Morning All
Looking for some suggestions of a good place for a week's self-guided road biking - South of Spain or Portugal-ish?.
Been to Majorca and Lanza a few times, and they're great. Just want to try somewhere different. Ideally looking for somewhere that isn't too 'resorty' (Puerto Pollenca is about as much of a tourist trap as I can handle), outskirts of a resort might be OK though.
Other than that, decent roads, plenty hills, nice views, relatively close to an airport required.
Don't want much do I?.
Any suggestions?.
I can recommend around the Ronda area in Andalucia, great roads and some decent mountain climbs (think longest one I did was 13km). I stayed in Ronda itself which I enjoyed, it's a bit touristy in the main area (restaurants with picture menus etc.) but it's not hard to find more authentic stuff and lots of little villages dotted around the area. Seemed about 45 minutes drive from Malaga airport. Can't really advise on routes though as I was on a guided holiday whilst I was there.
+1 Ronda, beautiful old town, some decent riding in the area and one of the oldest bullrings in Spain.
Get youself signed up for the Ronda101.
[url= http://www.lalegion101.com/101KM-24H/ ]http://www.lalegion101.com/101KM-24H/[/url]
Hmmm - looks good. Thanks. That Ronda 101 (May?) might even fit when we're hoping to be there.
Keep the suggestions coming folks.
Cheers
Calpe? Cheap as chips.
Nice roads and cafes.
That Ronda 101 (May?) might even fit when we're hoping to be there.
You'll have to book early, it's very popular.
FuzzyWuzzy - who did you go with? (and would you recommend them?)
I've been to the Andulucia hiking not riding, but it looked like a fantastic place for road cycling.
How far do you plan to ride in a day? You could do a lot worse than flying out to Madrid, get a train to Salamanca, then ride down the Via de la Plata to Seville. From there get the train back to Madrid.
Edit: the first bit's central Spain, not the south...
Edit2: this way: http://tinyurl.com/6gmo4uh
@sue - I went with http://www.andaluciancyclingexperience.com/index.html and can't praise them enough, going back in March (on a winter training camp, same as before). It was a couple of years ago I last went and they had a stay in a Ronda hotel option which I went with (as was solo) but now I think the only options are to stay in Montecorto (or the farmhouse hotel 5km away) but I think I'll actually prefer that anyway.
The cycling was great, amazing quality roads 95% of the time, considerate drivers (although not much traffic anyway once you're in the mountains), ideal weather (low 20's early March last time I was there), Ashley & Claire are great hosts and I even lucked out with the other guests at the time. They cater for a lot of different fitness levels (I wasn't fit at all :p ) so it's not like your traditional training camps where it's all racers doing last minute tuning before the season starts (although they do offer longer/tougher route options).
FuzzyWuzzy - thanks for the info, they sound great. And being suitable for a range of abilities would be perfect for me - I've been looking for something that hits the middle ground between uber-fit boy racer and the scenic cycle tour, plus I'd be going alone so would be good if there were other solo travellers rather than joining a group who know each other.
Cheers 🙂 Will look them up in more detail.