I’m looking at going on my first MTB hol for a while, and looking for ideas.

It’ll be Europe, pretty likely Alps or Sierra Nevada. I want to push myself and the Banshee
Spitfire I got last year, which has advanced my riding.

The sort of riding I’m looking for is mostly fun descending – I guess you’d say Enduro-type riding and single track. Support would include uplifts of whatever sort. When in the UK I do prefer trail centre descending like Golspie, Fort Bill Red, Innerleithen etc, and I’d like to do this sort of thing on holiday. I’m not a competitive rider, but I’d like to push my limits a bit and come back better. And have much fun in the process.

In the past I’ve been to several places, and Les Gets was the one I liked best. That was 10-15 years ago though and a lot has changed. I’ve heard great things about Spain.

Thoughts and recommendations very welcome!!

I’m off to switchbacks in bubion at the end of this month, good value uplift morning and lunch, so some climbs but def decent bias.
Nice village, great food and nice location, great trails and even though I’ve done most of them a few are so good I’d fly to Spain just to ride that trail alone. I’ve been 4 years on run so have no experience of any where else.

http://www.basquemtb.com

AQR Holidays in the French Pyrenees.

A lovely mix of trails to play with and depending on ability Ian and Kate can steepen the gradient and skill level to help push your riding but always making sure you’re capable of riding it. Great accommodation & food at Le Lutin and Luchon is a really chilled out place.

Thanks guys, good food for thought. Basque MTB seem to have a good idea with offering to find you alternative accommodation as an option. I’d probably be on my own, so restrictions like minimum group size that some places have wouldn’t work for me.

You wont go far wrong with Bike Verbier, cant wait to get back out wwth them.

Mackem +1. I’ve never know anyone being so focused on your holiday as Doug is. I’ll be back again for my 3rd one later this year and I’m also sounding out people for a week next year.

+1 for switch-backs at Bubion.
Couldn’t be better, loads of natural challenging stuff with some great guides. absolutely beautiful

Call Alan at http://www.sierramtb.com/ – excellent value for money and fully accommodating to your requirements – will collect from Malaga airport. All types of mtb riding catered for.

Did two days riding near Girona with pureriding.eu last month. It was excellent.

Some vids below if you’d want to check out the trails:

Spectacular Spain

Looking at their site they’ve got plenty of riding to keep you busy for a week or more too.

+1 http://www.bikeverbier.com Superb holidays for lots of different reasons, and very good for solo travellers. The trails and scenery are incredible.

Couple of days spent with http://freeridemadeira.com/ last year.

Great to hear about solo travellers wl, I’m going this weekend and can’t bloody wait!

In the grand tradition of recommending from your own experiences, I’ll say The White Room. There were a couple of solo guys the week I did there; everyone just seemed to get on as a group. Great atmosphere and great riding.

Ciclo Montana

See you there nickc. 🙂
Another vote for Bikeverbier.
Think this’ll be about our 12th year with them.
Just seems to get better every year. Well apart from Phil’s jokes, they’re still shit. 😀
We do also got to other places but they’re always as well as BV not instead of.

Ah cool SSstu, see you there 😀

nickc – you’ll be very well looked after by the team at BV (and by singlespeedstu *waves ayup there*). Enjoy your trip.

Waves back to Will.
Bout time me managed to get out there on the same week again. 😀

Wow, lots of choice there! Enough to give a chap option anxiety. Thank you all.

BV have clearly sustained their good rep over a very long time. Basque MTB seem a bit less cheap and cheerful, but could be a goer. I do fancy a bit of Spain.

Basquemtb do two very different trips, both brilliant in their own way. The Basque Coast week is more of a holiday – lots of great food and drink close by and plenty of time to relax. The Backcountry Pyrenees trip has (even) better riding and is much more epic but there’s more time doing transfers in the van and less time to sit and have a beer. The riding is incredible though, with amazing scenery and fantastic technical singletrack.

Freeride Madeira is really good as well. Very friendly and well run with lots of great riding. You get loads of riding in because they shuttle you up and down pretty efficiently but you don’t quite get the feeling of being away from civilisation like you do in the Pyrenees.

True, basquemtb isn’t the cheapest but you do get what you pay for. I remember doing cheap and cheerful in Châtel once. Worst. Holiday. Ever.