Douro Valley Overnight · short arc

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Parede

   Parede is a seaside town on the Estoril coast west of Lisbon, strung along the Marginal road between Carcavelos and São Pedro do Estoril, with houses climbing the low slope above a small, rocky-edged beach. It is mostly a residential place for people who commute into the city, but it has an old reputation of its own, and it makes a practical, pleasant start and finish point with fuel, coffee and the ocean right there.

   Read the complete Parede write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Douro Valley Overnight is where the day begins. Next is Douro Valley Overnight high point.

2. 2. Monte Estoril

   Faded grandeur and Atlantic light define Monte Estoril. The district rises from the coast between Estoril and Cascais, west of Lisbon, with villas, gardens and old hotels on the slopes above the sea, and a long promenade along the beach below. This was once one of Europe's most fashionable resorts, and some of that elegance survives in the palm-lined avenues and the houses with their tiled facades.

   Read the complete Monte Estoril write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Douro Valley Overnight checkpoint 8.

3. 3. Barcarena

   Gunpowder was made at Barcarena for more than four centuries. The royal powder factory in the valley of the Ribeira de Barcarena, a small stream that winds down to the Tagus estuary, supplied the Portuguese army and navy from the sixteenth century until the twentieth, and the old mills, workshops and storehouses have been restored as a cultural park, with a museum and gardens by the stream.

   Read the complete Barcarena write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 292 km. Next is Scenic stretch near Sobral de Monte Agraço.

4. 4. Scenic stretch near Sobral de Monte Agraço

   Planning note

   Scenic stretch near Sobral de Monte Agraço, about halfway. Next is Photo stop near Alenquer.

5. 5. Photo stop near Alenquer

   Planning note

   Photo stop near Alenquer sits at 195 km, about halfway. Next is Lisbon / Portugal return.

6. 6. Lisbon / Portugal return

   Alcácer do Sal sits on the Sado river, about twenty kilometres south of this point, and it takes its name from salt: the Romans called the town Salacia, and the Arabs later gave it the name that stuck. For centuries the marshes around it have been worked for salt, which was shipped from the river to the northern ports and across Europe.

   Read the complete Lisbon / Portugal return write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lisbon / Portugal return comes up about 197 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop in Comporta.

7. 7. Food stop in Comporta

   Rice is not what most people expect in southern Portugal, but here at Comporta the land flattens into wide green paddies laid out along the Sado estuary, with herons and white storks standing in the water and the smell of mud and salt on the wind. Comporta is a small village of whitewashed houses and reed-thatched cottages on the edge of these fields, set between the estuary to the east and a huge Atlantic beach to the west, on the long sandy peninsula that runs south from Tróia.

   Read the complete Comporta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Food stop in Comporta closes the day.