Passeios de bicicleta a partir de portos de cruzeiros em Portugal et la France
By Richard Fox January 2024
My husband Steve and I enjoyed 19 wonderful bike tours from the 30 ports we visited on four mostly consecutive cruises during September – November 2023. The rides took place in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey. All but 3 of the tours were on e-bikes, and 7 were self-guided. I did extensive research to decide which ports had good cycling opportunities, and read hundreds of reviews to get a feel for which ones to select. Tours were mostly booked via the apps GetYourGuide or Viator, which made it convenient to keep track of. Walking tours were booked through them as well, such as Pompeii, Ephesus and Florence. They both had liberal pay-later and 24 hour cancellation policies. Rentals and some tours were booked directly through the bike shops or tour agencies, and many times they were significantly cheaper than the app’s prices. And of course all were many times cheaper than the cruise ships’ excursions. Although the cruise ship excursions guaranteed a return to the ship in time, I made sure to arrange the excursions so that wouldn’t be an issue, and it never came even close.
In the next series of posts I describe the bike tours with links to the outfits that operated them, and the cost. The groups are 1) Portugal and France 2) Spain 3) Italy and 4) Greece and Turkey. Croatia and Albania unfortunately had no biking opportunities that worked for us at the ports.
We only had two stops each in Portugal and France, and we did bike tours in all of them: Ponta Delgada (Azores) and Lisboa in Portugal, and Ajaccio (Corsica) and Cannes in France. I wish there had been more stops in these countries.
PONTA DELGADA, AZORES, PORTUGAL
Frequently visited on the transatlantic crossings, the Azores port of call is the lovely city of Ponta Delgada on the largest of the islands, São Miguel. The main attractions of the island besides the port city area are the Furnas Valley with its geothermal features and hot springs, and two large volcanic crater lakes with sparkling blue and green waters from the extinct Sete Cicades volcano on the western end of the island. Paths around the lakes at various levels of difficulty are popular for mountain biking and rentals can be found there. From port you may be able to find a tour that includes transportation and a bike tour, even if the tour is self guided. This would be the most scenic and unique biking excursion on the island. Unfortunately this area is frequently socked in with clouds, making the lakes’ water color a shade of gray if you can even see them at all. A webcam is available to evaluate the conditions before you go, although if arriving on a cruise ship it is probably too late to cancel at that point. The day we were at port there were no options to explore that area by bike, so we decided to rent a bike and ride the seaside promenade of Ponta Delgada.
Azores Bike Shop downtown had a good variety of bikes including e-bikes, but too pricey because they only charged by the day. We reserved a couple of nice acoustic bikes at Open Door Rentals for only 5€ per hour. The shop was about a 20 minute walk from the cruise terminal through the lovely 1500’s old town with its narrow streets lined with simple whitewashed buildings striped with black basalt. Marcos at Open Door was extremely helpful and enthusiastic, telling us about the area and the biking options. The bike path starts a few blocks from his shop near Forte de São Brás (the fort) and descends to the cruise terminal area, then back up to boulevard level. It follows the scenic waterfront adjacent to a pedestrian path, with some detours onto low traffic streets. It eventually passes three beaches before ending about 10 km (6 miles) from the start. Marcos explained that the most thrilling riding is beyond that point, into hilly coastal territory, that sounded like it would be better with an e-bike. But we were happy with our excursion, a very scenic easy bike ride with the weather cooperating nicely. Based on Marcos’ recommendations we wandered the town after the ride and found some local delicacies. Cost: 10€ each for a ~2 hour ride.
LISBOA, PORTUGAL
Lisboa (Lisbon) climbs up onto several hills on both sides of the wide tidal Tagus River. On its north bank a series of pedestrian promenades run along the river out of downtown where the cruise port is conveniently situated. Paths extend to the historic port of Belém, where Portuguese explorers and conquistadors would set off from. The Old Lisboa district extends up the hill from the cruise port on cobblestone streets to Castelo de São Jorge (Castle), where Tram 28 and a funicular climb. Several e-bike tours are offered here, mostly through Boost downtown. The well reviewed seven hills of Lisbon tour is as it seems, a very hilly ride. Not a fan of cycling on steep cobblestone streets we opted for the flat river cruise to Belém. It was a Sunday so the river paths were crowded, but still doable. Our guide, Oriana, provided ample historical facts en route, including the monuments in Belém, and treated us to pastéis de nata, a local tart made from her favorite recipe supplied by a food truck along the path. The Belém portion consisted of the impressive riverside monuments Torre de Belém (Belém Tower) and Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument of the Discoveries), but no historic town. It was an enjoyable excursion. After the tour we had time to hike through Old Lisboa all the way up to the castle. Cost: 40€ each
Our cruise ships did not dock in Porto, but several e-bike tours are also available there.
