Following a a very difficult year, in which my wife was ill for a long time, we’re planning a cycling holiday somewhere nice and warm in the new year. We’ve heard the Canaries can offer warmth, sunshine and biking, but have no experience of organised holidays of this sort.

Ideally, we’d like a nice little apartment, self catering, with easy access to shops, places to eat, the sea and good biking trails. We’d be looking to hire decent bikes, but we’re not ready for mega-hardcore off road type stuff, more dirt tracks and gentle paths really. Chill out and enjoy the view type stuff. ‘Easy’ is the key word here, we want things to be as relaxing as possible. We’re willing to throw a bit of money at the holiday too, as we’ve not been able to get away in over a year.

Does anyone have any tips/recommendations? We’d be grateful for any advice on this, thanks.

These guys hire decent bikes for about 20-30 euros/day. http://www.free-motion.com/en/

Lots of trails from Maspalomas area and further afield. Lots of options, mainly of wide tracks but with some decent singletrack too if you look a bit harder.

I was there doing budget self catering last year in April for Gran Canaria Bike Festival. Stayed up the hill from centre of town in one of the many apartments around a pool type places.

MBUK had a feature this year (not sure which month) based on GC. They used long distance running routes as a way to identify off road biking.

I’ve gone on day trips with Free Motion from Maspalomas. They were nice guys, good bikes, good prices and well organised.
Terrain in Gran Canaria is very different from the UK, but is good fun riding.
The centre of the island is very different from the concrete tourist resorts. Lots of nice villages, twisty roads and some little cafes and bars. I really liked it.

Looked at going back. There are a few trips where you can go and rent a villa in the mountains and ride every day but think it’s more for a group of mates

Drop us a line – info @ lavatrax.com

Tenerife has lots of trails but may of them are akin to riding on the surface of the moon – volcanic lava a go-go. Just don’t fall off!

Hmmm not sure you’ll find what you’re looking for in the Canaries. They’re predominantly volcanic – most of Lanzarote looks like it erupted yesterday – and the easy riding is like, super easy. Many places hire out modest but not awful MTBs for 10-15 mile flat coastal path type rides. As soon as the paved section finishes ze Germans turn round

If the weather is a priority I’d recommend Lanzarote or Fuerta over Tenerife although the latter is less of a rock in the sea

Not a lot to add Syntax but we went to La Palma in January this year. Saw a lot of MTBers who were mainly on the roads! Saying that I wasn’t biking so didn’t see what they were up to offroad.
We came across some good trails that looked good for biking but I’ve no idea what the access rules are. We wouldn’t go back to La Palma though, It’s mainly bananas. Never seen as any bananas.

To be honest, if you want easy other than some of the stuff on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura the rest of the islands don’t have a great deal to offer, certainly not from your doorstep.

Most of the accommodation in Tenerife at least, is on the coast with a 3718m peak sat behind you. The coastal areas are in the most pretty built up and you don’t really get any “nice easy” trails until you’re about 1000m up. Even then, don’t expect sign posts, nice flat tracks and a cafe every few miles.

Riding along the seafront promenade from Los Cristianos to La Caleta is about as easy as it gets, but even then you have to me able to mind read the geriatrics who are wondering around aimlessly along there.

Where ever you end up, hope you have a good time!

Good road riding, crap mountain biking.

Good road riding, crap mountain biking.

Since when has 2500m of off road descending been crap?

OP, I would recommend speaking to Lavatracks (above) don’t know whether Darren is still there but he/they went beyond their remit after I fell ill.

Tenerife

Drop them a line I’m sure they’ll be able to put something together for you.