Me and the Mrs are going on a 5 Month European Tour this Summer – we will be heading to the following countries;

Holland
Germany
C Republic
Austria
Hungary
Austria
Croatia
Italy
Switzerland
France
Belgium
+ What ever countries get in our way.

Anyone got any recommendations of where to ride / useful links.

I have found a load of “Gravity” based centres and assume these, in most cases will cater for all abilities / styles of riding..

Thanks

England, Wales or Scotland. 8)

Slovenia

(and all of the above)

Spain? Particularly Mallorca but I’m biased because I live here!
But seriously we have some great trails here as long as you don’t mind long climbs. In particular the GR221 which runs the whole length of the Tramuntana mountains and can can completed over 3 days stopping off in the council run refuges(bit like youth hostels).Best to avoid the middle of summer(mid June to end August) though as the heat can be a bit much!
I am just about to do my leader training so should be up and running shortly.Check out my facebook page and my youtube channel most of the videos are more downhill orientated(aren’t they all!) but all are ridden on a hard tail please check the photos on my page for views of the trails and views

MBE book

I tried the above book, and although it was great for trail centers and gave an idea of XC/Downhill etc, it wasnt so great for long distance XC routes – i.e. multi day – but if your after day’s out its good.

to be honest i found the best mountain biking in terms of XC to be switzerland – mainly buying the cheap dedicated MTB/ROAD maps from the tourist info offices, well signposted, i especially enjoyed the
Flims, Laax, Rhine region, Chur, Davos, around the austrian german and italian borders.

Germany I can recommend the Harz mountains, Thuringian Forrest, Erzgerbirge mountains, Franconian mountains and the Littau mountains if you like exploring in the mountains. The Czech R. Pod Smrkem has a new trail centre which is also good fun with a nice relaxed trail head centre.

http://cdt11.tourinsoft.com/upload/VTT_Aude_en_Pyrenees_carte_2012_.pdf

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/route-guideride-report-france-tarn-cevennes-big-post-pic-heavy

I was last year around Europe for some months mountain biking, including some marathon races. My favourite 2 places are Livigno in Italy, very close to Swiss border and Finale Ligure, Italian riviera. Finale’s best bet is ride around the 24h Finale Ligure race course, otherwise you’ll have to deal with more technical, rocky, steep routes.
Livigno is just amazing. At tourist office you can buy high quality mtb maps for 1 euro only.It’s duty free area as well.

Garda lake in Italy has some good routes, but lots for all mountain freeride type.

Switzerland would be the country to stay. If you go to myswitzerland.com you’ll find plenty of information for national, regional and local mtb routes.

I enjoyed also riding just north of Bratislava, around the Stupavsky marathon course.

Forgot Bormio, 1 hour drive from Livigno. Lot of 6 maps including Livigno very cheap. St Moritz is also close to Livigno. DId a couple of routes linking both places.

If you like marathon racing, you won’t be dissappointed.

i wanna (extended) holiday now thinking about this….

Thanks for all the advice, will be checking them out!

Thanks.