Open roads and blue skies await on our South Tour

Portugal has more sunny days than any other country in Europe, a spectacular 300 days per year. In April, we really begin to hit our spring and summer stride where sunny days are tempered by cool Atlantic breezes. It’s the perfect time to visit the southern part of Portugal – known for its beaches, its rolling prairies and the amazing Portuguese food and wine. The Summer South Tour is an intimate food and wine experience in one of the most remarkable parts of the world. Come ride with us!

Sample the award-winning wines of Alentejo

The wines of Alentejo are spectacular while the region remains unspoiled

Alentejo means “beyond the Tagus” and is the breadbasket of Portugal – a magical land where prairies of golden wheat, cork forests and wild beaches coexist and where sheep sometime outnumber people. It also produces more than half of Portugal’s wine. While the Portuguese people have long been in the know about the wines of Alentejo, it’s just recently being recognized as a world-class wine destination, best known for its full-bodied red wines. Here, we will raise a glass together and share the wines with you that the rest of the world is just getting to know.

Enjoy the best seafood in the world in Algarve

Fresh shellfish from Algarve is the star of a cataplana

Cataplana is a Portuguese seafood dish originating in Algarve, the southernmost part of Portugal. The name comes from the pan that the dish is cooked in, shaped like a giant clam and typically made of hammered copper. When filled with delicious shellfish like prawns and clams and combined with Portugal’s delicious pork, the flavors come together effortlessly. This is food that’s meant for sharing with friends at a table overlooking the sea. Join us!

Recipe: Cataplana

To make cataplana at home:
This is a simple recipe, full of flavor. If you don’t have a cataplana, you can use a Dutch oven.

Ingredients
3 onions thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves chopped
1 cup olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 lb freshly chopped tomatoes (you can use canned tomatoes as well)
1/4 lb chourico
1/2 cup white wine
2 lbs. littleneck clams in the shell, rinsed.
1 pound prawns
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 teaspoons paprika
1 loaf of bread sliced for dipping

Instructions
In the cataplana, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions have softened a bit.

Pour in the tomatoes and the bay leaf. Cover the cataplana and lower the heat. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

Next, add the chourico. Cover and cook for another 30 minutes. Season with paprika or chili pepper.

Now, place the clams and prawns on top of the tomato-onion mixture. Add the wine, and cook for 15 minutes over a gentle heat, while the lid is covered. When the seafood is cooked through, add the chopped parsley.

The South Tour

Come ride with us!

The journey starts in Lisbon and heads south where the landscape imminently engulfs us with its vast grazing pastures, vineyards, lakes and the constant reminder of the Moorish presence in this territory over 700 years ago. Here its all about taking it slow and joining the locals in their easy way of life through slow food and gentle conversations. Following the curvy flow of the Guadiana River we ride through uncharted Portuguese territory and cross the Guadiana Valley Natural Park, not seeing a living soul for hundreds of kilometres. Reaching the Algarve, the odor of the beach and sea joins our journey as we ride our motorcycles through Portugal’s playground. Here we will reach the tip of Europe in Sagres and see the place where the ancients believed the land ended and sea began. From here its a drive up to Lisbon, wiggling our way though one of Europe’s widest coastlines, and certainly one of the most exciting as well. A surfer’s and adventure seeker’s paradise, this coast has razor sharp cliffs which serve as a wall to the relentless pounding of the Atlantic. Now imagine sitting comfortably in a empty cliff, eating some grilled fish and chatting away with the locals as nature takes its course in front of you…This is what we call freedom! Click here to see a detailed itinerary.