Off to Northern Spain at the beginning of May on the motorbike. Taking the ferry to Bilbao, then got a few days in the Picos mountains with friends. They’re all heading back on the return ferry on the Sunday, I couldn’t get booked on it so have thought outside of the box…

Plan is for my GF to fly out on the Friday afternoon/evening, and I’ve booked the St Malo-Portsmouth Ferry that leaves at 8:30pm on Tuesday night, so we’ve got from Saturday morning to Tuesday evening to travel approx 700 miles and see a few sights and stay in a few nice places. So…

Leaving Oviedo on the Saturday morning, what else would you fill your time with spending the next 3 nights and 4 days travelling to St Malo with? I’ve been to the Alps dozens of times, as I have Mediterranean Spain. What is worth seeing and doing? I’m guessing a stop in or near Bordeaux (we’re both Red wine fans) probably, but should we stick close to the coast the whole way back, or pop inland and see Rioja/Pamplona on the way back too? Bearing in mind we’ll be 2 up on a motorbike (which she enjoys anyway) is it worth heading into the Pyrenees for a bit adding a bit of a detour or stick closer to the coast to get the miles down with sooner? I’d really rather stay off the Autoroutes and Toll Roads where possible, but do accept that some level of them is going to be required to get some miles done as and when passing through the boring bits.

So suggestions please, but bear in mind we will have roughly 200 miles per day to travel as well as anything else we get up to…

I’m constantly up and down the coast in that part of the world. If you want to get off the motorway for a bit, take the coast road from San Vicente to Comillas, and later on leave the A-8 at Zarautz and take the N-634 coast road – at Orio take the mountain road that goes over Mt Igeldo, drop into San Seb (give us a shout if you stay there and fancy a drink!) – another biking road worth doing is continuing along the coast over Mt Jaizkibel, cross the border over the bridge at Ficoba rather than the motorway, and take the Corniche road Hendaye – St Jean du Luz.

For a bit of Pyrenees action without going too far inland, take the Yesa road and ride through the Foz (canyon) de Burgui and cross into France over the Pierre Saint Martin pass.

If you stay in Bordeaux, there’s an Ibis hotel at Meriadeck 5mins from the cathedral, the budget one should be about 50€ a room in May.

Another vote for dropping in to San Sebastian here.

When in the Picos, make sure you do the loop around Lake Riano.

Have a look at Travellers France Arthur Eperon for routes through France ideas.

Bordeaux is worth a couple of nights. Food and wine are good and it’s a nice city to walk around.

La Rochelle is small and was very nice when I went last summer. Again loads of good places to eat and Il De Re looked great.

What about a stop at Mont Sant Michel further up the coast?

San Sebastian – Like Paris but better food, nicer people and surfing.

The coast road from Bilbao to Biarritz, as mentioned, is great. Definitely a visit to San Sebastian and Bordeaux. Stay away from Biarritz and Hendaye. I really liked La Rochelle. Il de Re was cool but must be rubbish for a powerful motorbike and i thought it was incredibly expensive. I have driven north from Bordeaux a few times and I think that´s the challenge for getting something nice. The motorway is boring and the non-motorway roads I drove were just the typcial French straight and flat with a million roundabouts. Up further towards Brest (which is a dump by the way) the roads were nice again and it stopped being quite so flat.

The Pyrenees for motorbiking is amazing. Some amazing roads there crossing down as far as Val d´Aran which is as far as I know well (and further than I can spell). I don´t know from there up towards Bordeaux I´m afraid but maybe someone else could fill in.

Hondarribia -> Lezo -> Oiartzun -> Lesaka -> Ibardin -> Corniche -> StJnDeLuz is a classic motorbike route. Just give me some space if I¨m there on my bike!

Kinda want a motorbike now….