Any recommendations for towns or areas that would make a good long-term base for exploring the Pyrenees?

I’m aware of BasqueMTB and I’ve been to Andorra a few times but the rest is a mystery

I rode with Ian Pendry from Altitude Adventures in the Southern Pyrenees (Saint Pierre dels Forcats) Cracking riding around there

Luchon is great. Good trails with a lift from town. Plenty more hills to explore further afield. Nice enough town too. Reasonably lively without being busy.

Ideas in this thread (as well as an interesting read)

Buying and renovating a rural property on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees

I used to holiday inland from Perpignan in a small village called Cucignan lots of roadies, ruined hilltop chateau, vinyards – could be some great riding

Luchon was a nice town
Chairlift gave you good height gain at start of day
11 years since I was there and didn’t do that much mtb but apparently plenty trails there

Luchon great so many trails and rides
Foix interesting and a good base
Prades and the canigiou area undiscovered, though altitude adventures are further down the valley
Basque country not just hondribba or coast
Collioure and up the valley

Pryennee are wonderful

Doug posted this on fb, features some local trails

[video]http://vimeo.com/196452927[/video]

We did a week in Luchon with A Quick Release, some really fantastic riding… We didn’t use the lift at all during the main week (I used it on the rest day) but I think that was AQR’s preference rather than a comment on the trails there- what I rode from the lift was great (including some of the same trails we rode self-powered).

Not sure how easy it’d be to navigate without a guide, though. It’s a really nice wee town though, I think being in the town at the bottom rather than in the resort makes a big difference to feel, especially compared with a big alps resort.

Thanks for the recommendations

Spent a week in the Pyrenees last summer. My main tip is to make sure you’re not there too early in the season for the lifts to open. We were there mid-June and no lifts were open anywhere. Some amazing trails in Bagneres de Luchon, we had no guide so used Strava to find them, which worked well. If you’ve got a car, I’d suggest heading over to Ainsa for a few days, rode the best trail of my life there in the only dry day of a very wet week. Saint-Lary Soulan also has some excellent riding, with a printed map available in the bike shop in town that has loads of riding on.

I did a few days in Ainsa this September. Met up with spekkie of this forum. There are enough trails there to keep you happy for quite some time!

Luchon has an amazing variety of trails from xc to dh. We got a map(paper) which had some great routes on it. Combo of pedalling up and lift assist up.

The town is lovely and the spa is worth a visit if only for the speedo experience.

Also went to aix les thermes (?sp) which was good although the braking bumps on the main trails made morzine look smooth.

We are xc biased mincers who like natural stuff and max trail centre reds.