Hi all, in the planning stages of a week tour of the Pico's Northern Spain for next May, I've heard it's the place to go for the kind of riding/touring I like to do. I got this years tour, my first Euro tour, very wrong, too many miles/hours in the saddle and created my own routes which often left a lot to be desired in terms of the road I chose. So I don't make the same mistakes again, i need advice from those who've ridden the area and can suggest great roads and rides. They'll be three of us and what we're after are fast, sweeping roads, the kind of riding we do in Wales most Sunday mornings, not interested in tight Alpine type passes where it's 20mph average for 100 miles, did that this year. Ideally around 6 hours per day riding. We're getting the ferry to Santander and back, I'm definitely not riding the length of France again twice! We'll have six days of riding and plan on a different B&B/Hotel each night. Look forwards to your help/suggestions/maps/routes/stays, whatever you can offer!
Just so you know for your planning, the guy who plans our trips tells me the Santander and Bilbao ferries are no longer an overnight journey, it now takes 2 days. Andy
Quite a few links on Google, a selection below. Andy https://fliesonthevisor.com/touring-routes-picos-de-europa-spain/ https://www.ride.co.uk/routes-content/eastern-picos-and-basque-country https://www.myrouteapp.com/en/motor...1557439/Picos-de-Europa-Round-trip-from-Potes
Having ridden over the Picos mountains earlier this year, the routes out of Potes are all tight twisty alpine pass types of routes. the N621 is wide and has a good surface, but twisty, the CA184 is narrow and sections of iffy tarmac and gravel on it.
Just looked at prices for next June and for 2 people 2 bikes it was over 1500!! I thought i got shafted this year with 800 from Portsmouth to Caen..
That sailing time is only from Plymouth. Sailing from Portsmouth it's between 28.5 (1 night) and 33 hours (2 nights). Andy
Yes that's where we're going from, Plymouth, as stated above it's not a cheap crossing but I'd rather pay that than ride the length of France again.
Um, no mention of Plymouth in your post but no matter. Our departure port was changed from Portsmouth to Plymouth at the last minute in 2019. Living about 40 miles from Portsmouth, that was a real PITA, added an overnight both ends. Andy
The Picos is not a particularly large area. You will have to be prepared to go beyond it to fulfil your requirements. You will also need to be prepared to do some tight stuff too every now and then. Consider heading west to Asturias and Galicia. If you base yourself in somewhere like Ponferada there are roads that meet your requirements in most directions. Use Google Street-view to get a feel of what a road is like before you include it in a route. When you’ve decided where you are going, then we can tell you the best roads in that area. Spain is VAST!
Just back from 10 days in Spain.Change of weather prevented planA which was to head west into Portugal by around day 5 so ended up dodging weather and had a couple of days in the Picos. Been a few times before .I would say the highlights are N625 from Riano to Cangas de Onis, the AS 114 from Cangas to Panes and the N621 from Potes to Riano. Some variable Road surfaces but generally good routes. We did Plymouth to Santander which is just under 24 hour crossing.As said before Portsmouth is now a 2 nighter. Our return on Monday was delayed by 2 hours so didn’t go until 5.45 pm arriving at Plymouth at 4.10 pm. We then had to get back to County Durham ,arriving 1.30 am . Shattered.
When i did my Spanish/Portugal trip earlier this month, the plymouth - Santander ferry was 22 hours & Santander - Portsmouth was 30 hours
If you don’t like the ferry cost and you are thinking of staying in the Picos area for a few nights, look at booking both the hotel and ferry through Brittany Ferries Holidays. You have to use one of their hotels (there are a few in the Picos area) and you apparently get a discount on the ferry cost.
Certainly was the case for our recent French trip. Had to stay in a BF hotel for 3 nights to get the discount. The 2 BF hotels we stayed in were very comfortable. Andy
A quick check on the BF web site and a 7 night, motorcycle touring holiday in northern Spain starts from just over £1k/pp half board. Worth a look ? Andy
You cannot go wrong in the Picos so many routes and so much riding. We like Paradores and the excellent Hotel del Oso, book hotels early to avoid disappointment. temperatures vary widely, but you should be prepared for very heavy rain as well. Bilbao and Santander are fairly close to each other so don’t let that be an issue. Dinner is much later, you can find it tricky to eat dinner before 8pm in many places. Enjoy
