Hi

I am looking at going away with the other half for a weeks break, she requires sun and sand and I would love to get out and ride for 3 days during the week.

With this in mind I have been eyeing up Finale Ligure as it should still be warm enough for the missus in September and the riding is supposed to be good.

Finding out information appears to be quite tricky with regards to good hotels that’ll have somewhere for my bike and how to get from the airport to resort etc.

Any tips or information gratefully received.

Thanks

Have a chat with Freeride Finale… Great team of people, they hire all the kit and the riding is brilliant…. Great guides (though I have to say the Brit guides had less of a prima donna atmopshere than the Italians). They may be able to point you n the right direction for finding a hotel.

Good XC there too.

You’l have a fab time and Finale is lovely. Cant help with transfers as we drove…

Louise and Alessandro @ JustRide Finale should be able to help you out.
Great riding with fantastic trails.


Just make sure you get over to the Calizzano Valley if you can.

I’ve stayed in the medusa(nice seafront location) and the Florenz both were good.Both cater for bikes,will supply guides and do you a transfer (used to be 100euros each way from Nice).Some great trails out there.

Another vote for Finale Freeride. Friendly guides, good trails.

I’ve stayed both in the old town and up the road in Varigotti, I think it’s called. There are nice beaches with a low key bar/food place in Varigotti, and trails in the hills above it, so that could be a could place for you to stay if your other half fancies sun and sand. The ride to Finale Freeride is 15minutes or so on the road.

As above, the riding is awesome. Steep, rocky and technical on the whole. There are mellower trails (mainly the 24 hour race course around Le Manie) but I’d recommend a squidgy bike and dual ply or tubeless tyres for the most fun. Most of the trails can be uplifted if you prefer. We did a day’s XC with Finale Freeride and had no complaints.

The cafe in Finalborgo square seems to be the mountain biker hangout, and there’s a great bike shop a few yards away with lots of retro bling on the walls.

I own rivierabike based on the western side of Liguria.. there is loads of riding available.

For accommodation hotel medusa as mentioned is right on the beach and Florenz is 1km inland in finalborgo a lovely walled mediaval village. Both are part of the Italy bike Hotels and have access to guides and have bike storage etc… florenz is owned by the president of the 24hr race..

for guides and shuttles contact finalefreeride.com or elicaride.com. In fnalborgo there is a bikeshop rivieraoutdoor.com they can also help with guides etc..

Also pick up the local 1:25000 map there are waymarked routes above the sea (Noli, Orco, Le manie, Varigotti) and it is possible to ride up to the Nato base if you have the lungs and do some of the rides…

As mentioned also contact Fulvio at alpidelmarefreeride.com for some riding in Calizzano faster better and not blown out like some of the finale trails…

Florenz should be able to help with airport transfers…Genova is about 30mins away… but ryanair are ba********

Been there with Finale Freeride twice, lovely people, always helpful when somethign goes wrong too. Definitely recommended.

Is there an alternative to Ryanair? How far from the airport is it and costwise how does it compare to the accumulated wallet-rape that is Les Gets/etc??

It’s about an hour and a half from Nice airport, maybe a little more, but it’s an easy (and amazing) motorway drive along the coast, all bridges and tunnels.

I flew Aer Lingus from Dublin.

Thanks for all the input, gives me a fair bit to go on.

Debating car hire now as 100E each way is not to be sniffed at.

Will give Calizzano a look on the map too.

Cheers

The map referred to in Nasher’s post is this one, and it’s essential if you’re self-guiding.

There’s also a guidebook, the Blu Bike guide, but I’d give it a miss, the few times we’ve used it we got lost good and proper. A lot of the trails are waymarked with little symbols painted on rocks but unfortunately some of the locals dislike MTB (none of the trails are official and many cross private land) so missing or painted-over warmarks are common.

There were also some GPS routes knocking about on one guiding company’s website (Switchbacks I think). I think I have a couple saved soemwhere if anyone’s interested – email in profile.

Check out the video on the Big Mountain site –

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