After getting fed up with the all inclusive hotels, Aqua Fantasy in Turkey last year was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We wanted something different; a cross between a pool holiday and alpine activities and no drunken British idiots.

Mrs monster101 and I decided on Lake Garda as an appropriate destination mixing the traditional pool holiday with just a little bit more activities. Accommodation was at the south of the lake near Peschieria Del Garda – a couple of days at Bella Italia and then on to Altomincio Family Park 6km south.  Bella Italia campsite has a slightly better location but very crowded with Altomincio striking a nice balance of atmosphere without feeling claustrophobic. 

Family stuff: hiring bikes and cycling between the campsite and local towns, day trip to Venice, Verona,  hiring a speedboat for the afternoon, cable car up monte baldo, hiking the mountain paths, drive and a dip to lago de ledro, Garda, bardolino etc (the lake is fantastic for swimming with lots of places you can jump in to cool off) waterfall, kayaking on the lake near malicesine, canyoning in the Val de Ledro

Biking: I booked two days mountain biking in Torbole, one for me and one for me and my 11 year old son. I contacted Michael Rebbens via a singletrackworld forum recommendation. He helped organise the bike hire via Carpentari -2013 Cube Stereo top of the range with 650b wheelset for two days and a Scott 24inch bike for my son. Michael also organised Luca at Bike Shuttle Torbole for two uplifts on the first day and one on the second.

Day 1 – Arrived at 8.30 around an hours drive from the south of the lake via modena-brennero motorway rather than the lake road. Carpentari were working on the bike swapping levers as requested and fettling the bike for my weight. Michael met me at 9 and finalised the hire.  The meet for the shuttle was in the main car park at 9.30 a bit manic but fine once sat in the bus. Big 15 seater with double decker trailer for the bikes. Air con and biking videos en route. Travelling in style! Around an hour and a bit to the top of Tremalzo.  Coffee and piss stop at the top taking in the cracking views of the monte baldo range and right up to the Austrian Alps still with some big chunks of snow to be seen. 

Scrubbing off some height zig zagging down an alpine pasture avoiding Heidi and her cows. Zipping into the trees for a sharp climb along the flanks of Tremalzo and then hitting a sweet single track descent called Malga Cassette right down into the top of the ledro valley. Super technical at bits, rocky, steep, flowy through the trees some excellent guiding by Michael, even Alex the guide from Carpentari (on his day off) was laughing at getting shown some parts of the mountain he didn’t know. The trail spat us out at the top of lago de ledro with a lunch stop on the shore. 

After pasta and some superb gelato, down some really loose single track alongside the cycle path and then on a mega technical and steep series of rock(ponale freeride?) Step downs, chutes and switch backs spitting us out on the Limone-Riva road this was some of the gnarliest and sustained technical descents I have done. 

Quick spin through Riva to get to Torbole and with Michael already phoning ahead for the uplift, we were ready for round two. 

We headed up Monte Baldo via Nago to get to the Val of the Devil, skull trail, banana way and some other trail that got us down to Nago. Unbelievably flowey at the top and mega rocky and loose further down. Amazing riding with some amazing people! 

Thanks to Michael Rebbens, Ben(his son) for crashing, Annette the German 747 pilot who could outride most of the blokes, German Michael2 and Michael3 design engineers for Liteville and Syntace, Alex from  Carpentari and the two random Norwegians who tagged along. 

The good thing was I could blame Michael for the second run! My wife just usually puts up with bad traffic or a mechanical as the excuse. I would have been a dead man if I accepted the invitation to the bike shop staff and guides usual Thursday night “local” ride as a third uplift. I was seriously tempted though.

I was back in Peschieria for 7pm and on BBQ duty. 

Day2 – equally as good on the Tremalzo Classico descent but memo to self! Don’t bring moody son who is only used to trail centres on a 1700 metre high mountain on a kids hire bike with only rim brakes. Michael had the patience of a saint especially with the bail out to Limone and the ferry back to Torbole, then a dip in the lake. My son did enjoy the adventure though. 

The details 

Cheap flights to Milan from Edinburgh, apparently the Scot’s don’t appreciate Italy in July as flights were very cheap. 

Car hire with Avis

Accommodation via Eurocamp

Food can be as cheap or expensive as you want 

Bike hire was €72 euro for 2 days for the Cube Stereo, uplift was €20 with Luca’s bike shuttle to Tremalzo and €15 for Monte Baldo. I arranged it all through Michael. The organisation and his passion for the area was superb! 

His cost? Lunch and an ice cream! Not sure how long that will last though….

Only a couple of days left on Garda and might try and sneek in another day in Torbole. The riding really is superb techy singletrack with not one braking bump present! Next time I’ll ditch the wife and kids and come with my mates. 

Wifi is poor so no photos! I’ll upload and link when back In the uk. 

Thanks for reading! Any questions give me a shout.

Alan

Useful info, thanks. I sailed in Malcesine a few years ago been dying to get back there

Excellent going, I’ve been to garda twice and will return, love the area, love Italy. Have a good rest of your holiday.

Aha, just read this, thanks for the glowing report Alan, glad you enjoyed it. Cheers, Michael

I must have missed you by a couple of days as I also met up with Micheal (and the posse of Litteville stormtroopers); did the same ride down to Ledro with them plus Coast Route down from Altissimo.
Quackers email address is the single most useful thing you will ever learn on this forum: He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all the quality trails you would never, in 100 years find on your own at Garda.
It was a shame the forum mods took his post down (back in June), otherwise a lot more Garda visitors could have benefitted from this!
Rick

Out there next week! Can’t wait 🙂