“Have you ever guys heard of JOMO? It’s the pleasure of lacking out!” It was a reminder from information Lander Crissman in regards to the laid-back mindset we must be maintaining on our e-biking journey in southwestern Portugal organized by the clothes shop Backroads. On this journey, there could be no time for work anxieties or type-A chasing of private bests.
As an alternative, our six-person group, together with two guides, could be spending six leisurely days biking by cork and olive groves, doing a contact of mountaineering, 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 feels 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.
Kathy Roberson; Backroads
I’m one thing of an overplanner in terms of journey, so I used to be glad to depart all the selections and logistics to the professionals. What’s extra, the journey could 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 fitness center persistently all year long.
However my thought of a exercise is a low-impact yoga or Pilates class or, extra typically, pedaling an train bike whereas watching TV. With that sort of health routine, I’d all the time wind up underprepared (and the terrain would all the time 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 instructor: “The physique needs to maneuver.” Properly, it didn’t. When, I might ask myself, would that help van be coming alongside?
The bodily stress of those journeys was typically accompanied by some social awkwardness, too. Most contributors could be there with a associate, pal, or member of the family; I used to be all the time by myself. I might push myself to be extra outgoing, however I discovered it laborious to insert myself, significantly as a result of I used to be often the one individual desirous about taking it simple. One 12 months, 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 have been out of the saddle: one was tenting and kayaking in British Columbia; the opposite every week of rafting and mountaineering round Costa Rica.
Nonetheless, there’s a deep sigh of contentment and the sense of a totally empty thoughts that I can solely discover whereas on a motorcycle. So I took one other have a look at biking journeys, hoping to discover a new (and flat) vacation spot wherein to pedal. As an alternative, I used to be inspired to study that e-bikes are generally supplied lately, significantly 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, journey longer distances, or just preserve 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 have been maybe too efficient: on the shut of every day’s journey, I might discover myself considering, “Is that it?” My outfit was by no means sweaty sufficient to wish 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, have been gloriously remoted from civilization. However that meant there was nowhere to go close by. I hit the steam room to assuage my muscle mass, however the one factor that damage was my bottom.
It seems that JOMO isn’t for me—although I’m nonetheless blissful about this e-bike factor. Subsequent 12 months 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’d 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
Friends of andBeyond within the Phinda Non-public Sport Reserve, in South Africa, can e-bike by 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 scorching spots, together with pintxo bars and eating places similar 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, journey 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 problem of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Charging Forward.”