[Closed] European airports directly next to the trailhead (no transfer required!)

I live in Munich. The airport is a good 35min train ride from the main station. The nearest locations to ride are another 35-45 mins from the station.

Even if you hired a car it's an hour until you hit the hills.

Discount it.

Innsbruck would be a better bet.

id have thought must airports would be located somewhere flatish, I'd be looking at trains, they should be able to take you into the mountains.

Geneva and then a 45min transfer (pretty easy) to Morzine / Les Gets

Innsbruck's a great shout, but I just checked and there are no direct flights there from Amsterdam on Fri or Sat 🙁

Yes, Geneva could work. There's also a quick 45min transfer to Chamonix from there, which must also have some good riding.

I was just hoping there'd be something even more convenient...

Yes Morzine/Chatel/Les Gets have "some good riding" 🙂

Loads of companies do transfers for cyclists too. Or even ditch the bike and hire one when you are out there.
Loads of bike shops in Morzine

Large airports don't really mix well with big mountains!

Could you hire a small airplane, and have them drop you, with bike + parachute, over your chosen trails?

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Cardiff airport to Afan?

Granada?

Could you hire a small airplane, and have them drop you, with bike + parachute, over your chosen trails?

Best solution ever 😀

...just need to get one of those Pole folding bikes... and a parachute.

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Beaten to it with Granada.

Also maybe Malaga.

How hilly or mountainous does the trailhead need to be?
Innsbruck's the only one I've used where you could ride from the airport terminal building straight to the mountain of choice.

From Holland? I'd hop in the car after work on a Friday to somewhere in Germany or Belgium. Far less faff for a weekend. The only bike rebuilding at the destination will be to put one or other wheel back in depending on car/bikerack.

Thanks [b]andytherocketeer[/b], but unfortunately I don't own a car and rental in the Netherlands seems ridiculously expensive due to a max daily mileage allowance, so you get really stung as soon as you exceed it. The nearest good riding spots are in Winterburg or Willingen, which are around 4 hours away, so not too different to flying.

Looking at a map, Monaco and nice should give good access to the Transmaritime Alps after a short train ride.

There should also be some good riding options from Turing and Milan.

Not quite the 'ride out of the airport onto the trail' scenario I was hoping for though...

How hard is it to get a train to BSM? The funicular leaves from the train station door.

With a hire car a well timed flights you'll get two full days riding in. I'd be looking for airports within an hour and a bit then look for good timings. Geneva would be my number one option. Loads of places a short drive from there.

You could cycle to MTB trails direct from Glasgow or Edinburgh. Just not Alp type ones.

timidwheeler - Member
How hard is it to get a train to BSM? The funicular leaves from the train station door.

Sorry, what's BSM?

Bourg-Saint-Maurice!

Worked it out

Just checked - takes almost 10 hours and 2 trains to get to Bourg-Saint-Maurice from Amsterdam

...I think I can rule that option out.

Malaga

Amsterdam to Trondheim Norway or Östersund/ Åre Sweden. If its the latter I'll pick you up, provided you are alright 🙂

Leeds Bradford - can ride straight out of the Arrivals door, round through Scotland, up and over the Chevin and through to the trails at Stainburn.

Rachel

Of course - this applies:

I was just flicking through the Alps book and it says

"Situated just North West of Geneva, the Crozet/Lelex ski station runs on weekends and bank holidays. It is so close to the airport you could feasibly hop straight on your bike out of the plane and ride there".

Basel has got a fair bit of good singletrack riding in the 800m-ish hills surrounding it, airport is very close the very small city. Again, not 'alpy' though.

Happy to guide you, or connect you to routes or other rides for you to join, should you wish.

There will be biking around zurich, but I don't know it. Uetliberg is one that springs to mind http://www.uetliberg.ch/en/

Bar those mentioned above, are there any flights to Chambery or Grenable in the summer? Both have hills very close, the latter has Alpe D'Huez and Les Deux Alpe within an hour or so.

Queenstown airport is also very close to the trails but I suspect the flight time is a little long...!

If time is the issue fly where you like and pick up the hire car at the airport.

PS KLM-AirFrance, IME, are the world champions at losing baggage.
When I lived there, and used to fly to South America, we used to have a sweepstake as to whose baggage would not arrive, since there was almost always someone's bag not arrive.

