Spain in October

Doug,

I live in Andalucia, Southern Spain, slightly inland but not a million miles from Malaga. There is a huge variety of rides around here, be it road or track. My suggestion is bring your bikes and take your choice.

I'll second that,i've recently moved down from Alicante area,i think i,ve found cycling heaven, minimal traffic [ if you don't mind the hills] + the mtbing is fantastic,our closest airport is Jerez.

Berlingoman said:

Doug,

I live in Andalucia, Southern Spain, slightly inland but not a million miles from Malaga. There is a huge variety of rides around here, be it road or track. My suggestion is bring your bikes and take your choice.

[font=Comic Sans MS]I've just returned from two weeks vacation,in sothern spain having not taken my mountain bike it was like a kid in a candy store with no money.[/font]

I'm going to Valencia in October myself (meeting friends there) but thought I'd head over a bit early and cycle there from an alternative airport. My options are probably Madrid, Girona or Almeria - any opinions? Gradients, scenery, road type (e.g. smaller roads preferred.) Weather?

I'll throw my plug in for Southern Spain too - the hubby and I did a two week tour around Andalucia a couple of years ago. It was terriffic. We were there in spring, but the weather was great, the scenery spectacular, the traffic minimal and polite and we had lots of fascinating things to see and do on our off days. One thing - when you are figuring out the distances you want to go take into account that it can be very, very windy.

Some other good things to know - you can take your bike on the train. All the hotels we stayed in had an indoor place to lock the bikes up (very nice. If you use sports drinks / bars take them with you - you wont' find much of anything in the grocery stores. If you need to transport a bike from the airport and need to take a cab - the taxis are tiny - we needed one apiece and had to ride up front with the driver, bike in the back seat. We saw very few bike shops and those we did see were usually selling utility bikes along with scooters and chainsaws.

Be a little careful regarding that advice on the train; been seven years since I did a long cycle in Spain but then at least you could only take your bike on certain local trains, not long distance. The single long-distance exception was the night trains where you were meant to stick the bike under your 2nd-class bunk (bikes not allowed in 1st, where there actually would be room for one or two!) The catch? The bike would not fit under the bunk. Like no bike would fit there, probably not even if it folded - there were two metal supports approximately a third of the way in so that the widest part was maybe three feet.

This was well known to the guards on the train and other Spanish cycle tourists but apparently completely unknown to the people who sold you the tickets. The guards would threaten to throw you off, despite your bicycle ticket. Eventually if you stood your ground the guards would sigh and take the bikes into their cabin. I felt for them too, I saw their cabin (standard 1st class size, e.g. not huge by any means) and there simply was no room for the guard to sleep with four+ bikes in each one.

Oh, and by the way - if it was a summer trip, I would suggest the northern coast, particularly Galicia. But in October you will certainly be better off cycling in the south of the country.

blorg said:

Be a little careful regarding that advice on the train; been seven years since I did a long cycle in Spain but then at least you could only take your bike on certain local trains, not long distance. The single long-distance exception was the night trains where you were meant to stick the bike under your 2nd-class bunk (bikes not allowed in 1st, where there actually would be room for one or two!) The catch? The bike would not fit under the bunk. Like no bike would fit there, probably not even if it folded - there were two metal supports approximately a third of the way in so that the widest part was maybe three feet.

This was well known to the guards on the train and other Spanish cycle tourists but apparently completely unknown to the people who sold you the tickets. The guards would threaten to throw you off, despite your bicycle ticket. Eventually if you stood your ground the guards would sigh and take the bikes into their cabin. I felt for them too, I saw their cabin (standard 1st class size, e.g. not huge by any means) and there simply was no room for the guard to sleep with four+ bikes in each one.

Oh, and by the way - if it was a summer trip, I would suggest the northern coast, particularly Galicia. But in October you will certainly be better off cycling in the south of the country.

good to know - we only did a local short hop - about an hour and just had to stand in the space between the cars with our bikes.