me and the wife are off for about 6 months in our motorhome,planning to start around lake Garda end of June and finish up in Portugal,would appreciate your experiences,pos and neg,particularly any off the beaten track type riding.Me pace 405,She orange 5. cheers
pop aroud the countryside of Nice, and the valey di taggia...
Best second end of august
hope it helps
From Lake Garda, you could head west and go to the Aosta valley. Great riding there (Pila, La Thuile, etc.). Then either go through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Chamonix or cross the col du Petit Saint Bernard into the Tarentaise Valley (Les Arcs, Sainte Foy, La Plagne, etc.). From here, head south to Les 2 Alpes, Alpe d'Huez, etc. then on to Provence and the Maritime Alps.
Give me a shout if you want some info on the riding round here.
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EDIT: Hadn't noticed the finishing in Portugal bit! From Provence, head to the Pyrenees, into Spain and down to the Sierra Nevada, then over to Portugal. Dammit, sounds epic, I want to do it myself now!
I'd second stevo's comments, Verbier is pretty close to Chamonix/Courmayeur etc as well. Near Courmayeur there are amazing thermal baths at Pre St Didier, absolutely brilliant.
You really want to head to the north of Garda, the south is flat as a pancake and not much cop. Bellagio on Lake Como is absolutely incredible, brilliant for a romantic evening. Theres an island with castle on Lago Maggiore which is cool.
Biggest bit of advice though, go to Slovenia. Such a beautiful landscape, loads of stuff to do. We were in Bled, Bohinj and Kranska Gora, all of them are very nice, Bled is a good base. There is a pass, Vrsic I think its called, which would certainly stretch your legs.
You are a lucky man.
Ditto the Slovenia comments. I havent ridden there, but visited a couple of years ago around the Bled/Bovec/K.Gora area, beautiful place, quite cheap and not as eastern europe/Balkan as you might think.
Another thing to consider, if you've room on/in the van you might want to bring a kayak or some form of inflatable boat.
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