Santander to Estoril

[Islandboy]

Hi all,

Hope you can help me out here.... We are taking the boat to santander and riding down to Estril for the GP in September... Has anyone done this rout that can make recommendations?? We have 3-4 days to get from Santander to Estoril. We are taking tents and intend to camp whenever we can. If anyone has any ideas of routs and places to stay, id be happy to hear it!

Cheers ya'll!

Adrian

[TSM]

Ahh you are taking a slow ride down, not much help me then, i did north of spain to south of Portugal in less than a day in august a couple of years ago, i plan to do it again soon.

[Mr Toad]

Hi
For routes and maps, try either the RAC Routeplanner or ViaMichelin (both online - Google will throw them up as the first choice)
I'd be tempted to cut across into Portugal and then down the coast rather than a more direct route/straight line through Spain as that would be much more interesting
There are loads of campsites, especially toward the coast - they often have a collection of flagpoles at the entrance so you can see them from a way off.
In the past I've just followed the general route and started looking in the late afternoon. That way you can vary your day to suit the conditions or how you're feeling, without being tied into getting to a cetain point by a certain time
Have fun :grin:

[Islandboy]

We might do it in the one day if there aint much reason to take it slow, but our initial plan was to do some site seeing. Neither of us has done much touring before... Never in Europe. Do folk tend to take loads of gear??

That sounds like a good plan, i think it will be the coast route then... Never any problems finding campsites then?

I have been warned that in portugal drivers are a bit kamakazi.... Whats everyones experience?

Thanks folks

[Luckypants]

Less gear the better. I took WAY too much with me last time! In two weeks I used 3 pairs of pants and 3 pairs of socks (washed between wearing) one pair of shorts and 2 t-shirts. The rest was ballast.

I also took cooking and camping gear. The cooking gear was used twice, so was not required. Camping stuff was good, but with the other excess it could have all fitted in one pannier!

So I would really weigh up what you gonna be doing off the bike, how much cooking and are you really gonna camp every night? go minimalist.:D

[TSM]

I have been warned that in portugal drivers are a bit kamakazi.... Whats everyones experience?

Thanks folks

Yep & Nop, France and Spain they tend to notice you travling up behind and move over, plus things like onramps are good, in Portugal the motorways are near death traps for drivers wanting to merge on and off. The on/off ramps are very very short and many are 270 bends to the roads underneath, lots of bikers have had problems which has lead to most of the barriers having steel guards or tyres at the bottom to stop ripping limbs off. Roads in the old towns are very very slippery if on stone and when wet its near imposable not to spin the tyres when moving off, mix in fine dust especially in the south its worse. Roundabouts are just the worst and also a big danger point.

[Islandboy]

Thanks TSM!! Sounds like i need to get the stabalisers out again!

Cheers lucky pants... I'll be cutting things down now, and we'll leave the cooking gear at home... Crisps and raw roadkill all the way!

[Filipe M.]

I have been warned that in portugal drivers are a bit kamakazi.... Whats everyones experience?

Thanks folks

I'm still alive ;)


TSM is right though, slip roads to motorways are ****e, there's absolutely no room to match speed at all so be prepared to use some throttle there (but mind the cars in front, it's pretty common to see people braking in slip roads as they chicken out...).