Hi Guys,

Looking for some ideas for a weeks biking holiday in Europe with trails that aren’t full on vertical. I’ve done holidays with whiteroom and bike verbier in the past and whilst very enjoyably, I would much prefer:

* Flatter, more flowy trails
* Odd jump or technical feature
* As much uplift as possible

Any recommendations?
Thanks.

Czech mtb holidays will take you round all of their trail centre type stuff plus some good natural. Very flowy and well maintained. Only limited uplift (we did just one bubble lift for doing some slightly higher stuff on the Polish border). Based around 2 or 3 venues during the week so nicely varied. Food and accommodation good (though again varied from rustic to plush so you get a nice mix).

We did Bike Verbier the year before – we are a racing family and did what was described by Phil as “enduro on xc bikes” 🙂 Super fast late teen kids really enjoyed the change of Czech to “normal” Alps holiday – have proclaimed it their favourite.

There is is also Any Excuse To Ride in Norway. He posts on here if you do a search.

We tried a place in Southern Sweden – nice enough but burnt through most of the riding in 2 days….

Hartz mtns look promising but no holiday companies.

Also love Southern Spain with Ciclo Montana.

Finale is super flowy and fun with lots of uplift

Morzine/Les Gets? It’s about 90% flow trails with berms and small lumpy bumps. Uplifts everywhere, pretty much all rideable by little kids on hardtails.

The only really difficult stuff is off the map so easily avoidable.

I used to live there, so happy to give tips. It’s got a handful of small parks, each one good for a day max. Most of the stuff is gentle gradient, some nice features but no real flow style trails.
I’d say it’s great for combining with other toursity stuff.

Davos would be a good option I think, so of my favorite natural flow there.

Thanks for all the suggestions, unfortunately it seems the best natural flow trails all require a lot of pedaling, will just need to get fitter. Finale looks promising, though would need to wait till the Autumn.

You could ask Jonny at ride slovenia.

Though his idea of not steep is different from mine

We are off to Lenzerheide in Switzerland for two weeks in August. Cant wait 🙂

I have been informed lots that its pretty dam good

Lenzerheide, anyone been?

?
Davos has an area of big lifts that can be connected with flowing trails.

Ainsa.

Might lack uplift options, but good trails straight from town.

Hello,

Someone mentioned my name???

We do have several flowy machine built trails in the valley, such as the 17km Hallingspranget we built over the last 2 years, and could probably make a multi day trip putting then altogether.

But to be honest my feeling is Austria would be best. Perhaps a couple days in one location then move in to another. For example Petzen has an epic long trail and I’ve seen many videos out of bike parks in Austria with nice gentle flow trails. I’ve not been, except Petzen, but seen a lot online!

Not sure Jon’s place at Ride Slovenia would be suitable, I used to work for him and it’s some of the best trails I’ve ridden in my life but many are pretty hard! He does guide at Petzen though for example.

My experience of all the places I’ve guided or lived (various MTB destination/area in Europe) is that it is quite hard to find a weeks worth of consistently blue grade trails in an area, especially flow trails. So I’d suggest putting a couple of different spots together for a week.

Austria is my bet anyway.

Carrosella bike park in Livigno is almost entirely ‘flow’. Paganella is another option if you’re in the area. Maybe Bardoneccia too, and Montgenevre close by in France.

Morzine obviously has that too, it’s always going to be recommended on this forum.

I wouldn’t particularly call Lenzerheide a flowy resort, though there are some trails on the west side that are. And maybe a newish one over in Arosa.

Davos is great (trails, if not the town) but again, don’t go thinking it’s all machine built stuff.

I’ve been pretty scared at times in Slovenia (as much as with BV or White Room), you probably need to pick the area then the specific trails wherever you go.

What’s that area that Hans Rey was involved in?

I remember seeing a few videos & that looked really good for flowing trails.

Edit.

Found it

Out of the couple of places I’ve been, Finale had loads of trails, some were on the steep side (I’ll struggle to walk down that type steep) but you’d be best off with someone to show you around.

The other place I’d recommend is Serre Chevalier – Hope sponsor the bike park there. Some nice flowy blue trails – I didn’t try the red / black ones. There is some lovely road riding round there as well

Massa Marittima or Tirli /Punta Ala, Tuscany. Both with uplift, but not a mega slog to the top. Don’t go in the height of summer, you’ll melt. A great area in the cooler months.

Lots of Liguria inc Finale, Pietra.

Dolomites…. Brenta Dolomiti, Paganella bike park has a decent number of flow trails as well as a good mix of enduro and official off piste/shared trails.

Dolomites around Fanes… Canazei and Kronplatz are also worth a visit with a few decent flow trails with mega views.

Thanks again for all the suggestions, currently looking at Basque Coast which from the videos I’ve watched seems to have a fair amount of natural trails which aren’t ridiculously steep. Anyone ride with them before?

@chipps

I believe he’s been basque and now lives not far from there.

Petzen is good though the enduro stages are tough

Petzen has a 8km purpose built flow trail in the park, it’ll make you dizzy.

If you go with Basque MTB, make sure you are on the right holiday, things have steepened there considerably in the last few years, but pretty sure Doug can offer a few options for a week.

https://www.mtbtours.ro/en/ never seem to have anything massively steep, but might fail your brief on the pedalling front.

Thanks for the plug/summon, @duncancallum 🙂

I’ve actually never mountain biked over in the Basque country. I’ve cycle-toured through it though.  know that @mark of this parish has been out with Doug at BasqueMTB and there are lots of positive reports from there. I’m not sure how tech nor non-tech the trails are.

Another thumbs up for Massa Marittima too. Awesome trails. Massa Vecchia is a lovely place to stay (with a pump track in the front garden… Oh, and Frischy has a house in the back garden, so it can’t be all bad…)

Hotel

I guess the best thing to do it to find somewhere that isn’t that tall… The steeper/taller the mountains, the steeper and longer the trails can get.

I’m over in the eastern Pyrenees, near Prades 66500 the other end from Doug. While there are a load of chunky trails here, there’s a load more that are completely doable 100% on a short travel hardtail.

Few of us went to Czech few years back
Was super chilled holiday
The lad who runs it Jody has a beautiful big house with bike storage and all tools needed to fix bikes
He has a van and picked up us from Poland as was cheaper to fly in to their and get back to Czech
Every morning we were made breakfast by his wife and him and then taken to trails and then a couple of beers after the ride
RideCzech is his company and it was super cheap in comparison to a lot of other destinations

@chipps – my mum lives in Prade (has done for nearly 20 years) it’s lovely round there 🙂 Proper French XC trail riding.

@ajantom – We’re only about ten mins from Prades. There really is some great riding all around. Being the mountains, there’s not surprisingly very few flat rides, but there are plenty of non-gnar ones (or mellow enough with a couple of bits of ‘No, I’ll walk that bit’ :-))

Have you ridden all the way up Canigou via the track from Villerach?
Tough old climb, but amazing views when you get to the refuge up the top, and the descent down the other side is fun, though not too technical.