Does any country in Europe beat Spain for cycle touring?

Suntour

I have crisscrossed Spain cycle touring for a number of years now.

Every one of these tours was a sheer delight.

- Excellent network of well-surfaced secondary roads.
- Excellent standards of hotel. Some 3-star hotels are like 5-star hotels in other countries. And more importantly, they are not budget busting either. A lot cheaper than France, but of a much better standard.
- Nice friendly people to deal with.
- Fine lively compact cities and towns. Most of them can be easily entered and exited without difficulty.
- Excellent quality food, wine, beer and coffee. Always a bonus on a holiday.
- Great weather - in summer months, you can be "almost" guaranteed good weather for most regions.
Cycling in the rain is quite miserable experience.
- Great variety, from the beaches of Costa Blanca, to the rolling plains of central Spain to the verdant mountains of the Basque country in the North. Spain is a delight. Does any country beat Spain for cycling touring in Europe?

mercia_man

New forum member. First post reads like a press release from Spanish Tourist Board.

Yes I agree that Spain is a good cycle touring country. But there's plenty of other equally good cycle touring countries in Europe.

hdow

Looks like a rip off of the intro in my book on the subject

Taking the 'whole package' of various countries into account I'd have to agree that there are none better but some come pretty close and may even equal. But that's just me and the way I am

However, some of my best and most memorable day rides (outside Greater Yorkshire) have been in France, Slovenia (if you include bits of Austria and Italy to complete the loops) and Norway

HarryD

briantrumpet

Mercia Man wrote:

New forum member. First post reads like a press release from Spanish Tourist Board.

Googling the OP's username and Spain brings up a small business that does cycle tours in Spain. No idea if there's any connection. At least if it's marketing it's not blatant, and I can understand someone's passion for a country that makes cycling a bit more pleasurable than sometimes it is in England.

Suntour

Ok, I have nothing to do with the tourism industry. BTW, the name comes from the Japanese bicycle component manufacturer SR Suntour.

Harry, I used your "Cycle Touring in Spain" book for the first couple of tours. It was a great primer. In fact, I still use it as a reference. Recommended read for anyone cycle touring in Spain.

I've done Slovenia once - beautiful little country. But, a lot of their secondary roads can be very extremely heavy trafficked. Weather wise, it spend three whole days bucketing down and that was only early September.

Norway sounds lovely but sounds a bit barren and rainy. And, as I've said I hate cycling in the rain.

mercia_man

Glad to hear this wasn't a marketing ploy, Suntour.

I do like Spain although the weather is not always glorious. I was touring the Spanish Pyrenees last June when I experienced the worst storms and most devastating floods I have ever seen. I was evacuated at 6am from my campsite in the Aran valley just three hours before floods destroyed the campsite (and a couple of others downstream) and cut off the main road north to France and south into Spain. After a couple of nights in a (very cheap) four star hotel, I was able to escape the valley by pushing my bike up a steep field to bypass the avalanche near Bossost that had blocked the road north into France. My fellow evacuees in cars were not so lucky. Goodness knows when they got out of the valley.

Much as I like Spain, though, my vote goes to France. That's largely because I can speak the language rather than the few phrases and words I know of Spanish.

Suntour

Mercia Man wrote:

Much as I like Spain, though, my vote goes to France. That's largely because I can speak the language rather than the few phrases and words I know of Spanish.

I can speak French but have just very basic Spanish. The general helpfulness of the Spanish does not make the language barrier such a problem I find.

prb007

I have toured extensively in France, Spain and Italy and my ideal tour would be Spanish roads (quiet, good quality), French courtesy to cyclists and language (i speak the lingo better than Spanish and Italian) and Italian weather and food - I've had better weather and food in Italy, generally speaking.
Not been to Spain for five years or so (at least not touring)...did E2E France last year (Cherbourg-Nice), and am going to pick up where we left off next year, by doing E2E Italy...Nice-Bari, 900 miles in 9 days, in May 2015

Kadair

Just come back from Estepona, thought I would have a push at some of the Vuelta de Espania stages, we have an apartment there, if you fancy a tilt then we would be very pleased if you chose to stay with us, our property can be found on www. Ownersdirect.Co.UK property reference S3971 we have parking and storage space for your bikes and we can tee up bike hire for you. Estepona has great beaches and food for R&R so really works as a base.

TFC1

Off to do a charity tour from Madrid to Lisbon at the end of May so nice to hear that the Spanish tour experience is a good one!

cycladelic

Norway sounds lovely but sounds a bit barren and rainy. And, as I've said I hate cycling in the rain.

It is wet at times, but the scenery is outstanding; the Lofoton islands should be on any cycluits' must-ride list. And if you look at the annual rainfall there - 48.2 inches - it is similar to Turó de l'Home, north of Barcelona, which gets 41.9 inches.

I was in the northeast of Spain in April 2012 and it rained for about 10 days straight.

But yes, Spain is fab, for the reasons you've stated.

m.indurain

Sure, Italy and France.

Pics:









At my homepage you find travel reports of cycling tours in europe, mainly Italy, France, Spain and Alps:

http://cycling.bicycle.tours.italy.france.spain.europe.europaradtouren.de/

Ciao Peter

borisface

Whilst Spain is a fine country for cycle touring, I wouldn't say that its any better than France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal, or Greece. Each country has their own characteristics, each can have traffic issues, each can be wet and windy, each can be frustrating, exciting, beautiful.