You are never "on your own" on a self-guided bike tour with Live Love Ride, as we provide a series of services to support your tour. There are, however, some things you must take into consideration before opting for a self-guided bike tour to explore Portugal on a bike. Here's a list on what to expect on our self-guided tours:
Airport pick-ups to your first hotel and drop-offs at the end of the tour are included on our standard self-guided tours, just like your guided tours.
Luggage transfers between hotels are included in our self-guided bike tours. So you don\'t have to carry any extra weight and you have no need to carry a bike rack with you, making it easier to focus on enjoying the ride.
Unless specifically requested, the only meal included in your self-guided bike tour is breakfast, at the hotel. All other meals are yours to choose from which, on a self-guided adventure, makes more sense as you set your own pace and can stop at whichever time you prefer. On our routebooks, we suggest a series of our favourite restaurants and cafés for you to stop by and enjoy the local cuisine. Also, Portugal has plenty of options to stop for food and drinks and it\'s actually one of the best ways to get to know the local culture.
On our self-guided bike tours, accomodations are previously arranged. We operate with some of the best hotels on the regions you chose to explore, and all of them have safe places to store your bikes during night time.
All our standard tours include bike rental - you can opt for a mountain, touring or road bike ( depending on the tour you have chosen), choose from an array of pedal systems ( we\'ll install them previously for you), helmets ( included in the tour). Other gear that accompanies the bike rental is water bottle cages and bottles, handlebar bas so you can carry your essentials ( you can choose to ride without them), saddle bags with multitool, tire levers, extra inner tube, so you can tackle any minor mechanical problem you encounter along the way.
At the start of your tour, you\'ll be welcomed by a Live Love Ride representative, who\'ll provide you with a private briefing, detailing all the information you need to know before your tour: detailed itinerary, weather prediction, daily rides, suggested restaurants and points of interest along the way, emergency contacts, overall tips on cycling in Portugal and all the gear necesary for your tour will be handed out by the guide. You\'ll also go through a bike fitting process, to make sure your height, saddle, pedals and everything else is fit accordingly, so you enjoy your tour.
Bike routes are previously planned and designed from hotel to hotel, so they leave nothing to immagination. They are already uploaded on the Garmin GPS that we include with the self-guided tour, which is your main navigation system - just follow the daily tracks on your GPS to get around. Also, a routebook will accompany your GPS - it\'ll be handed out during the private briefing - with a description of your daily rides.
We will provide you with a portuguese phone and emergency contacts, should you need to contact us in any ocasion.
Our self-guided tours have a minimum of just two travelers, so don\'t count riding in a group - you\'ll be riding in your own group, most of the times. It\'s great if you value independence and choosing your own timing and pace. If you are looking for group comraderie - which always makes up for a more enriching experience - a guided bike tour migt be a better choice. So make sure you take some time before the tour to ride by yourself or with the fellow riders you\'ll be sharing the trails/roads with.
Unlike guided bike tours, self-guided bike tours do not have an accompanying support van. This means that it\'s your responsibility to get to the next hotel every day, even if you head into bad weather or just don\'t feel like riding anymore. If you do run into trouble, though, call the emergency hotline, and the tour company will help as much as possible. So make sure you follow our packing list and bring all the gear necessary to prepare for weather changes.
You are expected to follow the tracks on your GPS which are your main navigation system so basic understanding or experience of GPS is a plus ( we do, however, explain how to use the GPS\'s on your private briefing). You\'ll also be expected to fix your own flats. (If you don\'t know how, ask your local bike mechanic to show you how to do it or ask your Live Love Ride guide during the private briefing). In the rare case of bicycle breakdowns, you may be asked to take public transportation or a taxi to the next town, where there may be a repair shop that can fix the problem. Make sure you know hoe to change a flat and handle minor issues that may occur during your rides.
On most of our bike tours, you\'ll be riding several days in a row. On a guided bike tour, you can hop in on the support van or even shorten the ride, as we are able to customize it to your experience, which you wan\'t be able to do on a self-guided bike tour. So make sure you prepare yourself by riding the same type of bike you\'d be using on the tour in order to better simulate the conditions you are going to encounter - it\'s very different to ride in mountain, road or hybrid bikes. Also, we suggest you ride at least two days in a row, so your body adapts better to these conditions and to take notice of the average mileage and altimetry you\'d be riding on your tour itinerary - make sure you experience riding those many miles before you do the tour.
If you are an experienced rider and like to explore on your own, a self-guided bike tour might just be best option for you! If you feel unsure and don\'t master these points, a guided tour might be a better option, for sure. If you need any help or guidance, don\'t hesitate to contact us.
Your ride, your rules! You are free to ride as many kilometers as you'd like or none at all. Every ride is designed to have shorter and longer options, to satisfy every type of rider. Rider who want to challenge themselves will be invited to overcome certain obstacles, while other may simply like to get on board of our luxury vehicles in the middle of the ride or simply choose to go on their holidays with an E-bike. If you feel like having a recovery day instead of riding and want to spend the afternoon by the pool, you are welcome to do so!
Our cycling trips already have included the use of high-end bicycles and gear. If you have any specific needs regarding your bikes, please contact us through our form or send us an e-mail at ridewithus @ liveloveride.pt
Please click here to check our road, mountain bike and e-bike fleet for 2016. Bikes used during the tour might not be of this specific models, brands, according to availability of the fleet.
We invite you to bring your own bike for the ride! However, in every Live love Ride Portugal experience, we provide our guests with high-end road, mountain or e-bikes, for a better comfort and experience. If you have a special request on a specific bike, please contact us.
