How an E-bike Made My Portugal Trip Wonderful

“Have you ever guys heard of JOMO? It’s the pleasure of lacking out!” It was a reminder from information Lander Crissman concerning the laid-back mindset we needs to be protecting on our e-biking journey in southwestern Portugal organized by the clothes shop Backroads. On this journey, there can be no time for work anxieties or type-A chasing of private bests.

As an alternative, our six-person group, together with two guides, can be spending six leisurely days biking via cork and olive groves, doing a contact of mountain climbing, attempting our hand at browsing, and kayaking the well-known sea caves of the Algarve. We’d be staying at two beyond-luxurious accommodations—every with a deluxe spa—and overlaying between 3½ and 27 miles a day. If that appears like minimal mileage for a biking tour, it’s: Backroads calls this multisport itinerary a Dolce Tempo, or “candy time,” departure. We’d additionally get a lift within the type of custom-built pedal-assist e-bikes.

I’m one thing of an overplanner in relation to journey, so I used to be glad to go away all the choices and logistics to the professionals. What’s extra, the journey can be one thing of a callback to my youthful days, after I took an annual bike journey for seven years straight. The will to not be left behind was good motivation to hit the health club constantly all year long.

However my thought of a exercise is a low-impact yoga or Pilates class or, extra usually, pedaling an train bike whereas watching TV. With that sort of health routine, I’d at all times wind up underprepared (and the terrain would at all times have extra hills than I’d thought). I’d discover myself trailing behind, legs burning, feeling lonely and discouraged. I’d repeat a favourite saying of my yoga trainer: “The physique needs to maneuver.” Effectively, it didn’t. When, I might ask myself, would that help van be coming alongside? 

The bodily stress of those journeys was usually accompanied by some social awkwardness, too. Most individuals can be there with a accomplice, good friend, or member of the family; I used to be at all times alone. I might push myself to be extra outgoing, however I discovered it arduous to insert myself, notably as a result of I used to be often the one individual involved in taking it straightforward. One yr, whereas biking the Jap Shore of Maryland—what have to be a few of the flattest terrain within the U.S.—I used to be not a lot exhausted by the mileage because the monotony of the times. After pedaling for hours, I’d have solely the time to bathe, wash my sweaty outfit within the sink, and eat dinner earlier than going to mattress. My subsequent group journeys had been out of the saddle: one was tenting and kayaking in British Columbia; the opposite every week of rafting and mountain climbing round Costa Rica.

Nonetheless, there’s a deep sigh of contentment and the sense of a very empty thoughts that I can solely discover whereas on a motorbike. So I took one other have a look at biking journeys, hoping to discover a new (and flat) vacation spot during which to pedal. As an alternative, I used to be inspired to study that e-bikes are generally supplied as of late, notably in Europe and the U.S., often at no additional cost.

Andy Levine, founding father of the tour operator DuVine, says that e-bike demand has steadily grown, and that the know-how has revolutionized biking holidays. “The actual fact is that e-bikes act as an equalizer,” Levine tells me. “They make it simpler to sort out climbs, experience longer distances, or just maintain tempo with the group—particularly in case your coronary heart is about on a tour with extra superior terrain.”

On my Portugal journey, the bikes had been maybe too efficient: on the shut of every day’s experience, I might discover myself considering, “Is that it?” My outfit was by no means sweaty sufficient to want washing out. At some point, we completed our actions at 3:30 p.m., with dinner “at your leisure.” Each of our accommodations, Praia do Canal Nature Retreat and Quinta da Comporta, had been gloriously remoted from civilization. However that meant there was nowhere to go close by. I hit the steam room to assuage my muscle tissue, however the one factor that harm was my bottom. 

It seems that JOMO isn’t for me—although I’m nonetheless completely satisfied about this e-bike factor. Subsequent yr I’ll ebook a extra intense itinerary in some hilly place that I can brag about having “biked throughout.” (I discovered that my pedal-assist bike might flip a hill into such an insignificant impediment that it felt nearly immoral.) Although I’m not single, I’ll go for a “solos” departure, so I’ll have a better time mixing in with the group. And I would even go as far as to deliver my very own extra snug bike seat.

4 MORE OPTIONS FOR ELECTRIC RIDES

ALTITUDE SEEKERS

E-bikes are a great addition on this six-day Butterfield & Robinson journey on which vacationers ascend to 4,777 toes by means of Col du Pillon, within the Swiss Alps, and go to two cheese capitals: Gruyères and Emmental.

CYCLE SAFARI

Visitors of andBeyond within the Phinda Non-public Sport Reserve, in South Africa, can e-bike via the Sand Forest with a information, recognizing attention-grabbing birds just like the Lebombo wattle.

THE MICHELIN STARS

In 2026, vacationers can be a part of Basque chef Mikel Olaizola on a DuVine tour of northern Spain’s culinary sizzling spots, together with pintxo bars and eating places equivalent to Akelaŕe, which has three Michelin stars, in San Sebastián.

WHEELING THROUGH WINE COUNTRY

On a Backroads journey in northern California, cyclists begin close to San Francisco, experience alongside the Russian River, and cease at tasting rooms in Napa and Sonoma counties.—Parker Wright

A model of this story first appeared within the July 2025 concern of Journey + Leisure below the headline “Charging Forward.”