A tour of Spain and Portugal on a Yamaha MT-09 Tracer, a Kawasaki Z1000 and a Triumph Street Triple. Here’s our story, photos, route maps and recommendations!

12 days, 1885 miles and 3 bikes.

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Day 1 – Santander to Villaprede, via Riano

After hopping off the overnight Plymouth to Santander ferry, we headed south to loop around the picturesque national park, Picos de Europe before heading to Villapedre, back up along the coast.

Heading briefly along the A-8 motorway, we turned off to take the N-621 towards the national park. In just over an hour from leaving the ferry port, the roads began to get seriously tasty, albeit a little damp.

As we followed the road along the river, deeper into the national park, the mountains began to tower over us as we blasted up the mountain with gradually drying roads.

Hairpin after hairpin, the N-621 became steeper and steeper, until we reached a large statue of a stag overlooking the mountain range below, just before the pinnacle of the mountain.

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The roads were hot, well maintained and extraordinarily quiet – a dream! Although we had all noticed performance decreases in our bike as we travelled higher through the mountains while the day got warmer.

After a short break, it was back on the bikes and heading for Riano at the most southerly point of the park, before heading back towards the north via the N-625.

Once arriving at our rural B&B, it was quite disheartening to discovery that, despite riding for a whole day, our detour around the park meant that finished the day just 150 miles from where we started! We all agreed it was entirely worth it.

Ride time: 6 hours
Mileage: 235
Destination: Casa Marino Pension, Villapera a Puerto de Vega, 33793, Villaprede.

Day 2 – Villaprede to Lugo

Having heard stories of the great AS-12 & AS-28 roads via Grandas de Salime, we packed up early and headed off excitedly towards the south. We were unfortunate to encounter an incredible thick sea fog for the first half an hour – so bad that we decided to stick behind an Audi with bright fog lights for safety until things cleared up. The fog brought with it the cold, so I smugly put on my heated grips while the other guys enjoyed cold and wet hands until things brightened up.

Once we had reached Boal, the weather was improving by the minute and we could sense that the day ahead was going to be hot, fast and fun.

As we headed further south along the AS-12, the riding and the scenery got more and more incredible, just when you thought it couldn’t. It was difficult to decide whether to ride slowly and enjoy the views, or tear up our tyres in perfect conditions. The next thing I knew, I had the twin exhausts of a Z1000 and a Street Triple blasting in my face – I knew which choice they had made, and willingly joined in the fun.

Somehow we managed to flag each other down and braved the seering heat in order to get some photos from the side of the road and a few ride-by videos.

Desperate to eat after skipping breakfast, we stopped in Grandas de Salime for a bite to eat and that typical bikers debrief where every sentence begins we “Did you see..!”. Quite unbelievably we had all indeed seen the lizard that ran out in front of me half way down the mountain. I think he made it.

Our tyres were sticky, shredded and probably in need of a cool down.

Interestingly we were well matched through the mountains for different reasons; the Street Triple was unbeatable in the corners, lightweight and nimble, but hard work to get up to accelerate in line with the others. The Z1000 struggled with low-range acceleration between short straights and but frightening pace at higher revs where the real meaty power lies, and the MT-09 Tracer compensated for its weaker cornering ability and heavier frame with blistering torque at low-mid range revs.

After lunch, we headed into Lugo across just as beautiful roads and scenery, which didn’t end until we were less than 2 miles from the centre.

We spent the night exploring the busy town, enjoying a few beers, before returning to our hostel on the outskirts of the town.

Ride Time: 3.5 hours
Mileage: 118
Destination: Albergue Lug 2, Lugo

Day 3 – Lugo to Braganca

Eager to press on, we woke early and powered south through sweeping dual carriage ways until we reached the national parks in the north of Portugal. We decided to use the Tom Tom’s ‘Thrilling ride’ feature, which automatically selects a route based on tight bends and steep hills. Opting for the most intense option, we were taking up narrow driveways, through vineyards and rural towns, a world away from the fast moving motorways. We certainly got some funny looks, and with sections of borderline off-road mountain passes, it became quite challenging but rewarding.

We reached the border at the peak of a mountain in the Parque Natural de Monesinho, where the roads got better and the temperature sored as we decended the mountainous park.

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Braganca was a quite, unassuming town where we enjoyed the most incredible chicken we’ve ever tasted from a fast food restaurant called ‘Big Bobs’. 3 whole chickens with fries and drinks, all for less than €17. It was our best meal of the entire trip and we fantasised about riding back through Braganca just for another box of chicken!

Later that night, the town suddenly came to life. A festival had begun in a small square, where there was plenty of beer and a huge stage. We partied until late before returning to our hostel and raiding the vending machine for water and chocolate with every spare euro we had.

