So it looks like this year’s family holiday is going to be Menorca. I’ll have the chance to escape for a few days of cycling, so does anyone know anything about cycling in Menorca and have any recommendations for routes, hire shops, etc.?

I’m happy to do either road biking or mountain biking – which is the better option for Menorca? A mixture of both would be ideal to keep things interesting, but probably not really viable unless the hire place is very close to where we’re staying (currently unconfirmed).

As I understand it, the road network is essentially a main spine road with smaller roads emanating from it to the coast. Is the main road okay for cycling, or best avoided? Is it possible to string together nice road routes around the island of decent distances (100+ km)? I’m guessing a fair amount of out-and-back routing is required.

Is the mountain biking all just gravel tracks / easy XC stuff? What sort of bike would be ideal?

Any info, greatly appreciated. Photos would be even better.

Cheers.

We stayed on the south of the island and there is a track which follows the coast. It looked amazing.

When the jellyfish stopped me swimming I sat on the track watching mega bucks exotica whizz by. No, it’s nothing like bus spotting!

Lots of this.

Only ridden 10 or 15 miles of the coastal track but it was quite nice, surprisingly rugged in places while still being largely flat.

I’d take a 29er HT with fast-rolling tyres.

By coastal track, do you mean the Cami de Cavalles?

That looks like it could be good fun on an XC bike. Definitely starting to look more appealing than road riding, especially as I’ve been spoilt by road riding in Mallorca for the last couple of family holidays.

As I understand it, the road network is essentially a main spine road with smaller roads emanating from it to the coast. Is the main road okay for cycling, or best avoided? Is it possible to string together nice road routes around the island of decent distances (100+ km)? I’m guessing a fair amount of out-and-back routing is required.

I did a bit of road riding there and tbh it wasn’t great. While not exactly the A66, the main road down the middle was busy and somewhat unpleasant. It’s also fairly flat. Hopefully someone else has more info on the mountain biking.

By coastal track, do you mean the Cami de Cavalles?

That does sound familiar.

Can’t comment much on road riding as I have no interest in it. But you see people out, the main me1 has a decent hard shoulder area that most use.
The coast path is the cami de cavalls. It has mixed terrain, fire road like, boulder fields, sandy single-track, moon rock, rocky and rooty and as zippy says and pictures. Oh a few bits are just the normal roads too. I think it’s fair to say some of it will require hiking with your bike, I know my skill level is shit but I’m sure some of it would require akrig type skill.
I only know of the bike hire at the hotel we stay at but I know it’s not the only place.
But seriously nobody ever go to menorca cycling, stay away, you’ll hate it, go do some road riding on Majorca, leave me alone.

@qtip I was going to try and dig up some pictures this weekend and try and give some descriptions of various bits of the cami de cavalls but…
https://m.pinkbike.com/news/exploring-the-island-of-menorca-on-the-cami-de-cavalls-trail.html

There was an article in ‘some magazine or other’ a couple of years ago on circumnavigating the island on the cami de cavalls.

Mallorca is ace however. Sitting on a Port Pollença hotel balcony with a G&T as I type this. Brilliant, but home early tomorrow. 😞

My physio did the coastal path. He’s not a hard-core MTB-er but seemed to enjoy himself.

I was going to post a topic on the same subject but Ibiza cycling?

Been to Mallorca several times but have no idea about Ibiza! Road or gravel bike?

I rented a Trek Fuel from these guys.Some of the Cami, admittedly, is flat and stony, but some of it pushed the limits a bit (bike and me) Massive OTB at one point, and escaped with cuts, bruises etc because I had knee/elbow pads on. I was informed that picking up the trail anywhere along the South coast, and heading west to Ciutadella is the best route. Near death apart, I really enjoyed it.

[url=https://postimages.org/]anonymous photo sharing[/url]

Really knowledgeable guys (1 English) and the bike was a nice piece of kit.

https://www.procyclingmenorca.com/en/index.php

Was in Mallorca last week and hired a bike for a day and took a spin out to the lighthouse at Cap Formentor and back, absolutely glorious. We’ve already booked a more cycling friendly hotel for next September 😀

Back to the OP, I used the Cycling Locations website to find a route, it should have something on Menorca too.

https://www.cyclinglocations.com/

I did wonder where the treks came from, seems to be the main place people hire bikes from. Or at least, they are recognisably hired, I’d assumed the other bikes I’d seen were locals.
Hotel audax in cala galda a has Scott’s to hire, hard tail and FS.

I stayed in Port de Soller and hired a Trek Remedy full sus. I thought the MTB was great fun. Amazing views. Nice places to stop for a coffee / ice-cream.

Problem with hiring a bike when you are on a family hol is that i found it’s ofen best to nip out for 1-2 hours, which means hiring for a full week, rather than hiring for one day and doing a big ride. So maybe think about taking your bike. The hire ones are good though, and pretty reasonably priced.

I used this https://www.rockandride-mallorca.com/mtb-guide-fuhrer-rutas-tour/ for routes, and found a few starting straight out from port de soller so no driving needed.