Cycling trip in christmas - where to go?

Hauki

As said in topic, I surprised myself by having couple weeks off from work during christmas and was wondering if could spend it cycling.

Destination must meet 3 criterias:

1. Must be affordable
2. Must be warm
3. Must have decent bikes available to rent (road and/or mountain)

I am planning to travel light, so I will only bring the essential riding gear (clothes, shoes, helmet) with me and rent the bike from destination and it would be great if I could spend few days on road and few days off-road.

Length anything between 5-10 days and destination could be in Mediterranean area or in the Canary Islands, I am open to ideas.

Where would you go and why

pelevin

Sorry to see you got nowhere with this but there was some recent similar thread where people were specially recommending Gran Canaria. Maybe just do a search & you'll find it.

Actually a quick look yields:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=87372780

mossym

Puerto Del carmen in Lanzarote, rent from renners bikes, cycling is fantastic, bikes are good(got a full carbon ultegra trek for 69 for 3 days), it's cheap, warm, and one of may favourite stops cycling or not. personally i wouldn't consider anything else.

killalanerr

^^ yep what he says warm and windy i love to moan about the 25c wind in Dec when its 2c in good old Ireland. Lots of info on here about it

kingoffifa

tenerife

got a hostel for 7 euros a night. had other hostels the other side of the island that you could get to in a spin.

that and a monster hill of 2000 odd metres . grand spot.

8kvscdpglqnyr4

+1 for Tenerife

Hauki

Thank you for your input gentleman. I'll be definitely looking at Canary Islands and especially Tenerife/Lanzarote. There seems to be a lot of bike rental shops scattered throughout the islands. Now all I need to do is some bargain hunting on flights and accommodation

Hauki

Now I am revisiting my own thread from year ago. This year I'll be on vacation for first two weeks of December and again I'm thinking where to go. Planning to squeeze in like a week of on/off-road cycling and some hiking days as well. I'm planning to spend 10-14 days on the trip so it probably wouldn't hurt if the destination had something else to do besides cycling as well.

Last year I was in Tenerife (based on your suggestions!) and it was really, really nice. Riding was really tough due to big climbs and it was all out riding or no riding at all as there are no straight roads so you really cant have easy day on the saddle. Gran Canaria is slightly flatter if I understood correctly so that might be one option. Where else should I look into? How about Mallorca or Madeira?

crosswords

Have you thought about malta.

Weather is good. Roads are a bit irish though..

ford2600

crosswords wrote: »

Have you thought about malta.

Weather is good. Roads are a bit irish though..

A tiny densely populated island?


Sicily, the Nebrodi mountain area and Etna of course is nice cycling country.

You might luck out with the weather.

Crete?

Girona area, excellent for road and mtb and very bike friendly. Close to Med and Pyrenees. Food is fantastic

Roger Hassenforder

have a look at here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Orihuela-Costa-Cycling-Camp/642162952501358

very good feedback from our lads that went out.

MPFG

Gran Canaria

Cee-Jay-Cee

Hauki wrote: »

Now I am revisiting my own thread from year ago. This year I'll be on vacation for first two weeks of December and again I'm thinking where to go. Planning to squeeze in like a week of on/off-road cycling and some hiking days as well. I'm planning to spend 10-14 days on the trip so it probably wouldn't hurt if the destination had something else to do besides cycling as well.

Last year I was in Tenerife (based on your suggestions!) and it was really, really nice. Riding was really tough due to big climbs and it was all out riding or no riding at all as there are no straight roads so you really cant have easy day on the saddle. Gran Canaria is slightly flatter if I understood correctly so that might be one option. Where else should I look into? How about Mallorca or Madeira?

Don't know about Madeira but Majorca shuts down (to tourists) in October and it won't be warm in December. If you found Tenerife tough going then I suggest Gran Canaria as its considerably flatter but equally as warm/mild as Tenerife and not as windy as Lanzarote.

Idleater

A bit more expensive, but Straatvark's posts make South Africa look amazing.