I still say, get a car, drive to Germany or Belgium. The faff will be less, and there's no fixed flight times. Save the flying for the week long annual trip to the Alps or wherever.

G/L getting from home/office to an alpine resort with 4 hours. When I lived in Holland I could probably manage 30mins to Schiphol, 30min checkin/bagdrop, 30-60min security queue, 30min min before flight, 1hr flight, 1 hr to get bags, 1hr min to anywhere like the Alps near Geneva. If that's not > 4 hours claimed for driving to Germany, then having to rebuild bike rather than put wheels back in is probably enough to tip the balance. All for 1 and a bit day's riding to get the last flight back on a Sunday.

But then I know people who have got up at 4am, first flight to GVA, ski all day, taxi back to GVA for 9pm flight home. And said they'll do it again. Expensive day out.

You could cycle to MTB trails direct from Glasgow or Edinburgh. Just not Alp type ones.

I don't think Glenifer Braes is worth a flight from Holland. 🙂

Shoreham (Brighton City) Airport has trails about half a mile away 🙂

Take a look at Ljubljana airport. It is sitting on the edge of the Julian Alps. Lots of nice natural trails around.

Another vote for Malaga. Easy train takes you to quite a few locations including the Benalmadena cable car. Pretty hot for the next few months though, better as a winter destination.

I cant beleive no one has mentioned Leeds/Bradford Airport yet ! (seriously)

Riding straight from the end of the runway on Otley Chevin, or up the Aire Valley.

Even the likes of Chambery are going to require a transfer/journey to riding.

Train is a good shout. Direct to Bourg St Maurice and then cable car up.

Yesterday FD 🙂

Leeds Bradford - can ride straight out of the Arrivals door, round through Scotland, up and over the Chevin and through to the trails at Stainburn.

Rachel

Ooops 😆

round through Scotland

In fact just noticed my other suggestion was ruled out !

Oh well charter an aircraft to take you to the airport at Courchevel?

https://blog.privatefly.com/courchevel-now-accessible-for-private-charter-flights

The Jura mountains are easily accessible from Geneva airport but may still be a 45 min ride at the very least. The Saleve mountain is also a similar ride but has less trail riding for a weekend. Chamonix has a riding restriction in the summer so Morzine/Les Gets would be a better option.

Courchevel has a small airport right in the mountains, but I would imagine the chances of a direct flight would be very slim.

Nice does present some good options to the north (Trans Provence will be coming through that area later this week).

Is there anything in the Massif Central or the Pyrenees?

It would be worth checking some of the Spanish airports; Barcelona, Alicante and Murcia-San Javier spring to mind as possibles. There's riding near-ish MSJ if you head toward Los Belonos / La Manga Club / La Union / Cartegena, but it's a long way from being 'on the doorstep'.

So it sounds like Leeds/Bradford is the MTB destination of choice in Europe then

Don't Nice and Lyon have good riding nearby too?

[url= https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/La+Manga+Club+Resort,+Cartagena,+Spain/Murcia-San+Javier+Airport,+Ctra.+del+Aeropuerto,+s%2Fn,+30720+Santiago+de+la+Ribera,+Murcia,+Spain/ @37.6919852,-0.9078537,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0xd633db263872a1d:0x5b5bda17552c9297!2m2!1d-0.802736!2d37.60439!1m5!1m1!1s0xd631195b18f7dcd:0xc292190fcb384135!2m2!1d-0.8110444!2d37.7804538!3e1?hl=en]MSJ to La Manga - one hour 20[/url]. Have a full cooked English then play in the hills.

Others have mentioned it but it's hard to think of a better option than Innsbruck as there are big mountains directly north and south of the airport.

You could fly to Luxembourg and XC around the Ardennes. I'm told there's some passable "enduro" and DH riding but I couldn't tell you where.

Surrey Hills is rideable from Gatwick 😉

Heathrow -> Virginia Water -> Ascot -> Swinley 😀

Want an airport in the mountains though, how about Courchevel...

maderia? nothing is that far from the airport...

Is there anything in the Massif Central or the Pyrenees?