What we thought was a quiet town, good for a stop en route to Portugal, turned out to be a lot of fun!

Ride Time: 3 hours
Mileage: 135 miles
Destination: Braganca Youth Hostel, Portugal

Day 4 – Braganca to Coimbra, via Vinhais

We took an early morning diversion to the west to ride the roads around Vinhais on a recommendation from another biker we met. The extra 40 miles were certainly worth it and helped break down a boring and stressful ride through many small towns.

Before our trip, we had concerns about forest fires along our route as we heard many of the routes were closed and the internet was full of mixed information. As we reached Tondela, we could see why. Acres and acres of smouldering trees without a green leaf in site surrounded us, along with the odd fire and patch of thick smoke.

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As we rode through the winding roads, I came around a corner to be confronted with a tree that had fallen and was now at head height.

There wasn’t enough time to slow to a stop, but I managed to scrub off most of my speed and took a branch to the head, grasping for my horn to alert the others. We managed to avoid getting cheese wired!

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Upon arrival, it was clear that Coimbra was a larger and more modern town than Braganca, although we couldn’t figure out how to get to our hostel, which was in the centre of a pedestrianized square.

To add to our confusion, we could see cars parked inside the square, but no logical route in, other than the narrow lanes which were part of a shopping bazaar.

After much frustration, walking and sweating, we just went for it down through one of the lanes. Shop keepers chased and shouted at us, but eventually we reached our hostel and parked up without causing any harm. It turns out, the area is pedestrianized through certain hours…

We explored the town, walked around the hilly city and enjoyed a few beers in local bars before heading back to the square where, would you believe, yet another mid-week festival was about to start at 9:30pm on a Wedneday night. The event name translated to “The Festival of the Onions”, which explained the vast amounts of gigantic onions being carried around on the heads of women ready to climb up on to the makeshift stage.

The show was loud, confusing and amusing to us as we sat watching it from a local kebab bar. As we returned to our hostel we wondered when it would stop. 2am was the answer!

Ride Time: 3.2 hours
Miles: 200
Destination: BE Coimbra Hostels, Portugal

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Day 5 – Coimbra to Lisbon

BANG, BANG, BANG……CRASSSSHHHH – we all bolted up in our beds looking through tired eyes, bewildered by the almighty crash we had just heard. Was it an earthquake? Was someone trying to get in? What time was it?

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I jumped out of bed to investigate, opening the door to our room to find the whole corridor filled to the brim with tools, scaffolding and building equipment. For a reason we will never understand, the hostel management decided to knock down the entire ceiling of the room next to us. At 7am. Our hangovers did not appreciate it one bit.

After an ice cold shower, we made our escape before the pedestrianized square came into effect and headed for the motorway for a quick 127 miles to Lisbon, looking forward to a well deserved day off.

Upon arriving in Lisbon, we put our bikes on the pavement, disc locked and covered them in a car park nearby to our hotel. The area wasn’t the best, but we hoped our covers made the bikes a little more inconspicuous. There really wasn’t that many proper motorcycles around Portugal, particularly in the cities, so we attracted quite a lot of attention.

Ride Time: 2 hours
Miles: 127
Destination: Crescent Rooms, Lisbon

Day 6 – Exploring Lisbon

All in all, we were a little underwhelmed by Lisbon. We encountered more drug dealers than we could count and were hassled for money constantly, which became tiresome. The city clearly has problems, and more than we have ever experienced so explicitly in a developed European city. It was a shame, because many parts of the city were full of beautiful buildings, monuments and views.

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Positively, the tube system around Lisbon is very efficient with a ticket operating system much like the London Underground, which was a welcome alternative to the bikes in such heat. We explored the, finishing up within the Bairro Alto area, famous for its many bars. After more than a few beers, the next thing I knew it was 4am and we were staggering along the streets trying to figure out how to get home.

For reasons I cannot fathom, we saved €30 euros for a cab back to our hotel rather than buying another round of drinks. We flagged one down and he decided to show us how he could drift his cab around the town. How we survived I will never know. He took blind corners on the wrong side of the road while steering with his knees and lighting a cigatetter, all the while getting the back end of a Vauxhall Vectra to slide out. Terrifying, but great fun all the same and arguable the best €6 we spent all trip!

Miles: 0! (On the bikes anyway)

Day 7 – Lisbon to Porto

We couldn’t wait to get out of Lisbon. The heat was killing us in our bike gear in slow traffic and our accommodation was up many flights of difficult stairs. We hit the toll road at break neck speed and moved through every toll booth on our back wheels.

