Girona town cycling - any advice?

There's quite a lot of cycling in/from Girona videos on YouTube that seem to feature highlights for sightseeing, cafes and tyre kicking.

Be interested if it's as amazing as it looks. I know a couple of folk who've been this last year as "Mallorca is getting too busy with cyclists" so Girona may go the same way in a couple of years.

Stayed there a year ago. Lovely place,  with a lot of the town traffic free. Great riding either road , gravel or mtb. Be careful with your bike though. £9000 road bike stolen from a cafe while the owner was sat 10yards from it. Common occurrence apparently.

The best bits of Girona weren't the cycleable bits from what i remember, wandering round the little gardens that are all along the old walls.  Great day out!

The best bits of Girona weren’t the cycleable bits from what i remember, wandering round the little gardens that are all along the old walls.  Great day out!

Yep, the Old Town area is a maze of tiny cobbled alleyways, steep steps up and down the hillside, the ruins of the old walls, tiny little squares dotted in amongst them. Beautiful city.

The main city area though is very cycle friendly, lots of pedestrianised bits and cycle lanes. As with most cities there are some busy routes through it and some horrible A-road type routes on the outskirts - we ended up on one by mistake coming back into town and it wasn't far short of a motorway. At least the drivers were courteous but it was a couple of km of very unpleasant riding before we could escape and get onto the parallel quiet streets with nice wide cycle lanes!

Girona has a hire bike scheme but it's like London's Santander Cycles - short duration hops across town. There are several shops that do a good line in expensive road and gravel bikes, that scene has really exploded over there. Not sure about the "city/leisure e-bike" market.

And yes, sadly with the increase in the numbers of very expensive bikes being ridden around (and left unlocked outside cafes) there's a burgeoning market in stealing them. 🙁

This may help you, I live in Cataluña and have heard that this bike management system is being strictly enforced with €200 on the spot fines with ignorance/talking loudly in English no defence.

The old town is really a walking destination as its quite small as cities go and better on foot.  the more modern bits of town are not so touristy from what I remember and not really worth riding round specifically . There are some nice road routes out of town (once you have left town  and especially the bike paths heading out of town and a nice way to see the area.  The local tourist office should have a guide of these , the ones heading towards the coast were on old railways.

For exploring the old town, bikes are more of a hindrance than a help...

I found this. A few choices here.

Family route may suit?

https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/greatrides/girona/

This place is v.good for coffee and food but prices reflect this!

https://www.lafabricagirona.com/

Also a good place to look out for Pro cyclists is on the old town bridges in the morning where they meet before heading out on a ride.( they did when we were their anyway.)

We hired gravel bikes from these guys https://www.eatsleepcycle.com/ was chatting to the mechanic about routes, he saved us some money by suggesting just follow him in strava and find routes to suit.

Girona is/was great for inexpensive good food.

I was going to take my bike on a trip there but reckoned it was a liability in the old town.  Brompton too, Spanish police are really hot on fines if you cycle in prohibited areas, or cycle with headphones on, 200e fine.

I wouldn’t bother with a bike in the town. It’s all walkable and some of the best bits are not really accessible by bike.

Great biking destination (I’ve been twice this year) but that’s out of town on the network of gravel trails. Doesn’t sound like what you are after and there is plenty to do in town.