CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A one-way ride of 362 km, Sintra to Charneca de Caparica - roughly 6 h 08 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cabo da Roca, Guincho coast, Cascais and Sintra palace roads. The climb of the day is Costa de Caparica. The coast is the point of it.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 18 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Sintra is a hill town where a granite ridge catches the Atlantic cloud and holds it, so that the slopes are green, damp and cool while Lisbon, half an hour away, bakes. Lord Byron called it a glorious Eden, and Portuguese kings agreed, building summer palaces among the rocks and tree ferns. The Moors left a ruined castle on the ridge, and in the nineteenth century King Ferdinand II, a German prince who married the queen, built the Pena Palace on the highest peak, a fantasy of yellow, red and blue towers that looks as though it was assembled from a box of bricks. Close to the town centre the Quinta da Regaleira has a spiral well and tunnels, and Monserrate Palace has some of the finest gardens.
Read the complete Sintra palace roads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sintra palace roads is where the day begins. Next is Cabo da Roca.
Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of mainland Europe, a wind-scoured headland where the Sintra mountains run straight into the Atlantic and stop. The cliffs rise some 140 metres above the water, topped with a squat white lighthouse that has been working since the eighteenth century, and a stone monument carries a line from the poet Luís de Camões, who described this as the place where the land ends and the sea begins. There is something genuinely humbling about it, standing in a cold gale with nothing but ocean in front of you, though the tourist crowds have rather broken the spell by midday.
Read the complete Cabo da Roca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cabo da Roca comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Guincho coast.
Guincho is a wind machine with a beach attached. The broad, curving strand lies on the exposed Atlantic side of the Cascais peninsula, backed by dunes and a wild scrub of juniper and umbrella pine, and the north-westerly that Portuguese sailors call the nortada blows across it almost every summer afternoon. Windsurfers and kitesurfers love it, and on a good day the water is full of bright sails skimming the swell. To the north the granite bulk of the Serra de Sintra catches clouds and holds them, while to the south the line of the coast leads on toward Cascais, six kilometres away, and Alcabideche sits on the hills inland.
Read the complete Guincho coast write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 30 km into the recorded legs you reach Guincho coast. Next is Cascais food.
Cascais began as a fishing village, and the fish never left. In 1870 King Luís I made the little town his summer residence, the court followed, the aristocracy built villas along the shore, and a quiet harbour became the smart seaside resort of Lisbon. It is about thirty-six thousand people now, with a marina full of yachts, a pedestrian centre of mosaic pavements, and a fishing fleet that still unloads in the afternoon, which is the best moment to understand why people eat here.
Read the complete Cascais food write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cascais food, early in the day. Next is back to Sintra palace roads.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sintra palace roads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at back to Sintra palace roads. That is the ride. Next is Óbidos Lagoon Easy Ride.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Óbidos Lagoon Easy Ride is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Óbidos Lagoon Easy Ride high point.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Óbidos Lagoon Easy Ride checkpoint 8.
Finish at Óbidos Lagoon Easy Ride checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Scenic stretch near São João das Lampas.
Scenic stretch near São João das Lampas sits at 281 km, about halfway. Next is Photo stop near Milharado.
Photo stop near Milharado comes up about 195 km into the recorded legs. Next is Lisbon / Portugal return.
On this side of the Tagus the landscape changes almost at once. The hills and vines of the peninsula give way to a flat, sandy country of pine, scrub and, above all, cork oak, planted in wide, open woodlands that Portuguese farmers call montado. It is the beginning of the Alentejo, a region of space and silence, and the first sign is the trees themselves, their trunks stripped to a raw, orange-red where the bark has been cut. Poceirão and Vendas Novas are the nearest places of any size, with farms and warehouses scattered between.
Read the complete Lisbon / Portugal return write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 285 km into the recorded legs you reach Lisbon / Portugal return. Next is Food stop near Pinhal Novo.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 308 km into the recorded legs. Next is Back to Óbidos Lagoon.
South of the Tagus, on the other side of Lisbon, the coastline changes character. This point lies near Charneca de Caparica and Costa de Caparica, on the Atlantic side of the Setúbal peninsula, and the landscape here is sand, pine and fishing boats rather than the walled town of the ride's name.
Read the complete Óbidos Lagoon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Óbidos Lagoon closes the day.
Sintra palace roads → Cabo da Roca is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cabo da Roca → Guincho coast is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Guincho coast → Cascais food is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cascais food → back to Sintra palace roads is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back to Sintra palace roads → Fuel stop near Charneca de Caparica is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Charneca de Caparica → Costa de Caparica is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near São João das Lampas → Photo stop near Milharado is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Milharado → Lisbon / Portugal return is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Lisbon / Portugal return → Food stop near Pinhal Novo is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop near Pinhal Novo → Back to Óbidos Lagoon is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.