As I recently moved to disconcertingly-flat Holland, I’m keen to pack my mountain bike and escape on regular weekend getaways to hillier parts of the continent. Time will be my key constraint (fly in Fri night or Sat morning, fly out Sun night), so I’m looking for recommendations of airports that are located directly next to, or very close to, the trailhead in order to eradicate/minimise transfer time.

Chambery, Zurich and Munich are locations that immediately spring to mind, but I haven’t actually mountain biked in any of those, so not sure if they’re any good.

What else should I consider?

I live in Munich. The airport is a good 35min train ride from the main station. The nearest locations to ride are another 35-45 mins from the station.

Even if you hired a car it’s an hour until you hit the hills.

Discount it.

Innsbruck would be a better bet.

id have thought must airports would be located somewhere flatish, I’d be looking at trains, they should be able to take you into the mountains.

Geneva and then a 45min transfer (pretty easy) to Morzine / Les Gets

Innsbruck’s a great shout, but I just checked and there are no direct flights there from Amsterdam on Fri or Sat 🙁

Yes, Geneva could work. There’s also a quick 45min transfer to Chamonix from there, which must also have some good riding.

I was just hoping there’d be something even more convenient…

Yes Morzine/Chatel/Les Gets have “some good riding” 🙂

Loads of companies do transfers for cyclists too. Or even ditch the bike and hire one when you are out there.
Loads of bike shops in Morzine

Large airports don’t really mix well with big mountains!

Could you hire a small airplane, and have them drop you, with bike + parachute, over your chosen trails?

Cardiff airport to Afan?

Granada?

Could you hire a small airplane, and have them drop you, with bike + parachute, over your chosen trails?

Best solution ever 😀

…just need to get one of those Pole folding bikes… and a parachute.

Beaten to it with Granada.

Also maybe Malaga.

How hilly or mountainous does the trailhead need to be?
Innsbruck’s the only one I’ve used where you could ride from the airport terminal building straight to the mountain of choice.

From Holland? I’d hop in the car after work on a Friday to somewhere in Germany or Belgium. Far less faff for a weekend. The only bike rebuilding at the destination will be to put one or other wheel back in depending on car/bikerack.

Thanks andytherocketeer, but unfortunately I don’t own a car and rental in the Netherlands seems ridiculously expensive due to a max daily mileage allowance, so you get really stung as soon as you exceed it. The nearest good riding spots are in Winterburg or Willingen, which are around 4 hours away, so not too different to flying.

Looking at a map, Monaco and nice should give good access to the Transmaritime Alps after a short train ride.

There should also be some good riding options from Turing and Milan.

Not quite the ‘ride out of the airport onto the trail’ scenario I was hoping for though…

How hard is it to get a train to BSM? The funicular leaves from the train station door.

With a hire car a well timed flights you’ll get two full days riding in. I’d be looking for airports within an hour and a bit then look for good timings. Geneva would be my number one option. Loads of places a short drive from there.

You could cycle to MTB trails direct from Glasgow or Edinburgh. Just not Alp type ones.

timidwheeler – Member
How hard is it to get a train to BSM? The funicular leaves from the train station door.

Sorry, what’s BSM?

Bourg-Saint-Maurice!

Worked it out

Just checked – takes almost 10 hours and 2 trains to get to Bourg-Saint-Maurice from Amsterdam

…I think I can rule that option out.

Malaga

Amsterdam to Trondheim Norway or Östersund/ Åre Sweden. If its the latter I’ll pick you up, provided you are alright 🙂

Leeds Bradford – can ride straight out of the Arrivals door, round through Scotland, up and over the Chevin and through to the trails at Stainburn.

Rachel

Of course – this applies:

I was just flicking through the Alps book and it says

“Situated just North West of Geneva, the Crozet/Lelex ski station runs on weekends and bank holidays. It is so close to the airport you could feasibly hop straight on your bike out of the plane and ride there”.

Basel has got a fair bit of good singletrack riding in the 800m-ish hills surrounding it, airport is very close the very small city. Again, not ‘alpy’ though.

Happy to guide you, or connect you to routes or other rides for you to join, should you wish.

There will be biking around zurich, but I don’t know it. Uetliberg is one that springs to mind http://www.uetliberg.ch/en/

Bar those mentioned above, are there any flights to Chambery or Grenable in the summer? Both have hills very close, the latter has Alpe D’Huez and Les Deux Alpe within an hour or so.

Queenstown airport is also very close to the trails but I suspect the flight time is a little long…!

If time is the issue fly where you like and pick up the hire car at the airport.

PS KLM-AirFrance, IME, are the world champions at losing baggage.
When I lived there, and used to fly to South America, we used to have a sweepstake as to whose baggage would not arrive, since there was almost always someone’s bag not arrive.

I still say, get a car, drive to Germany or Belgium. The faff will be less, and there’s no fixed flight times. Save the flying for the week long annual trip to the Alps or wherever.

G/L getting from home/office to an alpine resort with 4 hours. When I lived in Holland I could probably manage 30mins to Schiphol, 30min checkin/bagdrop, 30-60min security queue, 30min min before flight, 1hr flight, 1 hr to get bags, 1hr min to anywhere like the Alps near Geneva. If that’s not > 4 hours claimed for driving to Germany, then having to rebuild bike rather than put wheels back in is probably enough to tip the balance. All for 1 and a bit day’s riding to get the last flight back on a Sunday.

But then I know people who have got up at 4am, first flight to GVA, ski all day, taxi back to GVA for 9pm flight home. And said they’ll do it again. Expensive day out.

You could cycle to MTB trails direct from Glasgow or Edinburgh. Just not Alp type ones.

I don’t think Glenifer Braes is worth a flight from Holland. 🙂

Shoreham (Brighton City) Airport has trails about half a mile away 🙂

Take a look at Ljubljana airport. It is sitting on the edge of the Julian Alps. Lots of nice natural trails around.

Another vote for Malaga. Easy train takes you to quite a few locations including the Benalmadena cable car. Pretty hot for the next few months though, better as a winter destination.

I cant beleive no one has mentioned Leeds/Bradford Airport yet ! (seriously)

Riding straight from the end of the runway on Otley Chevin, or up the Aire Valley.

Even the likes of Chambery are going to require a transfer/journey to riding.

Train is a good shout. Direct to Bourg St Maurice and then cable car up.

Yesterday FD 🙂

Leeds Bradford – can ride straight out of the Arrivals door, round through Scotland, up and over the Chevin and through to the trails at Stainburn.

Rachel

Ooops 😆

round through Scotland

❓

In fact just noticed my other suggestion was ruled out !

Oh well charter an aircraft to take you to the airport at Courchevel?

https://blog.privatefly.com/courchevel-now-accessible-for-private-charter-flights

The Jura mountains are easily accessible from Geneva airport but may still be a 45 min ride at the very least. The Saleve mountain is also a similar ride but has less trail riding for a weekend. Chamonix has a riding restriction in the summer so Morzine/Les Gets would be a better option.

Courchevel has a small airport right in the mountains, but I would imagine the chances of a direct flight would be very slim.

Nice does present some good options to the north (Trans Provence will be coming through that area later this week).

Is there anything in the Massif Central or the Pyrenees?

It would be worth checking some of the Spanish airports; Barcelona, Alicante and Murcia-San Javier spring to mind as possibles. There’s riding near-ish MSJ if you head toward Los Belonos / La Manga Club / La Union / Cartegena, but it’s a long way from being ‘on the doorstep’.

So it sounds like Leeds/Bradford is the MTB destination of choice in Europe then