Gravel bike holiday - STW hive mind recommendations

I'm currently looking at the Torino-Nice Rally for next year, based on the route and area there must be folk offering something around there.

Tick

Nothing to add but watching with interest. A guided supported gravel holiday with grown up food and accommodation sounds rather nice.

Check out cyclenorway.com and his videos on YouTube, the place looks amazing and I think he has started dabbling in arranging holidays.

I've followed his journey a bit as he set up a business promoting Norway as a destination, seems like a good guy.

Don't want to put a downer on the  Norway options,but we were planning a motorbike trip across there a few years ago. We came to the conclusion that the weather always looked like .. rain ,about to rain,just finished raining, snow. I also heard stories about a lot of bitey bugs.. Would love to be proved wrong as the scenery looks amazing. 🙂

Toured Norway on my motorcycle in June 2018. Spent 3 weeks there. Camped and stayed in hyte (huts). We went from the south wiggled around the fjords area, then up into the Arctic Circle. It was the best trip the wife and I have ever done. Sunshine and low 20s on most days. Two slightly wet days. Don't recall any problems with bugs. I'm hoping to return next year 🙂

Don’t want to put a downer on the Norway options,

I think I've been to Norway 6 times and love it. No issues with the weather at all

Having said which, 4 of the trips were kayaking ( snow melt rather than rain fed) and the other two had regular top ups of lovely powder.

But it wouldn't put me off a cycle holiday. I'd rather a bit of rain than the horrendous temperatures in the Alps these days in August.

Andalusia?

https://www.eatsleepcycle.com/tour/badlands-granada-to-cabo-de-gata-self-guided/?utm_campaign=&utm_term=&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&ctf_src=g&ctf_net=adwords&ctf_mt=&ctf_grp=160514269910&ctf_ver=1&ctf_cam=20845891191&ctf_kw=&ctf_acc=9363256391&ctf_ad=684134974680&ctf_tgt=dsa-2287681508074&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAyJS7BhBiEiwAyS9uNX3XpsAoJIZwgB1QBPSqJ0kbWE8IWW5_ve8m0eeqbt39RyWvDHJcFxoCvyIQAvD_BwE

We did a 5 week tour of Norway last summer. At least 50% gravel.

Not sure about guided trips but the gravel network is amazing, easy to make routes. gravelnorway is a good resource, there are also some national routes.

I would suggest the worst weather sticks to the coast, we were inland, had some wet days but southern Norway in July was gloriously sunny and warm!

We are thinking about doing the 2 deserts tour with Pure Mountains this year, on this page towards the bottom.

https://puremountains.com/gravel-bike-adventures/

Ridden with them a few times before, lovely couple who run it.

Thanks for the Norway feedback.

I am the only one of my gang with a motorbike now 😉 🙂 .

My list of cycling destinations grows each year,but I fancy  ( inspired by TJ) some of the Via Verdes routes( Northern Spain).

Tick

I'm supposed to be going to Slovenia & Croatia next summer but I've not done any real research yet so if anyone wants to chip in some beta, I'm all ears....

Another vote for Pure Mountains in the Sierra Nevada - I have done MTB hols with them and Tim and Jenny are great hosts. The Gravel stuff on their site and Instagram looks awesome.

Mick from Equipe guided us in Girona. Might not be quite what you're after as we stayed at the same place each night, their guesthouse, and headed out from there each day. Can confirm the riding, guiding and accommodation were all excellent.

Andalusia?

Badlands Epic: Granada to Cabo de Gata Self-Guided

I was going to suggest that - I've done lots of road riding in that area - but it's baking hot in August & September. Badlands looks amazing, I know some of the trails and I'd love to ride it properly but no-one does it at that time of year!

Toured Norway many years ago (foot and mouth year) it rained everyday but was pretty bloody amazing.

Toured Slovenia a long time.e ago too, that was also great, hot though ?

Lots of gravel roads before gravel was invented...amazing.

Reminds me I want a trailer again, at least with gravel touring you're less likely to get it wedged between rocks or in ruts 😆

I’ve never been abroad with Glorious Gravel but they seem to have some good rides

https://gloriousgravel.com/offroader-series/

I once had 2 weeks in Norway. The second week was great. The first week it rained alot. Despite being August the temperature never got above 8 centigrade

I was considering one of the glorious gravel but I did wonder if it would be better going with a more established company like skedaddle.

Had a great trip with pals a year past March in Portugal organised by Fiona from Paradise Cycling Tours. Not a guided trip - she provided GPX files for each day and arranged transport of kit from hotel to hotel - all of which were excellent. Really enjoyed it - so much so, we’re booked for another next March.

She’ll taylor routes to suit taste/ability and runs guided and unguided options. Recommended!

https://www.instagram.com/paradisecyclingtours?igsh=MXdpa2YzM3B4MHFiZg==

I did several MTB trips with Skedaddle over the years and was never disappointed  by their routes or logistics.

Would you consider doing it unguided? I borrowed a Garmin and rode the Tuscany Trail in October. It was super easy to follow the GPX and because we stayed in hotels, we did not need to carry much kit with us. It was easy to wash our ride kit and have it dry for the morning. We broke the route down into bite sized chunks based on there being good restaurants nearby. Booking.com made finding somewhere to stay incredibly easy. I have written it up for the February issue of the magazine. It meant we could go at our own pace and stop whenever we fancied.

Cheers

Sanny

The Eroica and Eroica Montalcino routes amount to several hundred kms of very well marked routes. They are segments of gravel rather than pure gravel though. The road bits are pretty nice too though!

My partner and I did the Glorious Gravel Sweden trip this summer - nice riding, friendly team with options for wild swimming and sauna too. The hotels and food were posher than I’d expect on a bike trip - sit down meals at lunch 2 days out of 3 and fancy 3 course dinners which I think is part of the reason they are pricey. We were doing it as part of a special birthday trip so was ok but for a normal holiday is a bit fancy for us!

The midnight sun in the nordics is pretty scenic for bikepacking and the everyman rights mean you can camp almost anywhere with no fuss. Very well mannered drivers too, which may be a consideration depending on how asphalty your gravel riding is.

I was going to suggest that – I’ve done lots of road riding in that area – but it’s baking hot in August & September. Badlands looks amazing, I know some of the trails and I’d love to ride it properly but no-one does it at that time of year!

Oh God, definitely don't ride there in summer!

I know the area a bit and love it - I was intrigued by the route and how they get 700km+ in the distance from Granada to Cabo de Gata. Can't find a route map anywhere, but I guess it's a loop back to Granada and very winding in nature?

Think this will be the limit of my holidays this year, persuaded my wife I needed to do an 'endurance block' prior to a big almost-race in June.

https://www.komoot.com/collection/3206445/-may-road-trip

As someone who's done 25 summer in Norway I'd say that if you're going in July take your raincoat.  Wet season most years , esp by the coast