The wife and I have had a bit of a last minute change of mind, and instead of the planned trip to Scotland we are thinking of heading somewhere sunnier. We have been to Luchon before and what appeals are the selection of bars, restaurants, market etc. and it is accessible from Toulouse.

For the riding I’m looking for lots of flowing singletrack, with great views and fun downs, but nothing too steep or technical and rocky to put Mrs Gra off. I know AQR are meant to be top notch but she really does not like the idea of riding with a group. We only did one day’s riding down from Superbagneres last time and granted the views were great but the riding was not what I was expecting – some of it was great but there seemed to be lots fire road linked with some bits that were too rocky/steep for my wife to enjoy.

Are the waymarked xc trails easy to find, is it best to use a good map or does anyone know of anyone who offers self guided routes?

Should I be looking elsewhere given the above criteria? Any input greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you might have missed some of the trails from the top of the super bagnere. There are fire roads linking up but they most traverse the hillside. There’s a pretty big range of trails from pretty gnaar to quite gentle too. Some are easy to miss, though. Not sure about the other trails but anywhere away from the lift will need a lot of pedalling up.

We tend to go to the alps these days as the xc tends to be more accessible for our mixed group.

There’s brilliant riding around luchon, I loved it but we did it all fully guided with AQR, I couldn’t have found most of it the day after. I only did one run down from superbagneres, and there was practically no fire road but also, none of it was simple.

When I was there AQR were doing one big mix-skills group, which to be fair worked better than I would have thought possible mostly because of their trail knowledge, but does have its issues. I think their format possibly encourages more XC-ish people and less gnar bars? So I wouldn’t necessarily rule it out)

(trying not to be rude about this so I’ll be self-critical… It was 2011 when we went out there, I was really not that good a rider at the time- competent I suppose, I had my moments. If I’d gone to White Room with that level of skill, I’d have been struggling. With AQR I was one of the stronger descenders. And by far the shittest climber 😆 This is kind of a longwinded way of saying, sure, maybe be cautious of the group ride but don’t be scared off- the bar wasn’t that high.)

Thanks for the replies. That’s useful Northwind I think I’ll see if AQR have a day or two available. Does anyone know any other guiding in the area where you don’t actually need to be on a holiday with them? Are there any other places where there are decent xc routes, there seem to be a few out of Ax Le Thermes, are these waymarked/easy to find? Basque area another option but possibly too technical.

Will do a bit more research of the trails if we do go to Luchon again thanks Nick, out of interest where abouts in the Alps do you go for your xc?