Self Guided Ebike Tour in Sintra

The tour was very varied. Hills, mountains and ocean. The view of the sea was a highlight. The first part of the tour was busy with a lot of traffic but that is the only way to get into the quiet part of the tour. For us this tour was a great combination with our visit to Lisbon. The landlord thought along with us and explained how the bike worked and the tour app. A friendly person.

Cycling Sintra was a beautiful ride. It’s like riding through the Pacific Northwest, the California coast, and Napa Valley all in one loop. My wife and I rented our 4-inch wheeled e-bikes for the day and rode the 24 mile self-tour Atlantic route which took us up to the Sintra castles and parks, and then through vinyards to the ocean and through several coastal towns. There is 2500 ft of gain, so the climbs were significant. But the e-bikes had enough torque to make the hills manageable. The only drawback was that my bike’s battery was threatening exhaustion less than two-thirds of the way through the trip — just as we reached the steepest and hilliest part of the ride. From the start we made a point of not using more than power level 3 out of 5 when climbing steep sections and mostly stayed in levels 1 or 2 the balance of the time. So the battery indicator dropping to 2 out of 5 bars 10 miles from completion caused anxiety. (The outfitter did provide a battery charger with the bike, but didn’t want to stop and ask a local merchant if we could plug into their electric service). In the end, we conserved our batteries by riding mostly in power level 1 the remaining part of the ride.

Unfortunately, the national forest was closed due to the threat of forest fires so that changes the experience and the review somewhat. My husband and I did the modified ride to the coast and then a modified King of the Hill up towards Pena Palace (which was also closed). Despite these setbacks, the ride was fun! The navigation app was fabulous and we were hardly ever lost (and then not lost for long). It was our first experience on e-bikes and Sintra was a good place to try them. Very hilly! Organization was good and Martin quick to answer emails for organizing the rides and making suggestions for alternate rides when our first choices were not available.