Portugal, Summer 2021
In collaboration with Specialized Bicycle Components and Apidura Bags
Two friends and I loaded two weeks’ worth of gear, a few cameras, and a Portuguese-English dictionary onto our bikes to ride the most beautiful 600 miles of our lives.
Our Apidura Bag setup at Destination Hostel in Lisbon before beginning our adventure.
With nothing but curiosity and excitement, we winded through urban and rural landscapes, contrasting cute farm towns and surfing paradises with every pedal stroke.
Growing up in Brooklyn, the three of us spent our high school days cycling the streets of New York City, continually mesmerized by its vibrance and diversity of culture, food, language, and life. Biking was a gateway to discovery, inspiring us to think bigger as we stumbled upon hidden treasures we had never seen before. The more we discovered, the stronger our desire to explore beyond our city.
We all started college mid-pandemic, so when the summer of 2021 finally rolled around we were thrilled to put the online lectures to rest and clip into our bikes for a new adventure. Hoping to get a real change of scenery, we reached out to a few companies that we thought might be interested in collaborating with us on a project that would let us discover new places while also inspiring other young people to do the same. We were so lucky to connect with Specialized and Apidura, two companies that share our values of inspiring more young people from all backgrounds to get out and explore their communities on bike!
Between summer jobs and academic calendars, we had a limited window of three weeks where our free time overlapped. In order to make the most of the opportunity, we searched for a country that offered high biodiversity and terrain types within a relatively small landmass. With less than 350 miles from top-to-bottom, massive cliffs, medieval castles, striking sand dunes, beautiful vineyards, modern cities and amazing food, we settled on Portugal.
Our adventure began with the Specialized Portugal team getting us oriented to life in this small but special country. The following morning, we forced our jetlagged bodies awake and left Lisbon Destination Hostel (a beautiful and friendly hostel inside an old train station) with our Specialized Turbo Creo Evos packed with Expedition series Apidura packs. After a few sun salutations in front of the Praça do Comércio, we hit the road, pedaling through the enthralling dream that is Lisbon. Zipping through the crowds of mostly French and Spanish tourists while careful not to let our wheels get caught in trolley tracks was exhilarating, almost matching the heavenly feeling of eating a pastel de nata from Pastéis de Belém for the first time.
Alejandro and Malick, standing in front of Belém Tower, Lisbon’s 25 de Abril Bridge in the background.
Malick, riding through Praça do Comércio in the heart of Lisbon.
All three of us next to the marker designating Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe.
At the suggestion of Ricardo José Gouveia from Specialized, we hugged the coastline north and endured the strongest wind gusts we had ever experienced to take photos at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe. With smiles glued to our faces, we lunched in picture-perfect Sintra with its steep streets and colorful buildings. Our long first day ended with bacalhau in Ericeira, exhausted but fulfilled and ready to continue again the following day.
A bikepacking lesson we learned pretty quickly? Everything takes longer than you think. It was so easy to stop for just five minutes to take photos or videos. We had to balance our curiosity to explore every new place in depth with our need to arrive at a hostel each day. The spontaneous stop in Nazaré proved to be one of the best decisions we made. Our jaws dropped at the sight of the biggest waves we had ever seen, and we wished we could stay longer to further explore the miraculous cliffs and waves. But dark was fast approaching, and this would be just one of many captivating rest stops on our journey.
Malick, squinting as sunlight mixes with ocean spray from the massive waves of Nazaré. Known as one of the best surfing locations in the world, it was just a resting stop on our bikepacking trip along the Portuguese coast during the height of the pandemic.
After four nonstop days of riding and fixing flats north through Peniche, Caldas da Rainha, and Leiria (to name a few), we were met by breathtaking views of Coimbra crossing the Ponte Pedonal Pedro e Inês over the Mondego River. A rest day was just what we needed as we explored the 12th and 13th century architecture of this former capital of Portugal. Following the Portuguese Camino de Santiago route, we sped through farming villages and sweet-smelling eucalyptus groves, the wind constantly blowing against us as we descended into Porto.
Crossing the Mondego River with the University of Coimbra in the background at the top of the hill. (Photo by Malick)
The second leg of our journey took us south to the Alentejo and Algarve regions, a wildly different landscape from what we had just seen. Through Setúbal, Tróia, and Sines, the Alentejo was a drier and hotter region with fewer signs of civilization between towns. We took frequent stops to take photos on beaches or cool off in the refreshing waters of the Atlantic and sustained ourselves on Delta Cafes, cheap bakeries with lunch deals and free wifi found in virtually every town in the country. With not a single day of rain, the summer sun made for hot but clear days.
Alejandro, just as we hopped on our saddles following a cheap and quick lunch at a Delta cafe in the cute town of Águeda.
As had become custom on this trip, we decided on a last minute detour through Sagres, formerly known to Europeans as the end of the world. Afterwards we cycled to Lagos where we found the most incredible cliffside beaches and plenty of good restaurants. As we cruised through our last bittersweet few miles into Faro, we found ourselves wondering how the time flew by so fast.
Malick’s struggle to maintain traction on this Portuguese beach at golden hour highlights the juxtaposition of beauty, freedom, and challenge we experienced on our trip during the height of the pandemic.
The days, we would come to realize, were long and exhausting, meeting novel food, people, and geographic wonders at a higher rate than ever before. The moments when we gave ourselves extra time to explore were the memories that now feel the most fulfilling and rejuvenating. We stopped as frequently as we wanted, letting our curiosity get the best of us whenever possible. Immensely grateful for this opportunity, we hope this story encourages many others like us to think big and find more ways to explore.
Brooklyn to Portugal: A Teenage Bikepacking Story
Words by Alejandro Ingkavet, Miles Schiff Stein, and Malick Thiam
Photos by Miles Schiff Stein
Video by Malick Thiam