Four of us have booked flights to Nice at the start of September for nine days, taking bikes with us and will rent a van when we get there. We are planning to go to Finale but with that much time available should we spend it all there or is there somewhere else we should go for some of the time? Happy to take a day out in the middle to travel and recover!

Looking to do fun trail riding not thrashing down braking bumps.

Livigno, Lake Garda or into France?

http://www.rivierabike.co.uk/

That area and riding described on the XC/AM trip sounds pretty spot on. Have you been with them or just ridden in that area?

I’ve been. It’s brilliant. Would not hesitate to go again.
No braking bumps, no lines of storm troopers. I would recommend that you go guided though, it’s no Morzine.

Finale is a must-do. We rode 7 days there in September last year. You won’t struggle to fill 9 days. The minibus & trailer uplifts work very well and you’ll have them waiting for you at the end of each descent, ready to load-up and take you to the next one.
Trails here are either fast and flowy or rocky and tech, plenty of both.
<EDIT> Get the uplifts, don’t waste precious riding time plodding up the hills </EDIT>

Garda is also a must-do, but deserves to be a holiday in its own right, not just a couple of days. Descents here are much longer but so are the minibus & trailer uplifts, so you’ll probably get two long runs in a day at most.
Trails here are mostly rocky walking paths, with some nice tech sections.

Ecky-Thump,

How did you find out which trails to ride? Do you have any gpx tracks of the riding you did?

Also how does the uplift work? Who does them and do you need to book ahead?

Looking at the distances involved etc I am thinking we should stay most of our time in Finale and then some time in Molini Triora for a change of scene.

We went with ezefreeride.com
Trails were picked by Marco and Enrico on the day according to ability and preferences of the group, both are good riders and excellent guides.
Typical day in Finale: 32 miles of downhill/enduro trails on this day

Yes, you’ll need to book. Details in the link.
They collect riders from pick-up points in the town too if you aren’t staying at their place.

Ah OK, so you booked accommodation and guiding with them but equally we could just contact them for the uplift aspect of it. Got it.

yep, you’ve got it. 😀

Greg Germain is the guy to speak to about riding in the Maritime Alps you can also get maps off his website
http://www.1001sentiers.fr
Good riding here also just over in Italy
http://www.super-natural.it