The Standard: An Adventure In The Côa Valley
The Standard journalist Jacob Phillips headed off the beaten track with us on our Côa Valley adventure into the wild heart of Portugal's north, in the autumn of 2025. Writing about the experience, he described the ease of travel on bikes "more closely related to a Land Rover than a Lime Bike", and how quickly he felt welcomed to this beautiful and undiscovered region: "On our first day, it became clear to the 12 of us visiting that Portugal would feel like home."
Read on for an excerpt of his article.
"Over the course of the next five days we drifted along cobbled paths, enjoying a landscape strewn with vast boulders along the nearly abandoned tributary of the Douro River, the Côa, as vultures and golden eagles circled above.
Tucked away, hidden from the popular cruise ships and wine tours of the Douro, we took the scenic route through the region, moving through oak forests, rocky heathlands and hilltop villages. During our numerous coffee stops, locals open up their living rooms and transform them into makeshift restaurants and bars. The trip takes farm-to-table dining to the extreme, and we often see the farms and fields from which our meals came."
You can read Jacob's article in full here.
Keen to discover "the best kept secrets of the Côa valley?" Join our journeys to Portugal and you can experience the beauty of this region by electric bike, without all "the usual breathlessness and lycra of a cycling trip" for yourself.
