Where's the good riding at in Spain? I've only been to the gp, not seen much of the country at all. I'm thinking Pyrenees obviously, but we're thinking of 5 days, possibly 7, so plenty of opportunity to see a lot of the country. Cheers.
Picos de Europa...go to Santander and head west along the coast a bit. Then head up the N621. Take in a few world heritage sites if you have time ..e,g, Salamanca, Segovia, Avila. In my opinion, 5-7 days really doesn't give you a lot of time..it's a huge place and even doing 300-400 miles a day you won't see lots - compared to what there is. Also - bear in mind - the more you go deeper into Spain you then need to come back too! Bottom line is avoid m'ways (apart for skirting around cities), and also avoid anywhere with McDonald's or KFC. You will pretty much be guaranteed to be treated with superb hospitality, great food and wine. If you have a few words of Spanish you can get by pretty well - a lot of them speak good English. For some of the more remote and non-Brit-touristy places (i.e. the best ones!) a bit of basic Spanish can be handy. Bear in mind some of the high passes can be pretty cold and snowy (to the point of impassable on a bike) - so check the weather for when you want to go first. Enjoy! :smile:
Cheers, I'll fire up google maps and take a look. I'm guessing we'll have six days in Spain, but with a day off the bikes in the middle of it for culture and beer top-ups, so there'll be one city stop at least. I'm rather looking forward to it, considering I was planning a long weekend in Germany to start with...
loads and loads of good biking in spain if you can make it to the south, all over andalucia is epic, algodonales-rhonda, rhonda-st pedro, rhonda-coin, coin-marbella, sierra nevada from granada and all over Asturais in the north is supposed to be amazing too in the east hills between tarragnona and alcaniz/aragon are lovely around guadaleste amazing (nr benidorm) even round madrid great roads can be found as its up on a plateua this site has some useful routes
Down the coast of France San Sebastián into Bilbao good city to stop over in then up to Pamplona into the Spanish side of the Pyrenees little village Isaba good place to stop over then up over the mountains and into the French side of the mountains spectacular scenery good twisties if the weathers good no better place to ride.
Quite fancy a bit of Pyrenean hoonage, but the Picos sound good too. What we normally do is each decide on an area we want to go to, and form a route around that, each responsible for hotel booking in their area. Seems to work well mostly. We'll probably stick to 300 miles a day and see how far that'll get us; I don't mind a bit of motorway-bashing on the way back.
About five or six of us go away to France,Spain whatever every year for the last 6 years,normally in the months of May and June.We have never booked hotels in advance ,nor had a problem finding nice places to stay,just start looking around 5.30,leaves time to get the beers in that evening.
Don't worry, I know the MO, been infesting Europe for two decades! Just not been to Spain much. If it's just me and my brother we'll just ride on and look for a hotel en route, but the guys looking at this trip prefer to book in advance. I'm easy to please either way. Biggest problem for me is doing it on a budget I can afford.
Budget is always a consideration as far as I'm concerned. As I have a couple of snowboarding trips each year too, I have to take into consideration that SWMBO wants the same level of "spends" when she goes away with her friend/s. So three jaunts away on my tod, could end up rather expensive for me :tongue:
Keninsussex is spot on. Spain is a huge county. Geographically and culturally. Given 5-7 days you should decide on one area and explore that. For example,the Pyrenees and maybe the Picos in the north. Or Barcelona and the Costa Blanca. The central area of the country gets little press but is scenic and quintessentially Spanish in its culture. I`m thinking the Avilla, Salamanca, Segovia triangle here. Dont think about going south on that schedule as you will not have time to make the most of it when there. You should also decide whether the trip is primarily about scenery or culture. It is possible to mix the two but there will inevitably be compromises.
on that time frame the picos/asturais wou;d be my vote in future if you can head south into andalucia do. i spent 6 weeks going all over southern and central spain and portugal in 2012 and it was the best thing i have ever done in my life this far
5-7 days, ferry to Santander then East into the Pyrenees. Take a night or two en route to the med, Argeles sur mer or similar. Same idea back but on the Spanish side. Bobs yer uncle. My mate just enquired and the ferry is £250 return according to him.
