Booked again this year, a good month earlier than last year, and heading back to Santander 13th Sept for 10 days. Im double jabbed an willing to take the leap. Anyone got/or know where i can lookup actual routes used in Spain/Portugal? Ive got links to Ride magazine ones but wondered if there are other sources of info im not currently aware of. Many thanks Andrew
Try Bestbikingroads.com Or buy a decent scaled map and they usually have the best roads edged in colour to highlight good/scenic road
A good starter for ten is the N 623 out of Santander to Burgos .Great road to warm you up and Burgos is a nice place .It also puts you around 100 miles south with all of your options open.The weather in the north can be unpredictable particularly coming off the Atlantic .We normally get to Burgos late afternoon after a lunchtime docking then go for it from there.All previous suggestions are good sources but really you can’t go wrong.Personally I prefer the Picos to the Pyrenees but both are great.People,food,roads are great. We were booked on the same sailing but have decided to roll it over to next year due to uncertainty.Have a great trip you will love it. Hope I haven’t been teaching you how to suck eggs.
Michelin maps to be specific. Green edged roads are scenic routes but almost invariably make great riding roads. I tend to buy their orange regional maps ahead of a tour to assist in planning and take them along for the big overview. Are you using a GPS? If so I have some routes you could have a look at and adapt as you see fit. Toured the Picos in 2016 and did a trip to Portugal, passing briefly though the Picos enroute, in 2019 to the Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela, in central Portugal, which has some great roads.
I will do all of this one day, https://laruta47.com/grandesRutas.php?id=1 but you can do parts of it. Andy
straight off the boat and into the Pico's, some of the best roads you will ever ride, like a giant ring road with a mountain range in the middle, can't go wrong, loads of cheap digs,
Where do you want to go/visit? One place you want to go to is Riano in the Picos. Have a look at a map and the following will all make sense. Go in on one route and leave on another, whatever suits. Stay there overnight and get up and do the N621 before breakfast. Head off southwest towards Cistierna but don’t go that far, it gets boring. Turn around at Las Salas or a bit further down and go back to Riano for a very happy breakfast. Great roads.
No eggs at all. I went last year but was all very last minute due to work and i basically nicked some pre-planned routes from Ride mag and fiddled them into a 9 day loop. Off the ferry was a cold blast down to Palencia for an overnight, then on to Guadalupe area for a few days, Ciudad Rodrigo for a few days and then a straight blast back for the ferry. It was awesome and i knew it was more luck than judgement. I chose that way as it was away from big cities (were big Covid hotspots at that time) and it was October and that region had the best weather. Was based more on the weather than anything really. I have a bit more time to plan this year so will investigate routes over the Picos and possibly into Portugal.
I havent been to a part of Spain i dont like yet, other than maybe Cartagena city but the track made up for it, so the only real restriction is the journey in days to get back to the ferry. Im on my own so means i can do as much or as little as i want. Sounds like the Picos are getting a few votes - whats the weather / temperature like in late Sept?
Picos are fab, can be wet though esp the North side. Not called Costa Verde for nothing. Thing is, if it is wet you can always drop in to Pyrenees.
Cooler, especially at higher altitudes but also could be sunny and warm. That time of year its a bit of a gamble. Take waterproofs or wear Goretex textiles. Bear in mind that the Picos is effectively copping weather off the Atlantic. This was one of the high passes when I crossed the Picos on the way back from Portugal in October 2019. It was zero degrees at this point. Conversely, this was on the way down a week before at the lake above Riano, weather was dry, high teens/low twenties. The roads, scenery, food and welcome are all great. I'll certainly be going again for the 3rd time. Bars in the evening tend to give tapas with each, or every other, beer. Drink enough and dinner is sorted too As JBiker says, choose Picos or Pyrenees on the ferry depending on the forecast. Both wonderful, for the latter stick mainly to the Spanish side, the roads are far better in terms of surface, the hotels cheaper and the welcome warmer in my experience. At that time of year, especially this year, I reckon you'll have no problems turning up at any hotel and getting a room.
Check out Pamplona - Great city, terrific street with Tapas bars down each side and it is also close to the start of the legendary N260 from Jaca across the south side of the Pyrenees to the Med coast. Unbelievable road, mostly empty with views around the long sweeping roads with mostly perfect tarmac. Just respect the village speed limits as that's where the cops hang out occasionally. Simon Weir the journalist who writes for RiDE magazine has published his Volume One "Bikers' Europe" and ride 9 in the book is a 3 day ride across to the Med starting from the northern Spanish Basque coast near Bilbao. I can thoroughly recommend the Ducati dealer in Bilbao, they fixed my son's SS600 with a machined gearchange lever bolt for FREE - it took them over an hour and they dropped what they were doing to get us back on the road again. A very, very humbling experience, they wouldn't even take €20 for their tea/beer kitty!
Spanish roads are so good I found I wasn’t all that impressed by Portugal. The Duero valley is worth a visit but not sure I’d bother on a 10 day tour. Stay in Segovia, take the CL-601 to Los Molinos, then get yourself to Avila and take the N502 and head down to Guadalupe. You’ll be writing me a thank you message. Believe me.
Picos all day long good base tbh, we stayed for 10 days in Potes rented a 10 bed house for £750 with a shared pool with the complex next door. You can do the Loop Riano N621 fuel stop and some good cheap restaurants Burger Chips Coffee for around 7 euro, Cangas De Onis (N625) to Panes (AS114) back to Potes (N621) loads of coffee stops all the way round all cheap. Potes to the cable car at Fuente De (CA185)is a blast for a evening ride or even a trip to the Stag at San Glorio (N621) CA184/CL627 to Cervera de Persuerga to Velilia Del Rio Carrion... just a few tasters tbh, where ever you go around the Picos you will enjoy..