AJACCIO, CORSICA, FRANCE
The cruise terminal in Ajaccio, where our Celebrity Edge docked, is conveniently situated next to the interesting Old Town, known for being the birthplace of Napoléon Bonaparte. We were enticed by appebike’s advertised excursion on GetYourGuide of a self-guided “E-Bike tour along turquoise waters,” with promises of passing a long list of historical points of interest downtown. That ended up meaning that they let us take a photo of a free tourist map without giving us a copy, or app for the phone, gave us some direction, and set us on our way, with no customer toilet available. The walk to the shop took about 25 minutes; the advertised “200 meters from cruise port” was actually around 1.3 km. And, my agreed upon order for a large frame bike for tall Steve did not occur, he was given a regular bike with the seat raised to the max. The Peugeot bikes were good quality for rentals otherwise, except for very uncomfortable seats.
The route began on a short stretch of waterfront path in the harbor area, followed by riding inland with cars through busy city streets, at low speed limits; annoying but not a terrible experience for experienced cyclists. We reached the stretch of shoreline lined with beaches and views of those famous turquoise waters, which was indeed spectacular on this perfect sunny mild October day. After a bit of road riding a bike/ped path appeared on the sea side of the coastal road. When setting out, appebike had warned us against actually taking this path because of pedestrian traffic, but on this weekday morning in shoulder season it wasn’t crowded at all. A junction appeared with a road going uphill, equipped with a bike lane on its right side. This is the route to take for a return loop through the hills, which we didn’t attempt. Eventually the bike/ped path ended and we were back on the road, with light traffic as the coastal road here is a dead end. Steve’s bike was so uncomfortable that he just stopped at this point and waited for me. I continued to the end of the road, which was the highlight of the ride. A beautiful park with scenic hiking paths leads to the ancient Tour de la Parata (tower) atop a hill surrounded by the sea on three sides, and overlooking the four islands of the Sanguinaires archipelago.
The return ride to the shop was better, because we were able to ride the one way road around the scenic coastal perimeter of the Old Town past Citadelle d’Ajaccio, and not battle as much downtown traffic. We didn’t ride the bikes to visit the other Old Town sites; that was much better done with a walk that we did after returning the bikes. Biking distance round trip was about 28 km (18 miles). It was a beautiful ride, worth doing, but I would recommend trying E-bike Corsica for more comfortable bikes first. They did not confirm my rental requests, so I stuck with the appebike reservation made through GetYourGuide to be assured of some bike to ride here. Cost: €41 each.
CANNES, FRANCE
And the winner is… biking around Cannes! We were lucky to actually get here since it’s a tender port that’s notorious for cancellations due to wind, which was the fate suffered by the ship the day before us in mid November. We once again had perfect weather and did a city e-bike tour with Yourent Cannes, located a few minutes walk from the port. They had a perfect upright large bike for Steve I had requested. Mine was a runty fat tired marginal bike but it had a fun throttle. We posed on the film festival red carpet, rode coastal paths to scenic viewpoints, then through town on a crowded street and up Suquet Hill to the Cannes Castle with an awesome vista, all in about 2 hours. Our friendly fun French guide, Louis, did a good job leading us and describing Cannes and its history, but this is one place where just renting an e-bike may be preferable, which Yourent also offers on the apps or direct. The shop had a walking tour map showing the route that was easy to follow. The coastal path extended longer than our tour route took, and it would’ve been nice to be able to hop on and off over a longer period, grab a bite, and keep the bikes all day versus trudging around on foot before and after the tour as we did. One pet peeve, Yourent did not have a toilet to offer (is that a French thing?) and they sent our friends on a wild goose chase to find one such that they missed lunch, while Steve and I enjoyed crepes in a nearby cafe. Cost: 59€ each. (~ 20€ more via the apps).
enCYCLEpedia Bicycling Blog 