evenin’ stw massive

i need a bit of help with booking a holiday. instead of going on a separate biking holiday, this year im going to try combining our family holiday with a bit of biking; possibly booking a few days with a tour company, possibly just going myself if there is a bike park or similar nearby.

family priorities are a private villa near a beach with a pool

my priority is somewhere good to ride

any suggestions? or just which regions to look at? ta

Have a look at the Malaga area. Loads of hotels, villas etc

For your biking contact Joyriders who operate about an 90 mins away. The biking is pretty damn good.

I’m with heavy-rat on this, just come back from a few days with Mark @ Joyriders.

2nd time we have been and will be going back next year, great riding and great company.

a taster from this year

IMG_8277 cropped by eastham_david, on Flickr

and

IMG_8342 by eastham_david, on Flickr

sierra nevada – its ridic. Fly into Granada or Malaga…mint

Does Tenerife count?
What you’re looking for is exactly why we’re here!
Lavatrax

Try Alan at Sierra Cycling in Fuengirola.

Just come back from a couple of days there. You stay in a house/villa within a gated community with a communal swimming pool, but the beach is literally 100 metres away.

House/villa is perfect for a family, sleeps up to 8, or the one we stayed in did.

The riding was good and thoroughly enjoyable. If you’re only doing a few days ridng on your own, then at least you’ll have a group of people to ride with.

Bike hire was reasonable as well.

Here’s their website

my mates wen with switchbacks and said it was really good. place is called boubion not sure of the spellin

I can’t really recommend it over the Sierra Nevada and the like, it’s not really an MTB desination, but if you happen to end up in the Costa Blanca area there’s some reasonable stuff up the north coast:



If you do happen to end up here, give me or mugboo a shout, we’ll give you a few good routes. Locally, you can ask at the bike shop in Xabia.

Thanks very much all, gives me somewhere to start looking….

Sierra nevada’s…… Have a family Cortijo up in the mountains there, I try to get out a few times a year work and funds permitting.
Some great trails/goat paths to be found if you like exploring

When were you thinking of going?
The Malaga area gets extremely hot in the summer.

I have been there in March and April several times and the weather is like a nice summers day back in the UK

Switchbacks are based up in Bubion, the riding is awesome, but does include some climbing, other companies seem to opperate more uplift, others none/minimal.

On the plus side, this means they ride cheeky trails that wouldn’t be possible if you were driving there.

Nowhere near a beach though, lovely place but you’d be bored if you spent an antire day there let alone a week (drink beer, eat tapas, drink wine, eat dinner, bed, ride all day, repeat) . They do DH hollidays out of Malaga if thats your thing?

anything good in the turre/mojacar area?

found a nice moorish villa…

Not really much help to the OP, but I can’t wait to go to Joyriders in April! Riding a bike, tapas and beer. Heaven.

If it’s summer I’d head up north, nicer beaches, better food, and generally less touristy than down south. Cooler, too. Springtime would be definitely down south, though.

Madrid’s got some great trails, they do bike hire in Cercedilla too – although that would be more of a weekend break than a proper holiday, though.

family priorities are a private villa near a beach with a pool

my priority is somewhere good to ride

Slowrider, We have beach-houses next to the sea with large pool & gardens. Excellent for families. Stunning singletrack rides with plenty of bus uplift during the day & fantastic après-bike on the coast at night.
When are you thinking to go?
http://www.sierracycling.com since 1992.

Would definately recommend switchbacks in bubion…enuff said

hi alan,

we are looking for 2 weeks from 30/31 july

ricardo, their site looks good so ill look for a vila nearby…

Another Switchbacks fan here – best accomodation (and food) in the area by all and my accounts: http://www.catifalarga.com/catifalargaen.html

With pool, many miles from beach, but has the plus of not sharing with hundreds of lobster coloured sun-seekers.

my plan is to get a villa a bit closer to the coast than that for family days, then drive to wherever the biking is for the odd days guided riding rather than combine the two. my family have to put up with my obsession with bikes, they dont need a group of like minded people adding to the ‘what tyre for…’ debates

slowrider, we’ve had a fair number of similar groups. The area around here is good for that sort of thing, beach with two cool cities nearby means lots for families to do. No danger of any lobsters! 🙂 Give me a shout if you would like any details.

we are looking for 2 weeks from 30/31 july

¡SCORCHIO!

I’d head up to the Basque country at that time of year.