Why this ride
From Poceirão it runs 757 km to Samora Correia; allow about 14 h 08 of riding. The stops in between: Óbidos, São Pedro da Cadeira, Monte Estoril and Charneca de Caparica. The climbs: Comporta and Arrábida and Setúbal.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Serra da Estrela Long Weekend + Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 757 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 14 h 08
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Atlantic Coast N247
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 64 km this is Atlantic Coast N247, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 46 km
- Named road
- Atlantic Coast N247
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fuel stop near Poceirão
Planning note
Serra da Estrela Long Weekend is where the day begins. Next is Lisbon / Portugal return.
2. Near Óbidos, on the way back
Óbidos is a walled village so well preserved that it looks arranged for the camera, which does not make it any less lovely. White houses trimmed with blue and yellow climb a hill inside the medieval walls, and a castle on the summit has been turned into a hotel. The story goes that in the thirteenth century King Dinis gave the town to his queen Isabel as a wedding present, and for centuries afterwards it belonged to the queens of Portugal. The tradition made it a place of royal favour, and it kept its walls and its charm through the centuries.
Read the complete Lisbon / Portugal 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 53 km in. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend food stop.
3. São Pedro da Cadeira
Out in the rolling country of the Oeste, north of Lisbon, São Pedro da Cadeira is a farming parish in the municipality of Torres Vedras, a scatter of villages, vineyards, orchards and greenhouses on the hills that run down to the Atlantic. It is not a destination in its own right. It is a place where people work the land, and that is exactly why it makes a good, honest lunch stop on the way north to the mountains.
Read the complete São Pedro da Cadeira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
A break here. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend photo pull-off.
4. 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
Serra da Estrela Long Weekend photo pull-off, early in the day. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend checkpoint 8.
5. Charneca de Caparica
Charneca de Caparica sits on the high, sandy plateau behind the beaches of the Costa da Caparica, on the south side of the Tagus across from Lisbon. It is part of Almada and mostly residential, a sprawl of villas, small streets and umbrella pines spread over land that was once heath and scrub, which is what charneca means. To the west the plateau ends abruptly at a line of tall, golden cliffs, and below them lies one of the longest unbroken beaches near any European capital.
Read the complete Charneca de Caparica write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Finish at Serra da Estrela Long Weekend checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend high point.
6. 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
Serra da Estrela Long Weekend high point is the summit of this stretch. Next is Scenic stretch near Setúbal.
7. Scenic stretch near Setúbal
Setúbal is a working port city at the mouth of the Sado estuary, the sort of place that tourists tend to skip and locals quietly love. Fishing boats, ferries and cargo ships share the water, and across the estuary the long, flat sand spit of Tróia stretches out. Out in the water lives a small resident community of bottlenose dolphins, which you can sometimes see from boat trips leaving the harbour. Behind the city rises the Serra da Arrábida, a steep ridge of limestone covered in Mediterranean scrub.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Setúbal write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
317 km in you reach Scenic stretch near Setúbal. Next is Back to Serra.
8. Back to Serra
There is nothing glamorous about this spot, and that is its charm. It lies on the flat lands south of the Tagus, in the region between Alcochete and the town of Poceirão, a country of cork oaks, pine plantations, sandy soil and straight roads. After a long day in the mountains of the Serra da Estrela, this is where the Lisbon area starts to wrap itself around you again.
Read the complete Serra write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Finish at Back to Serra. That is the ride. Next is Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep.
9. Fuel stop near Samora Correia
10. Near Silveira, on the way back
In 1810, the Duke of Wellington, defending Portugal against Napoleon's army, built a series of forts and earthworks across the peninsula north of Lisbon, from the Atlantic to the Tagus. The Lines of Torres Vedras were so strong that the French, arriving in front of them, simply stopped, and after months of hunger they retreated. Forts and redoubts survive on the hilltops around Torres Vedras, and some have been restored.
Read the complete Near Silveira, on the way back 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 476 km in. Next is Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep food stop.
11. Colares
In Colares, the vines grow in sand. The vineyards, on the dunes near the Atlantic, are dug deep into the sand to reach the clay beneath, and the vines, low and sprawling, are protected from the wind by fences of cane. Because phylloxera, the insect that destroyed Europe's vineyards in the nineteenth century, cannot survive in sand, the Ramisco vines of Colares were never grafted, and some are very old. The wine is rare, tannic and long-lived, a curiosity of Portuguese wine.
Read the complete Colares write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
A break here. Next is Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep photo pull-off.
12. Sesimbra
Sesimbra is a fishing town that has become a beach resort without quite forgetting what it was. In the morning the boats come in and the catch is sold at the harbour, and by lunchtime the grill smoke is already rising from the waterfront restaurants. The black scabbardfish, the espada, and fresh sardines in season are the local specialties, along with swordfish. Above the town stand the walls of a Moorish castle, with a view down over rooftops to the bay, and a smaller sea fort guards the waterfront.
Read the complete Sesimbra write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep photo pull-off, late in the day. Next is Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep checkpoint 8.
13. Near Charneca de Caparica
Start and finish here and you are on the south bank of the Tagus, in the pine-scented suburbs of Almada between Charneca de Caparica, Corroios and Sobreda. It is a residential area of houses, schools and supermarkets, without much to look at in itself, but its position is very good: close to Lisbon across the river, and close to the open roads that lead south to the Arrábida hills and the city of Setúbal.
Read the complete Near Charneca de Caparica write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep high point.
14. Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep high point
Palmela's castle crowns a hill above the Setúbal plain, and from this high point you see everything: the Sado estuary to the south, the Tagus and Lisbon to the north, the Arrábida range filling the horizon, and on a clear day a slice of the Atlantic. The Moors held the castle until it fell to the first king of Portugal in the twelfth century, and it was later the headquarters of the Order of Santiago, a military order whose knights helped defend the frontier. The fortress, now partly a hotel, has a bastion walk that is worth the climb.
Read the complete Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep high point write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The high point of this section. Next is Scenic stretch near Pinhal Novo.
15. Scenic stretch near Pinhal Novo
Planning note
740 km in you reach Scenic stretch near Pinhal Novo. Next is Back to Arrábida.
16. Back to Arrábida
The Arrábida itself lies further south, beyond Palmela, but the estuary is worth a paragraph of its own because it shapes everything about this part of Portugal.
Read the complete Arrábida write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back to Arrábida closes the day.
Leg by leg
Fuel stop near Poceirão to Near Óbidos, on the way back
Fuel stop near Poceirão → Near Óbidos, on the way back is 92 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Scenic stretch near Setúbal to Back to Serra
Scenic stretch near Setúbal → Back to Serra is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Serra to Fuel stop near Samora Correia
Back to Serra → Fuel stop near Samora Correia is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Samora Correia to Near Silveira, on the way back
Fuel stop near Samora Correia → Near Silveira, on the way back is 59 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep high point to Scenic stretch near Pinhal Novo
Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep high point → Scenic stretch near Pinhal Novo is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Pinhal Novo to Back to Arrábida
Scenic stretch near Pinhal Novo → Back to Arrábida is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Serra da Estrela Long Weekend · short arc · 219 km
- Douro Valley Overnight · 333 km
- Serra da Estrela Long Weekend · part 2 · 165 km
- Arrábida and Setúbal Sweep · 328 km