Feel the Beauty of Nature

The venture began in 2001 in the business of bicycle tours. “I had organised and guided similar activities in the east of Belgium, a very beautiful area with lots of hills and rivers”, Frank Koopman, founder of Algarve Outdoor Tours, told Central Magazine. “After having studied and worked in business, I qualified as a guide for mountain bike tours, rock climbing, rafting, and kayaking. I wanted to engage with people in a more social way, outdoors and in nature.”

Adventures in nature

“I noticed that in the summer, it’s quite hot to offer a cycle tour”, he continued, “so I came up with the idea to bring people up to the highest mountain, Monchique, and cycle, or basically roll down back to the coast.”

The downhill bike tour provides a chance to enjoy the views from atop Fóia and the scenery of the Algarve’s countryside as you descend 901 metres in elevation, with a fresh lunch and medronho tasting included in the journey. For those looking for a more significant challenge, they also offer a downhill off-road cycling trip catered to more experienced riders.

Frank describes the regular trip as being “fairly easy”, and elaborated that “if you cycle once a month to the shop or work and back home, you’re fit enough to do that tour. It’s not a very extreme tour, it’s more leisure-based with the guides going out in front. The most challenging bit is what we see in the summer, it’s always a bit cooler up there and sometimes a bit foggy with low-hanging clouds”.

Algarve Outdoor Tours provides non-motorised activities that are appealing to a wide range of people, as these adventures can also be personalised. “For example, we are working with a charity from the Netherlands that offers holidays to deaf people, and we provide the same downhill bike tour for them, but modified to the disability. I quite enjoy creating the programmes, so we can adjust the experience to your preferences and needs.

“We have two main audiences, families with children from the ages of 8 to 18, and then we have individual bookings, such as friends and couples, between the ages of 18, 38 and 48”, he characterised the company’s client base. “In the winter, we get more retired people, aged 50 to 60+, who also do the bike tours and walking tours.”

Catalogue of experiences

With the success of the cycling tours, he was able to expand the catalogue of experiences on offer. “The development of the company started very simple, with a few bicycles and a few kayaks. It evolved to more activities and also collaborations with other companies that offer other activities, such as Jeep safaris and surfing”, Frank recounted.

The Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a difficult obstacle for the business. The group activities the company was built on were no longer possible to run safely, and he had to find alternative ways to keep it going. “I transferred the business into an online travel agency”, he recalled, “where the company is now a platform where we display all kinds of activities, still mainly non-motorised, that people can book directly on the website, and then are organised by external partners and operated by people I’ve already worked with for 30 years”.

At the moment, the website is focused on offering outdoor activities to do all over the western Algarve, but plans are in the works to extend their reach to the central and eventually eastern regions as well.

A way to connect with Portugal

Talking more about his role as the head of the company, Frank explained that “for the first 5 or 6 years I did all the tours myself, often I was doing a bike tour in the morning and canoe tour in the afternoon, but the company was already growing. Later I decided to be more in the office, do more promoting, distributing flyers to hotels and asking people to help me to do the tours, and only then did it take off”.

“But if I’m being honest”, he added, “in my heart, guiding the tours has been my passion and still is my passion. Going with a group into nature and having a great time, exploring the countryside, and telling them about Portugal, is something I’ll always enjoy.”

“It’s a fulfilling activity for me, a means to connect with Portugal, which I think is one of the best places in Europe. I had a lot of help from Portuguese people when starting the company, and by working together with them and generating business it’s also a lovely way to give back to the country and to those who have helped over the past 20 years”, Frank concluded.

All of the tours Frank and his team have curated are available for booking on https://www.outdoor-tours.com/. The experiences to choose from include hiking trails, snorkelling tours and cliff jumping, among many other options.

A journalist that’s always eager to learn about new things. With a passion for travel, adventure and writing about this diverse world of ours.

“Wisdom begins in wonder” -  Socrates

Kate Sreenarong