[Closed] MTB holiday Spain.

Ciclo Montana
Ride Southern Spain

Not been to any but I'll be looking to do a week come Autumn/winter in the south.

Come to Zona Zero in Ainsa. We have a bit of everything and we'll look after you!

I'll PM you some details.

🙂

I’m a big fan of Switchbacks. We’ve been every year for the last 4 years. It’s always great and the trails are awesome.
The food and local bars are pretty great as well!

I can recommend Tim and Jenny at Pure Mountains.

You can get a cheap flight to Malaga.

www.puremountains.com

I’m a big fan of Switchbacks. We’ve been every year for the last 4 years. It’s always great and the trails are awesome.

Have you had biking holidays with any other guiding companies? I was holidaying last year with some guys who had gone to switchbacks the year before who were rather critical of their operation. Apparently changed a lot since they last went with them 5 or 6 years earlier.

I have been on holidays with trail addiction, trans provence (but not the actual trans provence) and basqueMTB, and while they were all good, I think basque stood out as the best of the lot.

I go out for a holiday with https://www.enduromalaga.com/ once a year. The guy who runs it (Nathan McComb) is an ex enduro racer and the best rider I've ever seen - you learn sooo much from riding with him too.

Here's some pics from last year

https://imgur.com/gallery/o5RvVMT

Ride Southern Spain & Pure Mountains are both good shouts.

and I know you have asked for Spain but have you consider Norway? Incredible singletrack and scenery. Will is active on STW and a super nice guy, check out his website: https://anyexcusetoride.com/

No 'mandatory' airtime on Basque trips (just the odd optional drop and bedrock to hop off) so you'd be OK with them. Organisation and guiding is excellent and you should talk to them about flexibility as a solo traveler if you don't necessarily want a week.

I've a paperback book for sale Mountainbike Southern Spain, Malaga, Granada and Sierra Nevada runs 27 of them.
Bought it years ago intending to head there but road biking in Mallorca is so good i always head o'er there instead

I can recommend Basque MTB from personal experience. Very well oganised, all the guides are brilliant. I did the Winter Enduro week in Ainsa. It was so good I'll be riding the High Pyrenees trip later this year.

I´m never sure whether to just stalk these threads or to reply. I´m going to reply this time so hopefully won´t cause any offence. I just wanted to say thanks the the guys giving recommendations for us and I´m always delighted to hear that we are well organised. I think it´s a bit like the swimming swan sometimes, we have been doing it for 10 years now though!

OP, if I can answer any questions just let me know.

I've been with Switchbacks a few times in Malaga and Bubion. It's more focused on the riding than the accomodation (although the accomodation is fine). The upside for me was the amount of riding, lots of runs and not much faffing. Trails are good in Malaga and Bubion.

If you're looking for a "Chalet" type experience and to be waited on, then it's probably not what you want. If you want to ride as much as possible on varied tracks, then its very good.

I've only ever been with one company and that was Ciclo Montana, but I can heartily recommend them.

I would describe the riding as the most technical I've done. That's not really saying much as it sets the bar pretty low, but it is pretty technical by any measure.

There's a good mix of ups & downs with perhaps an uplift day thrown in for good measure.
The last time I went, we also did an overnighter in Granada which was really good.

Accommodation is in a very quiet village with a bar/pizza place about 15min walk up the hill, but has a swimming pool, bike tinkering area and plenty of space for everyone.
Food is fab.

And you get the bonus climbs..... 🙂

Been with Ride Sierra Nevada a couple of times and are going with them next May,based in a nice small town with a good choice of bars etc,trails are like most of Spain dry,rocky and loose
https://ridesierranevada.com/

Altitude Adventure are fantastic, not based in Spain, just over the boarder in France but some of their ridings in Spain.

We’ve been to Ride Sierra Nevada a couple of times in addition to Switchbacks.
Both are very good but I prefer the trails on Switchbacks side of Sierra Nevada.
The accommodation is a bit nicer at Ride Sierra Nevada and the lunchtime sandwiches made by Csilla are awesome.
We found there was more uplift with Switchbacks and we did more of the kind of riding we prefer.
To be honest any holiday in the Malaga / Sierra Nevada area is going to be pretty awesome. Great weather, fabulous food, brilliant trails everywhere

Did Backcountry Pyrenees earlier this year with BasqueMTB. Can’t fault it, great food, great guiding, good mixed group from around the globe (not guaranteed) and some of the best riding on trails you could imagine. The trails round Nocito were especially memorable.

Oh and don’t forget the hippy village.

I’m a big fan of Switchbacks. We’ve been every year for the last 4 years. It’s always great and the trails are awesome.

Have you had biking holidays with any other guiding companies? I was holidaying last year with some guys who had gone to switchbacks the year before who were rather critical of their operation. Apparently changed a lot since they last went with them 5 or 6 years earlier.

Yes. Am one of Andys group. Last Nov we changed our trip from Bubion to Malaga. The trails in Malaga were ace but the atmosphere/accommodation location was not to our liking. We love the trails up in Bubion, the tapas when we stop at the various cafes, the 🍺 and the bars in Bubion.
My first mtb holiday was in Verbier courtesy of BijeVerbier and STW. To date the best mtb holiday ever. However when you compare the cost and value for money? If I could afford it I would certainly go back to Verbier. I have also had a one off holiday in Chatel. The couple who organised have not repeated the experience which was on a par with Verbier. ie a beautiful chateau, excellent food and riding. But again it was not a “cheap” holiday but was value for money none the less.
I have also done budget holidays to the Costas and booked the odd day or two with Sierra Cycling which has always delivered. There was another company(Jim)up in Alora I booked a couple of days with travelling by train from Malaga.
All depends on your expectations and experiences, which will all be different.
We go for the riding, food and beer.....
Roll on Sept....

Thanks everyone! I’ll do some more ferreting about at the weekend!

It’s all about the riding as long as the beds comfy and the shower is good I’m happy so Im not expecting the ritz!

But it’s good to get a feel for the set up before I book anything.

Thanks for the info Doug!

I was holidaying last year with some guys who had gone to switchbacks the year before who were rather critical of their operation. Apparently changed a lot since they last went with them 5 or 6 years earlier.

There's also been quite a lot of kerfuffle with the locals around shipping in lots of tourists but not helping maintain the trails.

I have done 3 holidays in Spain with the MTB, each of them a week.

Switchbacks Malaga (Winter 2018)
Switchbacks Bubion (Autumn 2018)
Sierra MTB Malaga (Winter 2019)

All very good. Too much to say about each of them but I enjoyed the Winter Malaga ones the most, there is something about getting away from the dire UK Winter weather and riding dry dusty trails in Spain in the Sunny weather.
The first holiday was more based on doing loads of DH/Shuttle runs while the latter two were about longer 'shuttle-assisted' rides with descending to climbing on a 4:1 ratio.
The trails were ace at all of them. Better than anything I've done in the UK.

Ride southern Spain. Brilliant place, and amazing trails. Look at pinned TV's videos for an idea of what it's like plus their website.

I wasn't overly happy with Ciclo Montana. The guiding numbers were not good and at one point the rear gunner "guide" was a 14yo son of a part time guide And this was down elephants tail.
At one point one of our group (which had three qualified guides in it) was responsible, with a Walkie talkie. Which ended in us getting lost as the guide had gone on with two others. The answer to "is it left or right at the fork?" Was "it's all down apart from the ups".

White rooms in the Alps was a perfect example of how to do these trips.