Santa Luzia to Afife (gravel)

Highlights

• The cobbled climb up to Santa Luzia and the memorable views from Santa Luzia over the coastline.
• Weaving your way along the Camino de Santiago, past tiny ancient churches and through hillside hamlets.
• The Ecovia Literol Norte path offers up wide open space and refreshing sea breezes that almost seem to carry you back to Viana.
• This is a very flexible ride; the N13 runs parallel to the coast and the Camino de Santiago, so if you find the Camino de Santiago route is too technical for you, or you run out of puff, you can always head down to the road that traces the course north or head straight for the coast path home.

Route notes

1. FeelViana Sport Hotel to Santa Luzia (0-9 km)

To get to the start of the climb, you have to negotiate the Pont Eiffel bridge that lies between the hotel and Viana do Castelo; we found the cars were generally patient, but there’s no hard shoulder and the bridge is a few hundred metres long.

You wiggle through town to the start of the Santa Luzia climb and soon leave the hectic town behind. It’s appropriate that the climb starts with a church, as you’ll see may of these along the way of varying degrees of grandeur. The banks along the road were festooned with lilies and swathes of snowdrops. 

The climb is cobbled, though the cobbles are relatively smooth and rideable. You climb up past the odd house, with dramatic sea views to your left. There are several viewpoints on the way up, offering an excuse for a breather from the climb.

The Basilica de Santa Luzia at the top is an early 20th Century beauty built in the Romanesque-Byzantine style. There are far-reaching views down across the town and, as you get higher, over the light industrial areas of Viana and its spectacular coastline. The views have been rated by National Geographic Magazine as the third most beautiful in the World.  

You’ll have seen Santa Lucia many times from the town, but up close it’s far bigger than you might expect. Arriving in the sunshine, the white stone flickered in the sun. 

2. Santa Luzia to Afife (9-25 km)

From the church, you are quickly on to the trails that lead you down the mountain side. We took the off-road route, but the GPS file here should take you on better paved tracks.

Be aware that the difficulty will vary depending on the weather that precedes your ride; they can of course get chewed up and more tricky in bad weather.

Once down the hillside, you find yourself on the Camino de Santiago and a network of cobbled paths, alleyways and narrow paths wind along the hillside, past a whole range of different churches, chapels and religious buildings. They’re generally well maintained, picturesque and exude history.

Be aware that some of the Camino route involves steps and sections that are technically demanding on a gravel bike.

3. Afife to FeelViana Sport Hotel (25-42 km)

Hitting the coast makes quite a contrast with the ride that’s gone before; we spent around two thirds of our time getting to Afife and one-third getting back! It’s an easy spin along the coast.

We chose to take the off-road route right by the sea, but there’s always the N13 for those looking for less scenery and even more speed.

The off-road route is a combination of boardwalks, gravel and asphalt paths with the odd cobbled and asphalt road sections.

You pass lots of interesting sights including a lighthouse, regular circular buildings which are former windmills (without the sails) and close to Viana, you come to Vinha Fort (pictured above). This was one of four forts built on the coast between Caminha and Viana do Castelo at the end of the Portuguese Restoration War (1640-1668) to suppress Algerian and Salentino pirate raids.

Café stops

Viana do Castelo is full of cafes, bars and restaurants; Peloton Café is the town’s cycling focused spot complete with jerseys on the wall.

There is a café at Santa Luzia and we then stopped at Bar Central just outside Afife; a very local snack bar where we ate delicious sandwiches and toasties for a few euros a head.

If you need to find alternatives, I expect additional options are never too far away as you’re riding just above the N13 running north to south; just as long as you’re happy to lose some elevation to find them!

There are water fountains dotted along the Camino de Santiago route.

One of many fountains on the Camino Portuguese route

Accommodation

We stayed at FeelViana Sport Hotel in Viana do Castelo. You can find out more about our stay in our main guide to cycling Viana.

Tips

Check out our guide to cycling Viana and our tips for cycling in Portugal.

Take care cycling through Viana, especially getting on/off the Ponte Eiffel bridge (it’s complicated) and of course riding over it too! If you want to avoid the bridge, then in summer, we’re told there is a ferry that runs across the river on an hourly basis.

The Camino de Santiago section is technical in places; it varies from everything from easy cobbled roads to rocky paths and flagstone steps. This is definitely not a ride for a road bike; a gravel bike (or even a MTB) is what you’ll need.

As with any off-road ride, the difficulty of the route will vary with the weather. As noted above, you can always cut short the technical sections by simply heading down to the road and coast.

This is a ride best ridden in the direction we did (anti-clockwise) in order to benefit from the trade winds that typically blow north to south, and so carry you home nice and quickly down the coast.

Clare Dewey is a cyclist with a passion for travel. She set up epicroadrides.com in 2018 to help make it easy for cyclists to explore the world by bike. Today her mission is still inspiring cyclists to discover new places on two wheels - and doing what she can to make sure they have the best possible time while they're there. Clare has visited 50+ destinations around the world, many of them by bike.

Want to connect with Clare? Find her over on LinkedIn.