Hiya Chaps,

If you had five days to spare, and could go anywhere with your bike… Where would you go?

Rules are…

– You can’t change the weather

– You can’t travel for more than 5 hours on a plane

Go!

Malaga

Do I have a budget? What sort of accommodation can I afford?

If I’ve got a grand then Scotland or Ireland. If I’ve got 10 then….North Africa, Italy..Switzerland…

Rule 3: no more than a grand. 😉

Scotland is a shitefest of bad weather at the moment. You roll the dice, and realise you can’t change the weather. Back two spaces.

I’d take my hammock and stove with me, not sure where though . .

Les Arcs- because it’s not such a long period that I’d want to waste any time, the climate’s better than most of the alps, and I know the area and there’s a great lift network. Day at Pila, day at La Thuile.

Cannock. Follow your dad.*

*This may not be true.

I dunno Kayak might not be a bad shout, a grand living out of the premier Inn in Rugeley for 5 days! you could have some fun 🧐😉

You’d only do Italy if you had 10k?

Are you going to be flying first class, driving a hired Aston Martin to Miramonti Majestic Grand Hotel, staying in room 300 and spending the 5 days banging high class hookers, snorting cocaine and eating at two/three michelin star restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

I’d do the Alps on a grand easily, take my bike, as little gear as possible, bivvy bag and dried rations. Beats the **** Merthyr Tydfil Premier Inn.

Somewhere in The Canary Islands, sick of this cold and snow now… Give me heat and sunshine!

Leaving tomorrow or planning for summer?

A fellow wanderer meets you in the Alps. He informs you of the huge snow drifts, and pointing at your bike looks bemused. You roll the dice, and realise you can’t change the weather. Move back 4 spaces.

Rule 4. The time of year is March 2018.

This time of year it would have to be Malaga. Not sure which company to go with there are a few, Sierra MTB, Switch-Backs, Roost, etc

Pedal down the road to the ferry. Pedal down the coast of France. Return.

this would do:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27041671?privacy_code=WJy6AgH2ZawDj8sd

Madeira. You’ll have a shit load of fun out there for a grand, and you’ll feel really young.

Well first of all if I had 5 days off work to go cycling I’d have done dam sight more planning. My default favourite cycling place is Keswick but it’s looking a bit rainy there this week. So I’d key in the following locations in my weather app and travel to the location which looks best tomorrow. Drive there in the evening, stay over and ride the next morning. Castleton (dark peak) Bakewell (white peak) Church Stretton (long mynde) Llandegla, Coedy Brenin, Merthyr, that trail centre in Lancashire I forget the name of. Otherwise south Wales seems to be a honeypot area too.

Because you’ve been to Madeira I’m going to agree with grannyjone and say Malaga with someone similar to switchbacks etc. Best mate not long back from New Zealand and the weather was fantastic, however, it breaks both your cost and your distance rule!

This might be aiming low, but if I didn’t have to go right now and I didn’t want to blow too much money I’d spend a few days at the Dales Bike Centre.

Id be on a plane to Majorca

Gran Caneria is under 5 hours flight time (from London airports) and temperatures brush ~20*C this time of year…

Could you not just go skiing?

Ibiza ? & not for the partying, I’ve never been, but it has a draw to it.

What scaled said.

I’m going to Granada, Spain to cycle the an off-pavement route I found on Bikepacking.com. Have 12 days though but you could do the Sierra Nevada in 5 if fit. Will get up there myself if possible but a lot of snowfall at the moment. Another option if this horrible weather persists is to nip over to Morocco on the ferry and cycle the north coast (mostly paved though).

If it wasn’t Easter holidays flights to Marrakesh would have been reasonable so would have gone to the Sahara for sure. Because of Easter return flights from Manchester were an eye-watering £550 inc. bike box. Wouldn’t give that to Easyjet/Ryanair on principle! Scotland was an option but put off by the weather.

I find many people who have never done much travelling always seem to think you need many thousands of pounds for it. I cycled the Tour Divide and then the Baja Divide plus northern Mexico for 3 months and spent a grand total of £2600 including flights. True I didn’t stay in campsites/hotels accept in Mexico, but used a lot of Warmshowers and mostly freecamped. I guess it depends on your tolerances. If biking through a European country I would factor in about 20 to 25 pounds per day overall. Three weeks bikepacking in Spain in January cost me about 500 quid including flights.

I find many people who have never done much travelling always seem to think you need many thousands of pounds for it

Yes that’s true, I did a full week in Malaga in February of uplift assisted riding with villa accommodation, everything all together came to £900 and having looked at it again I’ve seen that it can be done cheaper than that

One thing for sure, if I was to do 5 days biking and money was no issue, I’d definitely be out of this country if it’s between November to March

Seville Spain is currently 13C cloudy.

Well first of all if I had 5 days off work to go cycling I’d have done dam sight more planning. My default favourite cycling place is Keswick but it’s looking a bit rainy there this week

Your fellow travellers remind you that you did plan well in advance, but you can’t plan for the UK weather.

You roll the dice, your well-laid plans go to shit with the snow, wind and rain. Go back 6 places, and lose you +3 wood axe.

Fly to Malaga and 5 days with Ciclo Montana. Hopefully catching the Swedish Volleyball team .

lol Rickon, you’re gonna have to provide closure on this. Given the weather I might be tempted to have one big ride not too far from home and then take a flight somewhere without the bike by myself for a couple of nights for an experiece. Rome? Geneva? Stay in Hostels to meet people but eat and drink like a King.

You are currently in conversation with guides in Malaga, you roll the dice……

You are in a maze of twisty singletrack, all alike  🙂

Malta or corsiCo or canary isels.

Hopefully catching the Swedish Volleyball team .

They were there last week weren’t they?

Mind you if you go this week you may be the best group that Marco has had this week.