Portugal

As with all our VBT experiences Portugal did not disappoint. The trips are planned well from the time you take off from home until you land back at home. The transfers, the accommodations, and the in between are well thought out and planned. Any necessary changes are planned for. Portugal is tourist friendly, they are ahead of the curve with the pandemic, follow the rules. It is tough to find a bad meal, the weather was great; there is a lot of history. The cycling was easily doable for all who cycle 25 miles with some wind or hills. If you take only a few trips, make this one.

This was our first VBT vacation. We were very impressed with the planning, accommodations, and route. It was a wonderful experience to bike along country roads with guides who knew the area. The hotels were lovely and the meals were delicious. Everything was top-notch.

Portugal is a beautiful country with spectacular scenery as well as many historical sites. We generally road south along the coast line with excursions inland into farm land and orchards. We traveled through small towns and villages, many of which had cobblestone streets, castles, and very old churches. The hotels were all nice and clean, although the rooms in some were quite small. The rides were generally easy to moderate, although the final day was quite challenging with many hills. Both Porto and Lisbon are worth spending some extra time visiting. The "Ride with GPS" app generally worked pretty well, although traveling through some towns it was easy to miss turns and have to backtrack. Our group of 12 got along really well and we would cross paths frequently during the day. While this was a self-guided tour, there is a need for at least some level of support. One of our group had a low tire, and the small pumps on the bikes are not adequate to inflate a road bike tire to the recommended pressure. It took some cajoling to get the local support person to provide us with a floor pump. I would recommend that a floor pump be included with each group. Alternatively, a CO2 inflater with each bike would be helpful, at least for road bikes. The bikes were nice, and several in our group road e-bikes, which they enjoyed. Overall, we enjoyed the trip, particularly the people, although I am not sure I would do another self-guided trip.

We have done 4 VBT cycling trips before we decided to do this self-guided trip as we wanted to spend some time in the part of Portugal - the Silver Coast. All of the hotels, places we stayed and the cycling was wonderful. Despite this, and being a self-guided trip VBT has plenty of room to step up and make improvements. Most guests noticed within the first couple of days that the tire pressures were low and the little hand pumps VBT supplies are completely inadequate. Our VBT support people finally provided a proper foot pump at the end of the trip but the foot pump is something that should be provided and move along with the luggage each day. We also had a mishap and a leg injury and was surprised that a first aid kit was not provided with the bike supplies. And, finally there were 2 dinners provided on the trip mainly because the hotels were in more remote places. I guess because there is no VBT rep there for the dinners to provide feedback the one dinner seemed somewhat inadequate being a buffet style and not too appetizing. All in all, this was a wonderful trip - the Atlantic coast of Portugal is beautiful and the many cities, towns and villages we visited were spectacular.

We thoroughly enjoyed our first VBT experience. The tour route was very well laid out and we cannot not say enough about how impressive our tour leaders, David and Frederico, both of whom are natives of Portugal. Kudos to VBT for the way they planned and conducted our tour!

We loved this trip! Beautiful and varied biking routes; knowledgeable, competent and engaging guides, top-notch hotels, delicious food and interesting cultural activities. I wish I could do it all over again!

Great trip! Manu and Matt made sure everything went well. The rides were beautiful. The winery visit and the olive oil tasting were terrific. The cruise and VBT worked well together to make sure the trip was flawless. Highly recommend

Perfect trip, VBT staff/guides above and beyond!!!

Our tour of Northern Spain was a combination of seeing some of the beautiful landscapes of northern Spain, a flavor of what the Camino de Santiago is like and a wonderful history and cultural experience of this region of the world. Our guides were phenomenal. They took care of every detail of the tour, and made sure we got as many experiences as possible throughout the tour. They managed our safety while still giving us the freedom to explore on our own.

As always, fabulous guides but, for the first time in 10 tours, so-so walking that was nowhere near what was originally outlined when I first signed up. Disappointing at best.

Our trip was wonderful. Our guides Ana and Helene were so knowledgeable, helpful and fun. They made this trip extra special. Portugal was beautiful.

A truly wonderful introduction to Portugal -the coastline walks were amazing