a camp-fire for cooking?
 
B

Branca

New Member
Let me add my questions:
- Do I have insurance, a cyclist and have it be someone to make
- Where gas is sold to the tourist burners (or it is not needed, as well as camping can not be done alone, but on organized camping is gas?)
- Do you need somewhere to record our trip

thanks! :)
 
Z

zykon

Super Moderador
hi A-mistral

I'm not 350plus but i can help :wink:

1 - You can go by train with bikes with some conditions but can go
2 - You don't have to use helmet. It isn't obligatory
3 - You can travel with the tents. where to stay i can't help you... :s maybe someone can!
4 - You can't make fire camps
 
3

350plus

New Member
A-mistral, I'm not an expert in camping but I will try to help you. If I make a mistake somebody will certainly correct me.

1. You can carry the bicycle in Urban, Regional and Inter-Regional trains. The service is free. By bus I'm not sure. Maybe if the bicycle is dissassembled, it can be carried in the cargo zone.
2. Helmet is not obligatory. I recommend it, sometimes accidents happen and is good to have some extra protection.
3. I think that some few places allow free-camping. Most places do not. There are many nice camping parks in every zone of Portugal, so I would recommend to use them. Use this site to find them: http://www.roteiro-campista.pt/frame-geral-parques.htm
4. I also think it depends on the place. Inside forest areas is prohibited due to fire risk.

Branca:

1- Are you asking if insurance is needed? I think it's not required.
2- Gas for camping burners is usually sold in supermarkets, it should not be hard to find.
3- Sorry. Did not understand this question!
 
B

Bravellir

New Member
I think Branca asked if we have to register or ask for a permit with the authorities to make the trip. If this was the question, as far has I Know, we do not have to do that.
 
Z

zykon

Super Moderador
your trip will be in road or offroad too?

You come with mountain bikes?

After you say it we can sugest you some interest places to go :wink:

Regarding question 4, you cant make fire camps anywhere.
but there are everywhere places where you can eat that have tables and a place to make fire and grill the food. i don't know the english name. but it's something like this
http://www.tapadademafra.pt/images.php?image_id=187&width=85

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GWAHDlPRM...CVs/s400/Um+recanto+do+Parque+de+Merendas.jpg

in the second image the little constrution you see in foto is where you can make fire!
 
A

A-Mistral

Guest
To 350plus:
- is the service free? It is a very good news!  :)  Do I have to disassemble my bike for it?
- Special thanks for the site about campings! It is very necessary information.
- If we can’t make a camp-fire we can use burners. I know that there are two or tree different systems (types) of burners and cartridges. What type of  burners can I find at Portugal? Can you give some web-link to the right type to see it?


To Zykon:
- we ride to mountain bikes ). It is the most popular kind of bikes in Russia.
- In road or offroad? In general our trip will be in road because when I plan our route I use the road map of the country (now I use the map of  Portugal 1:350000). In general maps like this contain roads with hard paving (asphalt as a rule). Offroad ways are very interesting but it is more difficult for route planning. For example I really don’t know where are that ways  :). But later I want to ask some question about that ways. Now I really began to plan our precise route. I think that we will start our trip from Porto and we will finish in Lisboa.
 
3

350plus

New Member
A-Mistral,

In the trains there is no need to dissamble the bike and the service is included in the price of a normal ticket.

Check more information in English here (CP is the portuguese railroad transport company) :

http://www.cp.pt/cp/displayPage.do?vgnextoid=ffc33f9c1cee5010VgnVCM1000007b01a8c0RCRD&lang=en

The most common types of burners are these:

531003b.jpg


You can find many Campingaz (http://www.campingaz.com/) cartidges on sale. I'm not sure how many types of cartridges they sell... sorry!
 
B

Branca

New Member
Мистраль, ты в сентябре планируешь? Я смогу одолжить тебе эту машинку, скорее всего. Спишемся в личке. По крайней мере, маршрут составить при промощи GPS из имеющегося опыта и приложить к бумаге - не проблема.
Короче, покатаемся здесь у нас - все обсудим :)
 
A

A-Mistral

Guest
Once more questions about a safety in our trip:
- do you have some problems with a safety of your bikes at Portugal? Can we leave easy our bikes to see some point of interest or to go in a shop?
- If we will want to take for a wall in the evening or late at night, can we be sure for our safety at cities and towns?

to Branca:
Спасибо, учту :), хотя я не очень расположен заимствовать жпс - все-таки есть риск повредить чужую вещь. может мы чего-нибудь сами намутим.
Еще я хочу у ребят кое-что по дорогам на карте моей спросить. Возможно, что самые маленькие дороги, показанные на карте - грутновые или что-то подобное. В таком случае вообще проблем нет. Просто этот вопрос нужно с подготовкой задавать - надо кусок карты отсканировать, чтобы люди поняли о чем речь. :)
но в любом случае, буду иметь в виду! спасибо за предложение!
 
3

350plus

New Member
Portugal is still a relatively safe country. But as always, caution is recommended. Bad people exist everywhere. :wink:

I wouldn't recommend leaving the bikes unattended and unlocked. Spend some money on good locks and park the bikes in zones with a lot of people passing by, this should be enough to keep the bikes safe.

Safety in the cities is usually very good, but sometimes muggings happen :s. Always try to carry small amounts of money with you. The nightlife depends a lot on the cities. In some cities you will find people in the street during the night, while others are a bit empty.

You should not be constantly worried with the safety aspects, just take some general precautions.

This page has a lot of valid information:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Portugal

I don't necessarily agree with all the things they say, but the safety part is very good and should cover your doubts.
 
U

uterrorista

New Member
@A-Mistral
Regarding the safety, It's not common the 'bike jacking' as far i know. Get yourself a bicycle padlock and you shouldn't have any problems.
But, leave the bike in a safe area, not in some kind of ghetto..
 
B

Branca

New Member
Let me ask you another tradition.
1. Not a single photo, I did not see the bicycle fenders. It is not necessary or is it moveton?
2. What tires are you popular? I switched to just "evil", because very little ride on the pavement and roll to me is not important. My choice Nokian 26x2,3 Freddie's 336 SW winter, Maxxis 26x2,35 Swampthing the remaining seasons. In light of your features, you should choose something more for a cross-country?
 
A

A-Mistral

Guest
I have once more question. This is the very important question about roads.
There are 6 different kinds of roads on my road map of Portugal.
Its are:
1. Motorway (green line)
2. Expressway ( two red line with white line in the middle)
3. Major road (red line)
4. Secondary road (yellow line)
5. Other road (white road with black borders)
6. Track/path (grey line)
Please see the scanned piece of my map there: http://photofile.ru/users/mistral77/115313519/
I showed to all kinds of roads with help of red arrows on that picture.

What kind of road can I ride on my bike on? I think I can’t move on bike on roads #1. Is it right?
What kind of paving is there on the roads #4,#5,#6 (especially road #6). Is it an asphalt? Or a gravel? Or a ground?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top