Gear, Trails and Accommodations

The bicycles

Tugar by Bike uses mountain bikes with an aluminium frame M or L, a 29’’ wheel, hydraulic disk brakes, a front suspension of 100mm, a 3×9 gear change system and tyres adaptable for both dirt or asphalt roads. The comfortable and robust bikes are very well equipped for the trails we use.

The Tours

Portugal has thousands of kilometres of secondary roads with excellent biking conditions. The challenge is to choose routes that combine a variety of interesting aspects. All the tours have a historical focus or cultural theme. While choosing the tours we keep the following criteria in mind:
Each tour has to be tailored to the individual capabilities of participants and consider whether or not they are used to riding off road;

Tugar by Bike is not trying to create an endurance challenge. We try to ensure distances are not overly long or the ride too intense, so that it is still possible to enjoy the landscape and to explore the surroundings of the accommodation at the days end.
The tours have to be interesting from a cultural point of view as well as providing moments of calm and contemplation.
The tours will always attempt to avoid busy roads and to visit beauty spots that are not normally frequented by tourists.
Wherever possible there will be more than one option regarding difficulty levels and with consideration of road surfaces, distances and altitude variations.
We try to avoid transfers to and from the accommodation as much as possible.

Difficulty levels
We use a classification from 1 to 5 knowing:
1/5: easy
2/5: moderated
3/5: median
4/5: heavy
5/5: very heavy

These classifications are meant for people who are accustomed to biking and regularly bike longer distances.

The accommodations

Tugar works with a variety of different accommodations that function as our base camps for our bike activities as well as for the other activities Tugar organises. On the standard bike trails we use carefully selected accommodation that guarantees the comfort and quality that we think are essential whilst on this kind of tour.

However, because Tugar likes to take its participants to places that are off the beaten track, in certain more remote locations the available accommodation is sometimes of a limited selection. It will always have been previously seen and approved, but can for example not have a private room for every participant and it may be that they need to share a room or that the group is divided between two places.

We always try to take the requirements of clients into account, but in these locations we believe the stunning scenery, friendly hospitality, peace and serenity more than compensate for any lack of facilities.