It’s my wife’s turn to choose our holiday destination and it looks like it will be Greece. Has anyone been anywhere with good off road riding?

Cheers
Dickie

Sorry to hijack .. but looking at one of the Greek islands this year. Any other suggestions for road biking too would be appreciated.
Was thinking Northern Corfu area .. Any better ideas??

Vassiliki with Neilson was good ten years ago, but even then they were grumbling about EU grants being used to tarmac over all the best trails.

Just remembered, Samos, close to Turkey has both history and trails. It’s about the size of the Isle of Wight but much much taller.

Hi

did windsurfing on Kos and at Vassiliki and Nidri and Porto Heli. On no wind days hired a dirt motorbike (also did guided motobike holiday on Crete) and had a fab time – mainly cart trails, some sheperd paths, but near Vassiliki on coast there was some tighter stuff. Locals attitude was great, (I always slowed down and tried to talk), lots of help given , directions etc, places to visit, some great scenery and history too.

Maps are unobtainable or CRAP.

Beware power and water cables strung at chest/head height across roads near farms/fruit trees/olive groves etc. Also had a run in with a pack of wild dogs on one desolate road.

Do NOT photograph or go near military installations (Kos is near Turkey) as they get upset about that a lot quickly.

I used follow my nose and head away from areas of population and it alwsy worked – but to be fair a bit easier on a motorbike ( I was doing 200 miles some days)

There are good maps available now from Skai – Skai maps, available in the UK from Stanfords. Scale can vary as they fit the island onto the map but they are typically about 1:50,000 up there with OS.

There doesn’t seem to much in the way of organised MTBing but many of the country roads are little more than mule tracks anyway. Financial troubles seem to have put the brakes on the road ‘improvements’. Some car hire places also do MTBs, never looked closely but they look like £99.99 full sussers with lots of chrome and plastic.

I did some off road touring a few years ago and went into the Pelion Peninsula. The tracks and cobbled paths all over the peninsula would make for excellent riding if you’re happy to explore and get away from the usual destinations. At the time most people looked bemused as I came into a village from the middle of a forest but if you google it it seems there is more riding going on there now.