Don’t Nice and Lyon have good riding nearby too?

MSJ to La Manga – one hour 20. Have a full cooked English then play in the hills.

Others have mentioned it but it’s hard to think of a better option than Innsbruck as there are big mountains directly north and south of the airport.

You could fly to Luxembourg and XC around the Ardennes. I’m told there’s some passable “enduro” and DH riding but I couldn’t tell you where.

Surrey Hills is rideable from Gatwick 😉

Heathrow -> Virginia Water -> Ascot -> Swinley 😀

Want an airport in the mountains though, how about Courchevel…

[video]https://youtu.be/UGN3XA2Mxfs[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/6pK9uqF4y7c[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/dHeyVidumi0[/video]

maderia? nothing is that far from the airport…

Is there anything in the Massif Central or the Pyrenees?

Nice idea that.
From Clermont Ferrand airport to the top of the puy de dôme, it’s got to be less than 30km and no transfers needed!
Otherwise you could fly into Perpignan and get the train (it’s a bit slow after Villefranche/ Vernet but really scenic) up to Font Romeu or Mont Louis.

As already mentioned, flying to Malaga is a good call, there is a train all the way down the coast with good riding nearby, inc the gondola at Benalmadena or there is a train to El Chorro via Malaga and there is some excellant riding around there! bit hot in July and August though
or
There are mountain bike trails and a ski lift on Vitosha Mountain in Sofia, Bulgaria, you can even take your bike on the bus from the airport!

East Midlands airport? Within an hours train ride of the peaks. Not much organised man made trails but plenty of awesome riding.

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

Either that or Paisley 🙂

kilo – Member

Cardiff airport to Afan?

It’s about an hour’s drive, BPW is about 10 mins closer by road.

But… on balance I think I’d prefer the Geneva / Morzine option, it’s not just a lack of imagination that draws so many people to Morzine / Les Gets.

Anyway for OP:

Geneva is an easy airport to get flights to, but Amsterdam is an easy airport to get flights from as a it’s a massive European hub.

Morzine is the only one of the major Alpine resorts I could find after a lot of trying that has a scheduled daily shuttle – there are other shuttles to other resorts, but you have to book them which gets very pricy going solo or small groups. They’re every 45 mins or so from Geneva to Morzine

Summer accommodation is easy and cheap to find.

You won’t spend much of your limited weekend time looking for trails, there’s loads, they’re most sing posted and well, there’s a lift network you don’t have to book months in advance, unlike the bus services in the UK.

Whereabouts are you in Holland?

Probably cheaper and easier to buy a car or better still an old camper and drop down to the Ardennes or to the German Eifel mountains. Don’t obviously have the grandeur nor the elevation of the alps, but still more than much of the uk has to offer and definitely more than Holland.

Seems like a massive faff otherwise.

Pack bike, 30 mins (even with an evoc bag you pretty much have dismantle the bike). Get to airport 30-45 minutes realistically. Hang around for 60 mins prior to boarding. 60-75 min flight to destination. Transfer, again realistically best part of an hour. Check in to hotel, 20 mins. Assemble bike, 30 mins. Find there is a bolt missing….

You are looking at, at best I reckon, 4-5 hours before you even get pedalling.

Amsterdam to the Eifel/Ardennes is roughly 3 hours.

Plus of you have the freedom of being more spontaneous and can explore more.
A basic camper or van won’t set you back more than 2k (must be loads of campers…. more campers per head in holland than anywhere else). Reckon you would easily spend that on flight and accommodation within a few weekends.

Would it be better to live in the alps and commute to work?

If you go to Geneva you could ride from the airport to the Jura mountains. It’s about 20 mins from my house and it’s a three hour ride to the top ( somewhere like Mijoux ) and then fill ya boots for days of bliss.

Would it be better to live in the alps and commute to work?

Either this or just make fewer, longer trips to do your riding.

There must be some kind of cycling that’s fun in Holland? TT-ing?

There must be some kind of cycling that’s fun in Holland?

It’s always a headwind. Doesn’t matter which way you go.
There is also the World Cycling into a Gale Force Headwind Championships there, which is quite entertaining.

How about flying in to Salzburg? Nothing directly in or around the city that I’m aware of, but Saalbach, Leogang, Wagrain and Schladming are only an hour away. There’s a fair amount of mountain between Salzburg and those places too so there must be plenty more riding in between.

Leogang and Schladming both have train stations too.

More local… http://www.mtbroutes.nl/

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions!

I’m determined to make this happen… just ordered an Evoc bike bag.

Dublin, about 5km to the Wicklow mountains.

Dissapointed thatno one has mentioned Luton and its access to the less good end of the Chilterns and vague proximity Chicksands and Woburn….

Keeping the trails quite for us in the know locals I expect…

Maritime Alps? 45 minutes/1 hour transfer to Sospel from Nice with Coolbus, who also do uplifts and guiding.

As above Madeira Funchal is a short transfer to the top of the moutntains with Freeride Madeira.
San Sebastian for Basque MTB
Tenerife would work too.
Sicily has some great riding and is lumpy enough.
Marrakech is a short drive from the Atlas mountains.
Verona for Lake Garda.
Andorra has an airport but I think it’s to the south in Spain.