Hiya.

Looking for somewhere a bit different this year.

Couple of weeks.
Quiet roads or easy tracks.
Places to explore.
Not wet. Warm or cold and dry just fine.

Reasonably priced is good.
Big hills a bonus.
Something with hills and beaches even better.

Quite fancy somewhere new for both of us, so UK, US, France, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Germany and Croatia are on the reserve list.

All ideas welcome, thanks in advance!

Slovenia

You don’t say when or where you’re from? Scotland and Wales have an abundance of single-lane, quiet paved roads. Wales might not be the Rockies but some of the hills are bloody steep! Scotland is better for ‘get away from it all’ as the highlands are very sparsely populated and you have the ‘right to roam’ which as far as I know means you can camp anywhere so long as you leave the following morning. Only advisory about Wales/Scotland is the weather, May is probably the best for Scotland and Wales can get nice weather anytime (but can be cold/wet anytime too).

Tomorrow I’m taking my 27.5+ bike to the Sierra Nevada and then I’m cycled north via the National Parks. Judging from my research spain has an absolute abundance of cycle-friendly quiet paved/unpaved/single tracks which network the entire country. The routes are called the ‘GR’ i.e. the GR274 which runs through a Parque National. See HERE for a 30 day off-pavement route but maybe it’s tougher than you’d like. Beyond that have a look at EuroVelo routes – a mix of low-traffic or greenways throughout Europe! The Rhine cycle sounds nice as it’s nearly all dedicated cyclepaths.

slovenia again or the outer hebrides if you feel lucky

Macidonia. Worked over there this year and looked ideal as long as you miss peak summer (very hot) and peak winter (very cold).

Lovely mountains. A fair amount of gravel tracks, cheap, friendly people.

Dry, fairly cheap airfairs. Wizz air go direct Tuesday and Thursday from Luton

Morocco?
I’ve done 2 Landrover tours around Morocco and it is an awesome place..

Portugal. I know there’s a gravelled Algarve route away form the man roads, & seem to remember some north-south bike routes too.
Cheapish, warmish, dryish

We did a very lazy week on Eurovelo 4 from Carantec back to St Malo last summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. Wake up, nearest town for a baguette and pain au chocolat, ride along the coast until lunchtime, find a town or beach for lunch, maybe go for a swim then continue until evening.

If you wanted more mileage you could quite easily start further west and finish further east. Ferry to St Malo, train to Brest, then ride east to finish in St Malo or on to Caen or Le Havre.

we did Biarritz to St Malo last summer.
over 2 weeks. it was mainly flat, but very quiet, hardly touched a road the whole trip.

the wild atlantic way, on the west and southern coasts of ireland. all small roads, fabulous scenery and loads of great cafes pubs and restaurants . for 2 weeks i would especially recommend west cork/sheeps head/ beara peninsula

What about Spain in May? Weather usually good, riding fab. A group of us did this Spanish C2CNot my writing but I organised it. I am doing it again in May this year, you’d be welcome to join us. Riding wasn’t too technical but not suitable for a road bike.

italy wasn’t on that list? you could fly to catania in sicily and go up the green route see how far you get ???

pistonbroke – Member – Block User – Quote
What about Spain in May? Weather usually good, riding fab. A group of us did this Spanish C2CNot my writing but I organised it. I am doing it again in May this year, you’d be welcome to join us. Riding wasn’t too technical but not suitable for a road bike.

That write up is brilliant! Sounds like a great trip

Italy Divide?

Done some great stuff in Romania, might be enough for two weeks but if it was me that was out there for that long I’d be tempted to pop into a bit of Bulgaria too

Romania was best for mountains, quiet roads, unbelievably charming villages (not always easy to find though!) and towns like Sighisaora and Sibiu as well as cheapness. Romania has some beaches but Bulgaria has much more!

the wild atlantic way, on the west and southern coasts of ireland.

Maybe missing the not wet requirement.

Best tour I have done was the Hebridies

sounds like you’re looking for France West Coast, from St Malo to Carcassonne (a must see place)

I’ve been last year, bike paths are on the luxury side

Central Italy (like Tuscany Trail) might be a beautiful option but too warm if you go in July

Thanks for all the responses, much appreciated.

Live in Burnley and spend a lot of time in Wales, Scotland is already on the cards for a future project.

Mrs S has done the Rhine/Romantic road, we’ve both done bits in Ireland, but again, have plans for that already.

Love France, always happy to go back.
Spain/Portugal appeals, have some friends who moved out there after the free festival scene collapsed, all very respectable now.
😀

Have fancied Morocco for a while and have a few Polish colleagues who are cyclists and rate the place highly for touring.
Midges though, apparantly.
🙂

Spanish C2C looks amazing, much appreciated Pistonbroke.
Will have a good read up.

Time to research those and all your other suggestions, thanks folks.

Rusty, it was a grand trip. It was advertised on Bearbones forum due to the nature of the route. I’ve had a few interested in this year, it works well as a group ride or as Dave Barter put it, a sort of 2 wheeled slinky with the group riding at their own pace and meeting up for cafe stops and at the end of the day. The photos were posted HERE
Looking like were starting on the 11th of May, there are flights back to Manchester on the 20th with Easyjet.

Have fancied Morocco for a while and have a few Polish colleagues who are cyclists and rate the place highly for touring.
Midges though, apparently.

Hmmm.. not my experience – the only insects we saw were considerably bigger than midges..
I guess it depends where you go and what time of year.
It does get brutally hot near the dunes in the summer – I think we saw 52 degrees at Erg Chebbi in August, however the Atlas Mountains were not as hot.

The Spanish trip does look fantastic – Pistonbroke, do you have a route map?

We had a great time in Cuba. Expensive to get there, but Virgin take bikes for free, and it’s v cheap once you are there. Tourist busses will carry bikes too.

The routes are called the ‘GR’ i.e. the GR274 which runs through a Parque National.

I’d do a bit more research before heading off, though – GR10 is one of the local routes we go running on, and a lot of it is not rideable.

OP: another Spanish suggestion: do one of the St. James’ routes.

I’d suggest the south-north Via de la Plata which runs from Seville to Santiago. http://santiago-compostela.net/via-de-la-plata/ Not a huge number of big hills although it would be easy to add a few in – Spain’s not short of mountains, and this route passes close to two ranges (Gredos and Pico de Europa).

I can definitely recommend the Spanish C2C with pistonbroke it was an awesome trip through some amazing country.

Thanks for the recommendation Leigh, hope to see you again in May.
I’ve tweaked the route for this year which makes it almost entirely downhill.
Moses, the 2017 route is on my Wikiloc page, I’ll email you the link.
For members of Cyclinguk, formerly the CTC, the January magazine carries a trip report, available within the next week.