The miles should have been easy, but the heat and lack of sleep made it difficult to stay awake. Thankfully, Porto’s beauty perked us up just when we needed it.

The route into town was quite technical across a few mini-spaghetti junctions where we almost lost each other, however courteous drivers made it easy for us to correct our mistake. We wish all the drivers we had come across had been like those.

Upon reaching our hotel, we were relived to find it in a near central location with plenty of areas for parking – although there was a few signs to suggest that we shouldn’t park there (more of that later).

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We unpacked and enjoyed air conditioning for the first time in a long time, lying like a bunch of useless smelly biking slobs on our beds for a good hour before getting ready to walk down to the stunning riverside for a few beers and some dinner.

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Ride Time: 2 hours 43 mins
Miles: 200
Destination: Cristal Guest House

Day 8 – Exploring Porto

We found Porto to be absolutely stunning. We didn’t encounter any of the problems we had seen so much of in Lisbon and everything from getting around to finding the best spots for a beer seemed to be easier. We all agreed we could return here one day with our ladies.

Having looked on the sat nav we could see we were only a few miles from the beach, so we put on some light bike gear and enjoyed a short ride to the coast for a day on the sand.

Once we had enjoyed a McDonald’s, we returned to the bikes by the beach, only to find a group of young lads throwing a brick at a tree above my bike to retrieve their football. It was a tense moment, but I couldn’t see any damage on the bike so any major grief was avoided and we returned to the hotel.

On our way out in the evening, we walked towards where we had parked our bikes earlier in the evening to discover flashing yellow lights on a large truck with a crane arm hanging over the bike. They were taking our bikes; or so we thought!

In a panic, we ran straight over to the truck driver, waving and shouting, only to discover that the crane arm was picking up a gigantic underground rubbish storage container, hidden beneath a cobble-effect trap door. We were briefly filled with relief, until we realised that this monstrous arm was about to dangle a steel container over our bikes, dripping with bin juice and flies. Luckily, the bikes escaped unscathed and the driver gave us a ticking off for parking inconveniently.

Out we went, sitting along the waterfront with a beer in hand watching talented street performers and watching the world go by.

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Destination: Cristal Guest House

Day 9 – Porto to A Coruna

Today felt like the beginning to our long ride home. We had chosen to spend an extra night at Porto at the expense of having to ride the best part of 600 miles back to Santander in 2 days.

Thankfully the motorway tolls began to become much less frequent once we headed north and even more so once we entered Spain. The ride was largely boring due to traffic and speed cameras until we got to within 30 miles of A Coruna, where the views across the ports and working fishing towns were breath taking. Almost too distracting while riding on the motorway – I had to remind myself to look ahead on a few occasions, but it was hard not to admire the view!

Riding into the town was easy and the sat nav was almost rendered unnecessary by the simple roads and substantial football stadium that followed the coastline. With parking literally outside of our front door, we stripped our bikes of luggage and headed into town in no time.

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After a well deserved (but expensive!) trip to a steak bar, we hunted out a supermarket to pick up supplies for tomorrows big ride to Santander.

Ride Time: 7 hours
Miles: 325
Destination: Hotel Cristal 1

Day 10 – A Coruna to Santander Via Lugo

By 7:30am we on the bikes and heading for Santander, eating up the miles early doors. We decided to take a risk and go via Lugo to explore some more of the incredible roads that surround Grandas de Salime, leaving very little time for breakdowns or any other problems that could delay us.

The risk was completely worth it. We skirted around Lugo again and took the AS-28 and AS-14 towards the north east where the roads and views were incredible. Unfortunately the roads were a little greasy so we had to be cautious, but they were still amazing none the less, especially once the sun came out.

Upon reaching Oviedo, we headed onto the motorway for our final blast to the ferry port. To our amazement, with multiple stops throughout the day and leaving much later than planned, we reached Santander by 3pm with 6 hours to spare before our ferry deported for Plymouth.

We checked in, found a local pizzeria where we used our Euros to buy outrageously large pizzas and waited for the boat.

Ride Time: 7 hours
Miles: 325
Destination: Santander Ferry Port

Our Recommendations

This trip was our first to include Portugal. We had mixed feelings about it. Beautiful national parks and beaches complemented by our excellent time in Porto, which were slightly tarred by our experience in Lisbon. If we were going to do it again, we would miss out Lisbon completely and either stick to the north of Portugal or go down to visit the Algarve; a place we so badly wanted to see but we just couldn’t fit in it.

By missing out Lisbon, you could either spend more dedicated riding days in Spain, setting up base camp somewhere, or take more time off in Porto to see more of the city.

Spain was excellent as ever, impeccable riding conditions and glorious roads, it never disappoints.

Until next time!

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