As you enjoy riding from town-to-town, your luggage will be transferred to your next overnight destination. Before departure each day, leave your luggage at the front desk for pick-up and a transfer to your next hotel. Specific instructions and pick-up/drop-off times will be given by the Portugal Nature Trails representative upon arrival the first day. Make sure to bring with you all that you need for that day of riding, expecting not to see your luggage again until that evening.

We ask each participant to bring a maximum of two luggage pieces per participant; these are the bags the operator will transport for you during the tour. Please remember they will be carrying a lot of bags each day, please take that in consideration and reduce the total weight as much as possible.

Yes, single room supplements are available for the full or separate week journey. The fee for the full trip is $800, Spain week is a $430 fee, and Portugal week is a $400 fee. Please communicate upon booking if you would like to request a single room during your trip.

Yes, as long as you register your companion ahead of time, we will try to book hotels and evening meals for them to follow you on your journey and stay together each night.

Mountain bikes are not included and therefore we highly recommend bringing your own bike, or rent. Bringing your own bike assures a perfect fit and comfort as you are already familiar with your mountain bike from home. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding shipping your bike abroad, or are interested in renting a bike.

No, airfare is not included in this package. Please be sure to wait for confirmation from our evoTrip team before you make travel arrangements.

No, please wait to make travel arrangements and book flights until you have received confirmation from evoTrip that your departure has been confirmed. 72 hours to cancel with no fee, unless the date of start of services falls within said 72 hour period, 3 days after the booking until 90 days before the trip; $100 USD cancellation fee would be charged, 89 days until 60 days before the trip; 50% of the trip cost would be charged, 59 days or less before the trip; 100% of the trip cost would be charged.

This trip begins in Madrid where you will be picked up from the airport. This trip finishes in Cascais, Portugal if you are doing the full trip. Transportation to the Lisbon airport is included. If you are doing just the Spain week, flying into Madrid and out of Lisbon is best. For Portugal week, we recommend flying in and out of Lisbon. Transportation can be arranged to and from Lisbon airport from Sabugal (the mid-way point of the trip) for an extra cost. We will be in touch after booking to help with transportation needs.

While it is not required, we always recommend purchasing travel insurance for all trips. Travel insurance allows you to seek reimbursement if you are forced to cancel your trip for unforeseeable reasons, or if you need to cover medical help, emergency transport, and/or theft or accidental damage while traveling. We recommend World Nomads. A wide variety of fresh fruits are available, particularly at lower altitudes, including granadilla, passionfruit, naranjilla and several types of bananas. Another local favorite are fresh juices, including the tree tomato or a colada morada (a traditional Ecuadorian drink made with fruits, spices, and purple corn flour).

It is recommended that customers be physically fit and comfortable mountain biking everyday.

Yes. Many people do, especially adding an extra day before or after the trip in Madrid or Lisbon. Portugal Nature Trails can either give you some informal pointers, or play a more substantial part of your trip planning. Other common add-ons include Porto, Sintra or the island of Madeira.

Overnight accommodations are within 4* and 5* hotels and villas. Accommodations are held at a European standard, with Spanish and Portuguese charm.

We recommend a minimum of 16 years old.

All meals are included in your trip package. Breakfasts will be provided at the hotels, a picnic lunch with nutritious foods will be provided on road/rail, and dinners will be arranged in each new town you arrive in. Please note that it is not always possible to cater for vegetarians who eat neither meat nor fish. This is not common in Spain and Portugal and a proper meal without these 2 ingredients can sometimes be very hard to organize. If this is your case you may consider bringing some dietary supplements.

Before each stage starts, at the picnic lunches and at the finish of each stage at the hotel, The guides will have for sale everyday not only energy bars and isotonic drinks, but also others things like: spare tubes, nappy creams, tires, CO2 canisters, tire pumps, jerseys and shorts, recovery drinks, etc.

Based on previous editions observations we can say that there isn’t an ideal bike configuration for this journey, or on the other hand, there are many. It all depends on one's needs. If your prime objective is to have fun and be the fastest rider in the group, then a rigid light bike would be the perfect weapon. On the other hand, if you just want to finish the journey without a lot of body pain, then a not so light full suspension may be the best option. (MTB) Regarding frame materials, carbon fiber and its new production technologies, has, in the recent past, proven to be the winning formula both for FS and HT bikes. Titanium for a rigid bike is a classic for long distances and its plush ride adds comfort when you spend many hours on the saddle. Aluminum is probably the least recommended material due to its harsh response to rough terrain, imposing a lot of body fatigue which one wants to avoid as much as possible in long stages. Please, don’t go rushing to the shop to buy a new bike. This is a personal opinion and as you know this is a very sensitive subject. More important than the frame material is the component choice. The relation between weight and reliability of the components chosen is very important to assemble a good bike capable of riding flawlessly the entire route of BIKE MADRID LISBON yet providing true racing feeling.