At Live love Ride Portugal, our aim is to provide an amazing experience so that you can enjoy and discover the country without a hassle and at your own pace. You can choose to go in one of our All-included tours, half-board ones or even self-guided rides, but the quality level of service, bicycles, gear and carefull tour design is present in all of them. Please check your tour catalog to see what's included in each one of them!
/ Transfer from airport/hotel to the start of the ride;
/ Daily Guided bike tours with expert guides and riders, adapted to your pace;
/ All accommodations in 5 star or charm hotels or similar;
/ All gourmet dinners throught yhr rides, in the best local restaurants and hotels;
/ All lunches or gourmet pic-nics during the rides;
/ Entrance in all museums, wineries and other special experiences during the rides;
/ High end road or mountain bicycle rent, GPS devices, helmets and complimentary equipment (jersey & bib short);
/ Access to SPA treatment whenever possible;
/ Surpride gift bag
/ Mechanical support, throughout the rides;
/ Car and passenger support throughout all the rides;
/ Transfer of guests and bags between hotels;
/ Riding experience insurance;
/ Aditional surprises
Whenever you plan a ride with us, you'll receive a day-to-day itinerary from our agents, with information on these specific details.
Although we do provide a cycling jersey and bib short for everyone of our guests, in order to prepare yourself for a Live love Ride portugal experience, we recommend the following gear and clothing:
1 suitcase and 1 carry-on per person - we will provide an extra bag for you to carry your essentials with you along the ride;
Yes you can! Your non-cyclist friends and family can choose to use an e-bike fleet or simply travel in style in our premium vans, and we are delighted to customize the ride with aditional activities for their leisure.
You are invited to bring your kids with you for our family designed experiences. Please view our family experience at or contac ut at ridewithus @ liveloveride.pt for more information.
Please access our privacy policy here.
There are many ways you can plan a trip with Live love Ride:
We will never book your trip without contacting you first, to make sure we plan it according to your needs, so you and your group will have the best cycling holidays of your life.
After having planned your ride and contacting your agents, you will be given all the information to place your reservation.
Our agent will then confirm hotels, bicycle, etc. We require 50% of the value upon booking, whereas the remainder is due 30 days before the start date of tour tour time of the booking. If you reserve your trip less than 30 days before the departure, the full value is due at the time of booking. Once your booking is complete you will receive an e-mail confirmation with important information regarding your trip.
2020 - Special Flexibility for new bookings
In order to make these times less uncertain, we have adopted a flexible policy for new bookings, allowing you to book a tour advancing a smaller deposit, which you can turn into credit for future tours if you choose to postpone it, for any reason, up to 30 days before your tour start date. New bookings for tours running from 15th of May to 31st of October of 2020 will benefit from the following policy:
- An initial deposit of 300EUR per guest to book ;
- Remaining value to be payed up to 45 days before the tour start date;
- If you choose to postpone your tour up to 30 days before the tour start date, we will keep the entire value that you payed on your account, with no additional postponement fee, to be used by Dec 31, 2021. Click to see our complete postponement policy.
This policy is in place for all new bookings for our standard self-guided and guided tours that are to take place from May 15th to the 31st of October 2020. For Group or Custom Tours, the terms may vary, and we will communicate them to each group individually.
We use Anyguide as our online payment platform for all final clients. All major credit and debit cards are accepted in this platform, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Discover and Diners Club.
Upon booking of the tour, we will send you a link to an Anyguide invoice, in which you can pay and confirm your booking.
AnyGuide banks with First Republic Bank which has been serving businesses across the US for over 30 years and is FDIC insured by the US government. AnyGuide uses Stripe to process payments from clients and to pay out to partners. It\'s the same service that most international tech companies use - including Twitter, Lyft, Pinterest, and Kickstarter. Stripe processes billions of dollars per year for mobile apps and tech companies and our client\'s money is earmarked so as not to get confused with other partners\' payments. (Guests can also know for certain that our checkout pages are secure due to the https:// displayed in the address bar).
If you prefer to pay by bank transfer, please contact us so we can share our details, as we are available to do so.
If you need to cancel or change your bike tour due to unexpected circumstances, our cancellation policy let's you reschedule your tour adventure for future dates, according to the information below:
Cancellation requested up to 120 days before tour:
80% of the value already paid is refunded. 20% of that value is awarded as a discount for a future tour, within 1 year of the original booking date;
Cancellation requested between 119 to 90 days:
60% of the value already paid is refunded. 20% of that value is awarded as a discount for a future tour, within 1 year of the original booking date;
Cancellation requested between 89 to 30 days:
40% of the value already paid is refunded. 20% of that value is awarded as a discount for a future tour, within 1 year of the original booking date;
Cancellation requested less than 30 days before the tour:
No refunds; 20% of that value is awarded as a discount for a future tour, within 1 year of the original booking date;
Update on the Covid-19 situation - Our cancellation policy has changed due to the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic. Please visit our specific page for any alterations on 2020 tours, by clicking here.
We invite you to customize your own travel itinerary in Portugal. Simply use the "Customize my ride" form here, so we can have a better idea of what suits you best, describing your preffered experiences. We'll then get in touch, and plan your ride according to your needs!
Yes, you can schedule a private tour specifically for your group, or choose one of our pre-existent tours, making them private and unacessible to other participants. Please contact us through our form with your requests or simply send us an e-mail at ridewithus @ liveloveride.pt with your needs!
Please contact us through our form, here. You can also send us an e-mail to ridewithus @ liveloveride.pt .
