We are looking for a last minute holiday. We are looking for somewhere for where there is great riding, but also walking and the chance to chill out (I am not sure if I can ride yet, following a slipped disc, so need somewhere the husband can ride if I am not up to it while I chill, explore and read). We have come across Zona Zero in the Spanish pre-Pyrenees, and are thinking of driving (cheaper with the bikes) for about 11 days holiday and staying in Ainsa. Anyone been that way? How easy is it to find the trails (I have found the app which seems pretty good; though I don’t speak any Spanish!)? Is there lots of non-biking things to do?

Cheers

I went to the Ordesa national park, a few miles up the road, about twenty-five years ago. We crossed over from the french side on foot. I can’t imagine you could possibly be bored there. No idea about mountain biking though; it hadn’t been invented then.

ashat, Zona Zero is fantastic. I guess you have seen my videos promoting the area. If you drive there then there is stuff to do other than biking, you have walking and rafting or horse riding but remember you are based in a small village in the mountains. There are trails which are waymarked and you can buy a map, or download a GPS track for them as well. We stop at Zona Zero for part of our Backcountry Pyrenees trip and use some of the trails there, although we ride them in a way that you can´t without a dedicated driver. There isn´t enough there for 11 days of biking, but for a few days biking and a bunch of days walking / rafting / climbing / drinking then you can´t go wrong. For accommodation I recommend speaking to Jorge at Casa Rivera, he´s a biker and one of the few people there who speaks good English.

I haven’t been but the reviews are very good. The trails are all signposted (balizados) and apparently easy to follow. It’s very “enduro” orientated (nothing to do with other MTB trail centres in Spain where trails are mostly on fire/dirt roads) so plenty of tech riding and singletracks (senderos). There’s nothing man-made, they’ve recovered and signposted many old paths in the area.
If you stay in one of the accommodations recommended in their website you’ll be supporting the MTB centre (there’s no public money involved in the creation/maintenance of the trails).
There are also guiding services and van uplifts if you are interested, again it’s advisable using one of the companies from the website.

In terms of other things to do….well you are in the Pyrenees, there are several National/Natural Parks nearby (Ordesa-Monte perdido/Agües Tortes).

I don’t think they have a dedicated English website, if you have any problems communicating with them let me know, I’ll try to help.

Doug – thanks ever so much. It was your video/photos that inspired me as somewhere to go over a bottle of wine last night (the long range forecast for the UK for Sept isn’t brilliant and I fancy some sunshine). I love the look of the photos such as below, which I got the impression was round those parts.

Thanks for the suggestions of Jorge – that was one of my shortlisted options.

Not biking for 11 full days is fine as I haven’t been on a bike for 6 weeks so we are looking for a few other options.

if you have any problems communicating with them let me know, I’ll try to help.

Miguelo – thank you ever so much. I am making the most of Google translate at the moment (which is always funny!).

You don´t need help communicating with them ahsat, Jorge speaks English and is the president of the ZZ association. He´s a good friend of basqueMTB.

Cheers Doug – was more the website that I have been google translating. Sounds like Jorges’ is the decision (was going to book the other apartments); but you can’t put a price on knowledge (and English!)

Doug – your personal recommendation sold it to me! Booked for 10 nights, with scope to check in somewhere else for a night afterwards if we want to explore a bit further.

Thanks 😀