I'm sure this must have been asked recently, but I've had a search and can only find posts from 11+ years ago, and I'm sure things have changed in the mean time, so..... can any one recommend somewhere in Europe, that is nice and sunny / warm for riding in February ? We are after some good technical XC / Trail / All Mountain riding, that's interesting enough for me, without scaring the beejesus out of Mrs YM.
Currently Andalucía seems to be coming out tops, but a little worried by the typical rainfall in Feb.
Madeira or Tenerife? Never been Grenada/Sierra Nevada area that early in the year, but I would imagine it might be OK.
Last weekend in February this year we went to Fuengirola for some winter sun and dry and dusty mountain biking.
The weather was variable, we got a little bit of sun but it was mainly cloudy with a couple of very heavy downpours. Windy too.
The weeks before and after we went were dry and sunny 🤣
La Gomera, next to Tenerife. Had a fantastic January there a few years ago.
Yeah, not riding, but we have visited the Alpujara area (orgiva) in March to visit my sister in law who lived over there. Weather wasn't great - just like a cool and disappointing summer's day in the UK. 15c cloudy and drizzle.
I'm sure other times it would be nicer, but not guaranteed.
Around Granada can be a bit hit and miss, been in February the last 2 years and been lucky with great weather (cold at night), sunny and mid teens and great cycling. (It snowed about a week after we were there and they had miserable weather for a good few days)
I was in Sierra Nevada in Feb this year great weather in day for riding bit chilly at night, jacket weather.
Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated. I'm going to have a Google at the suggested places.
Also investigating whether we can shuffle the trip to a little later in the year. Mrs Ym works in a school, so can normally only take school holiday time off, although she did negotiate a few days unpaid leave into her contract so we could do the BC Bike Race a couple of years ago, so a later trip may be possible, depending on permission from the Headmaster.
I know you said Europe but South Africa is usually an overnight flight, no jetlag and very cheap. We've had some great riding there over the years.
I've been to Andalucia a few times in late March and it was hit and miss then (best week was sunny with high's around 25c, worst week it rained the first half and washed out quite a few roads and highs of 15c, the other trips were somewhere in between), you might get lucky in February but it would be far from guaranteed.
I'd look at one of the Canary Islands or maybe the Algarve
nice and sunny / warm for riding in February
how about Cyprus, we found it really friendly and good value, lots of great scenery and off-road routes.