The journey has a wide variety of terrain. From old Roman and medieval cobblestone roads to sharp or loose rocks paths alternating with fast rolling hard pack dirt roads and some technical single-tracks, we have it all! An “all-around” tire would be the best option although the choice must be made according to each rider’s riding technique and riding objectives. Proper tubeless tires with a glycol base self-sealant liquid are a “must have” and are in fact a much better option to the tubeless ready tires with latex based self-sealant. The latter being a much lighter setup is only recommended to light riders who have good riding skills. Just to close this tire issue we must say that maybe 50% of all technical problems occurring in the journey resulting in loss of performance, are tires or tubes related. The other 50% are gear / shifting problems.

The trip from Madrid to Lisbon is an epic bike journey through the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula over 600mi, in consecutive stages, several days with a total climbing of more than 6500ft. It is extremely important that every bike has a comprehensive full service in preparation for the tour. We strongly recommend: New chain / gear set New inner and outer cables New tires. New brake pads Service forks / shocks, pedals, bottom bracket, wheels. For those who bring a full suspension bike either replace or bring a new set of bearings / bushes for the rear triangle and shock. Although obvious for most of you, it’s never too much repeating: Do not make major changes in your bike before the tour, especially if that has any impact with the way you ride and or position on the bike. It’s not the best time to try that new saddle or pair of pedals you read so favorably about in your favorite Internet bike forum. Nor you should change the stem from 90mm/10º to 100mm/-5º just because it’s more racing. Last but not least, take your bike for a long ride after you picked it up from the bike shop you had it serviced at before the tour. If anything has to fail, let it fail while you still have plenty of time to get it fixed.

We will try to make available, for eventual repairs, the widest variety possible of bike components. Nevertheless it will not be possible to ensure that we carry stock of every single part, considering the variety of bikes and different components present in the tour. Having said that, we strongly advise participants to bring some of the more specific components for their own bikes, such as rear suspension repair kits, rear dropouts, seat post clamps and any “not-so-common” part. We stock a large amount of brake pads, but it’s always a good idea to bring some of your own. Needless to say some of the most important bits should be carried with you during the stages (brake pads, dropouts, etc…), the rest you can leave in your bag. The organization will not carry any bulky bike parts, such as wheels or frames that do not normally fit inside the regular bag.

Yes. We’ll have a small kit of bike parts every day at the end of each stage where you can buy some components/accessories as well as nutrition products. Here is a list of what can be bought locally: Chain lube Tubes Tires Patching kits Pumps CO2 cartridges Tire sealant Nutrition bars and gels Recovery / isotonic drinks Chafing cream Etc.

Yes. It is mandatory to use a GPS. The route is not marked, indicated or signaled on the terrain. The only way you can know the route is from the tailor-made map of the BIKE MADRID LISBON route the organizers will upload on to your GPS. Please bring spare batteries for your unit.

No, there will be Garmin Oregon GPS units available for rent.

The GPS must have a colored screen, be capable of reading memory cards downloaded with maps and have a minimum recording capability of 10,000 track-log points. An USB interface is also a basic requirement. Please bring spare batteries for your unit.

The organizers will provide to each participant with a detailed map of the territory of the journey. Just make sure you have enough memory in the unit. These contain the Spanish and Portuguese detailed maps, topographical maps, the traverse route and info.

You don’t need to know anything about orienteering, nor need you to be an expert on GPSs. The only thing you do need to know is that when you look at the screen you are the arrow and the track course is a purple line. As long as you keep the arrow on the line, then you are on course. Using a GPS there is no chance that you will get lost, and the additional information that appears on the screen means you don’t even hesitate when you come to an intersection or crossroads. Your performance on the track will be exactly the same as if you were following course markers, with the added benefit that you are unlikely to ever take a wrong turn, and you will never get lost, unlike when you are following a marked course.

evoTrip upholds Portugal Nature Trail’s policies regarding cancellation. If you need to cancel, you will need to submit a cancellation notice to evoTrip and are subject to a cancellation fee. Cancellation of 90 to 30 days before the trip starts equals 50% of the total price. Cancellation less than 30 days tour start or no show equals 100% of the total price. In addition, a fee for administrative costs of 5% of the program or a fixed minimum of $112 USD (€100) will apply. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS to this cancellation policy, including reasons related to weather, terrorism, civil strife, personal, family or medical emergencies or any other circumstances beyond our control.