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I'm heading to Taormina for a holiday in August for a week, and am looking to hire a bike to get some riding in. I see there is a bike hire place nearby https://www.cyclingsicily.com , but I'm not sure what the riding is like.
I am a bit concerned about the reputation of the driving on Sicily, so was wondering if there is any MTB riding around?
I do want to go do Mt Etna on the road bike, but not sure what other options there are around there. Any advise would be very welcome.
I used that company when I was out there. For a MTB tour which turned more into a mix because it hammered down with rain and the MTB route was partially flooded. Riding on the roads wasn't too bad for the most part. But Taormina to Etna is a bloody long ride!
The MTB hire from there was a bit poor. More like a very low end bone shaker than anything capable. The guide was very good though. and it's the only company I could find in the immediate area that collect you from your hotel too!
Edit - not quite such a long way as I thought, according to google. We took a bus to etna in the end and that took nearly two hours.
This looks like an interesting route for Etna: https://www.strava.com/activities/171688101
Maybe also something heading north into the mountains?
Cycle up the valley to the Alcantara gorge for swim.
That gorge is very impressive
Keep in mind that it could easily be in the high 30s Celcius out there in August, maybe even low 40s. Fine if you're used to exercise in those kind of temperatures, difficult to impossible if you're not. I'm not.
We went in early September few years back, pre-kids, and it was in the upper 30s every day, peaking at 40. I went with aspirations of hiring a bike and putting some miles in. What actually happened was I went and sat on the beach every single day and stuffed my greedy face with incredible food. It was just too hot to contemplate anything else. The beach bar was about 150m away from the sun loungers, and I had to have a rest halfway there and halfway back.
Another piece of advice; if you have a flight that gets you there mid-morning, and perhaps you've had some medication to help with flying nerves, don't explore the hotel prior to suncreaming up and have 'a little sit down in the shade' on a sun lounger. I was only out for 40 minutes but sun moved round and caught the tops of my feet. I may as well have worn burning shoes for the rest of the holidays. My god that was sore.
I'm from South Africa, so am used to heat, plus will have spent a week walking around Rome before I get there so should be a bit more acclimatised to heat.
There doesn't seem to be much riding up to the North, mainly because the roads don't cross the mountains from what I can see.
I'm going to be there in September and trying to do some mtb on etna. Finding it a bit difficult atm as I want to do some proper single track riding, whereas all the tours seem to be xc riding on fire roads. I contacted etnariders.it but they weren't very helpful unfortunately.