Nice idea that.
From Clermont Ferrand airport to the top of the puy de dôme, it's got to be less than 30km and no transfers needed!
Otherwise you could fly into Perpignan and get the train (it's a bit slow after Villefranche/ Vernet but really scenic) up to Font Romeu or Mont Louis.

As already mentioned, flying to Malaga is a good call, there is a train all the way down the coast with good riding nearby, inc the gondola at Benalmadena or there is a train to El Chorro via Malaga and there is some excellant riding around there! bit hot in July and August though
or
There are mountain bike trails and a ski lift on Vitosha Mountain in Sofia, Bulgaria, you can even take your bike on the bus from the airport!

East Midlands airport? Within an hours train ride of the peaks. Not much organised man made trails but plenty of awesome riding.

So it sounds like Leeds/Bradford is the MTB destination of choice in Europe then

Either that or Paisley 🙂

kilo - Member

Cardiff airport to Afan?

It's about an hour's drive, BPW is about 10 mins closer by road.

But... on balance I think I'd prefer the Geneva / Morzine option, it's not just a lack of imagination that draws so many people to Morzine / Les Gets.

Anyway for OP:

Geneva is an easy airport to get flights to, but Amsterdam is an easy airport to get flights from as a it's a massive European hub.

Morzine is the only one of the major Alpine resorts I could find after a lot of trying that has a scheduled daily shuttle - there are other shuttles to other resorts, but you have to book them which gets very pricy going solo or small groups. They're every 45 mins or so from Geneva to Morzine

Summer accommodation is easy and cheap to find.

You won't spend much of your limited weekend time looking for trails, there's loads, they're most sing posted and well, there's a lift network you don't have to book months in advance, unlike the bus services in the UK.

Whereabouts are you in Holland?

Probably cheaper and easier to buy a car or better still an old camper and drop down to the Ardennes or to the German Eifel mountains. Don't obviously have the grandeur nor the elevation of the alps, but still more than much of the uk has to offer and definitely more than Holland.

Seems like a massive faff otherwise.

Pack bike, 30 mins (even with an evoc bag you pretty much have dismantle the bike). Get to airport 30-45 minutes realistically. Hang around for 60 mins prior to boarding. 60-75 min flight to destination. Transfer, again realistically best part of an hour. Check in to hotel, 20 mins. Assemble bike, 30 mins. Find there is a bolt missing....

You are looking at, at best I reckon, 4-5 hours before you even get pedalling.

Amsterdam to the Eifel/Ardennes is roughly 3 hours.

Plus of you have the freedom of being more spontaneous and can explore more.
A basic camper or van won't set you back more than 2k (must be loads of campers.... more campers per head in holland than anywhere else). Reckon you would easily spend that on flight and accommodation within a few weekends.

Would it be better to live in the alps and commute to work?

If you go to Geneva you could ride from the airport to the Jura mountains. It's about 20 mins from my house and it's a three hour ride to the top ( somewhere like Mijoux ) and then fill ya boots for days of bliss.

Would it be better to live in the alps and commute to work?

Either this or just make fewer, longer trips to do your riding.

There must be some kind of cycling that's fun in Holland? TT-ing?

There must be some kind of cycling that's fun in Holland?

How about flying in to Salzburg? Nothing directly in or around the city that I'm aware of, but Saalbach, Leogang, Wagrain and Schladming are only an hour away. There's a fair amount of mountain between Salzburg and those places too so there must be plenty more riding in between.

Leogang and Schladming both have train stations too.

More local... http://www.mtbroutes.nl/

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions!

I'm determined to make this happen... just ordered an Evoc bike bag.

Dublin, about 5km to the Wicklow mountains.

Dissapointed thatno one has mentioned Luton and its access to the less good end of the Chilterns and vague proximity Chicksands and Woburn....

Keeping the trails quite for us in the know locals I expect...

Maritime Alps? 45 minutes/1 hour transfer to Sospel from Nice with Coolbus, who also do uplifts and guiding.

As above Madeira Funchal is a short transfer to the top of the moutntains with Freeride Madeira.
San Sebastian for Basque MTB
Tenerife would work too.
Sicily has some great riding and is lumpy enough.
Marrakech is a short drive from the Atlas mountains.
Verona for Lake Garda.
Andorra has an airport but I think it's to the south in Spain.