Thanks to that nice Mr O’Leary, we’ve used an €80 voucher to get us to Gran Canaria in Feb. I know very little about the place and haven’t yet booked accommodation. We’ll probably hire bikes for a few days so any thoughts on the whys and wherefores would be great.

Freemotion for bike hire/guided trips

I went to the furthest resort on the south west road, the rest of that road seeming to be one huge mega cliche resort of mingingness. V cute wee place. The capital up north was cool too.

There was a wee bike hire place but due to the nature of the roads there, short loops were limited.

Another vote for Freemotion, though it’s probably 8 or 9 years since I was there.

Thanks chaps, looking like Playa del Ingles is a good spot for riding into the mountains. Anyone recommend a hotel or B&B?

Should you go into Las Palmas, get yourself to Hotel Madrid for lunch/drinks.

Las Palmas is a nice city, but be warned the weather can be minging in the winter due to the prevailing Northerly winds. Its often cloudy, windy and (relatively) cold. The South is protected from it all by the big fat mountain in the middle of the island.

I worked with freemotion back in 2011/12.

Some good rides, but the majority of the clients were the “we’re bored of sitting on the beach for the last five days, what else is there?” and as such most of the tours were catered for this novice level.

The road tours were much more intense, although the road bike masochist has returned to Austria, so maybe less so now.

Just looked at their website. That has certainly changed, maybe their tour programme has too…

Playa Del Ingles is like Blackpool with sunshine, it’s not a particularly nice place. Mogan which is a bit further round the island to the south west is supposed to be quite nice.

I’ve tried hiring a bike from Freemotion, it was about £120 for a Cannondale Synapse for a week. You can download gps route from their website which is handy. Last time I just took my own bike which suited me.

The roads over there are pretty good and once you get up onto the mountain they are pretty quiet. Drivers seem to far more cyclist friendly than in the uk from my experience.

Mogan, thats where I was.

Blackpool with sun – never been to Blackpool but the entire of the coast up to Mogan looked like an utter shit hole

Playa Del Ingles

Beach of the English…. Ironic as it’s full of Germans and Swedes.

It is indeed a bit crap.

Some places to stay up in the mountains which could work if you had a car or road bike with you.

The northern side of the island is much greener and not so touristy.

And if you are of a certain age, and remember The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe from your school holidays, you can go and see where it was filmed. It may have changed a bit though.

Went to Puerto Mogan in April this year after a recommendation on a previous STW post. Really enjoyed it. Agree with poster above, the coast towards Playa Ingles is a bit of a hell hole. Guess as far as riding is concerned they may be better spots. But the route up the mountain from Mogan was a fantastic big climb. Was hot when I was there so was on the road before dawn, stunning riding up thru pine forest as the sun came up.

Then evenings were spent in some really excellent restaurants, can honestly say some of the best food I’ve eaten. Very attractive too. Already looking at a return in spring.

Drop me a message. I’ve got an apartment in San Agustin which is up the coast from Playa del Ingles. It’s a quieter resort and doesn’t have that horrible gaudy shit seaside resort feel. I rent it out during the year. These guys are just down the road from the apartment too. They seem to do more downhill tours http://www.gravity-center.com/

Stayed in Feb a couple of years ago. What surprised me, though I guess shouldn’t have, is how much it’s a busy working place. Lots more cars on the road than say Lanzarotte, with full on morning rush hour along the motorway south from Las Palmas (which given it’s a city of about 400,000 people like I say should not be a huge surprise).

We stayed here which was nice, on the side of a volcano it was possible to scramble up and run round the rim. But actually just outside the suburbs of Las Palmas (which I’d built in my mind as hipster central. Not really but a reasonable enough city).

I was there to surf really but it was big and blown out most days and I simply couldn’t find many places working. Highly competitive when it did work, but hey. So I hired bikes also from Freemotion, which I’d highly recommend. Slick operation and really well maintained bikes, mtb and road, with a sensible choice of frametypes.

I did one guided mtb ride which was a laugh, but I’d not do again – uplift to 1500m, ride down to coast along mainly landrover track type stuff. All clearly rode bikes but v mixed ability, just had to make the best of it. (Freemotion said Feb was end of season and that earlier they’d split groups and do more adventurous stuff – and the riding’s clearly there.)

I also hired a roadbike and did a couple of mountain rides, which felt more like it. Roads busier than other Canaries though.

You need to hire a car to explore.

Erm, that’s it.

Thanks again for the info. logan, I’ve pm’ed you.