Why this ride
Out of Óbidos, one way: 219 km, roughly 3 h 44 in the saddle. The stops in between: São Pedro da Cadeira, Monte Estoril and Charneca de Caparica. Comporta is the high point.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Serra da Estrela Long Weekend · short arc
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 219 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 44
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Lisbon / Portugal
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 is where the day begins. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend food stop.
2. 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
Serra da Estrela Long Weekend food stop is where this day stops to eat. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend photo pull-off.
3. 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
about 110 km into the recorded legs you reach Serra da Estrela Long Weekend photo pull-off. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend checkpoint 8.
4. 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
Serra da Estrela Long Weekend checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Serra da Estrela Long Weekend high point.
5. 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 tops the climb. Next is Scenic stretch near Setúbal.
6. 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
The route ends here after 298 km.