Hauki

Thank you for the recommendations. Definitely will have a look at Malta to see what that would be like. Gran Canaria seems to be the toughest contender atm. All other ideas and/or suggestions are also welcome.

slap/dash

mossym wrote: »

Puerto Del carmen in Lanzarote, rent from renners bikes, cycling is fantastic, bikes are good(got a full carbon ultegra trek for 69 for 3 days), it's cheap, warm, and one of may favourite stops cycling or not. personally i wouldn't consider anything else.

This.

But I have read some very nice things about Tenerife re varied terrain. But that will be much more €€€ than lanzo. And lanzo has Lolita cake shop and the rangers FC supporters bar next to an irish pub! Very lax on partying also, if you're into getting mashed after a mash sesh

billyhead

Can anyone who went to Lanzarote suggest accommodation in Puerto Del Carmen?

nilhg

billyhead wrote: »

Can anyone who went to Lanzarote suggest accommodation in Puerto Del Carmen?

Down the beach a little from the main part of PDC but we stayed here,

http://www.florestahotel.com/

We were very happy with it, not exactly sure about the food cause we only had breakfast there but the rooms/apartments were fine.

Would have gone back this Halloween but couldn't get flights at a reasonable cost.

Lanzarote is a great place to cycle, just plan to take account of the wind and make sure you get at least on spin up Tabayesco

nilhg

Hauki wrote: »

Thank you for the recommendations. Definitely will have a look at Malta to see what that would be like. Gran Canaria seems to be the toughest contender atm. All other ideas and/or suggestions are also welcome.

I've been to Malta, lovely spot for a holiday and great food but not sure I'd fancy a cycling holiday there, too many lunatic drivers.

Bulmers

I was on holiday in Mallorca this year, stayed in Puerto Pollensa, great place for cycling,I got in 5 big cycles, place is geared towards cycle hols,also team sky base themselves over there in December so you might bump into Nico in Dec as he'll prob b down there :-)

Also check out Sa Calabra climb,it's about 45k from Puerto Pollensa, Cat 1 but great to do,one side of the Island has the mountain range and the other side you can go flat along the coast and inland so choice of both.

Renting bike is no hassle, I tried a few diff places and diff bikes but plenty of places when search in Google but best value is to rent for a few days I was doing it ad hoc but I wanted to try diff bikes aswell, I was impressed with the area anyway, there's also groups you can hook up with if you fancy that, they leave from designated areas around 8.30 each morning and you can just rock up and join them, they do about 70 -80k spins.

wisjoc

I stayed at the Floresta in the summer. Nice hotel, apartments are large and comfortable. Only had breakfast but loads of very nice cheap places to eat within 2 minutes walk. I hired a bike for 7 days out of 14 from Revolution bikes. They were very helpful and I would highly recommend. Bike was a planet x pro carbon. Well set up for hills of which there are plenty. Coupled with the wind it was tough enough cycling, but prepare to knock a couple of kms of your normal speed and enjoy. Island is very cycling friendly. Cars give you loads of room. Also the hotel has no problem with you bringing the bike into the apartment which is not the case with them all I believe.

ADW1

Hauki wrote: »

As said in topic, I surprised myself by having couple weeks off from work during christmas and was wondering if could spend it cycling.

Destination must meet 3 criterias:

1. Must be affordable
2. Must be warm
3. Must have decent bikes available to rent (road and/or mountain)

I am planning to travel light, so I will only bring the essential riding gear (clothes, shoes, helmet) with me and rent the bike from destination and it would be great if I could spend few days on road and few days off-road.

Length anything between 5-10 days and destination could be in Mediterranean area or in the Canary Islands, I am open to ideas.

Where would you go and why

Did a mountain bike spin recently in Lanzarote, great fun. Did a guided tour with Mick McLoughlin.
bueno bike Lanzarote
He also does guided road spins and would give you great advice on routes you might be planning on doing. Bike rental is very reasonable.