7 days riding from / to Santander ?

[Davel]

I know that this seems the lazy way to plot a route but a few of us tour for a week each year but always in this country, so Scotland and Wales etc.

This year, we fancy sailing down to Santander and either basing ourselves somewhere and touring locally - or doing a 7 day loop.

My concern is that without some guidance, we'll select some roads wrongly when there are better, more scenic ones that we should have chosen.

For us, it's the ride and not the destination and we would prefer to stay off the major roads and instead enjoy the twisties or more scenic areas.

We don't want to do a fast lap of Spain, more to visit areas in the North, or just over the border.

Oh and we'll be on two GSs, a Yamaha Cruiser and maybe a Pan.

Any guidance and advice would be great.

Cheers

[Bordtea]

http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/mo...

[r1flyguy1]

Here's a hotel we stayed in great location to base or a first stop en-route higher into the Pyrenees

http://www.hoteltierradebiescas.com/en/disfruta-co...

[Davel]

Cheers Guys

[trumpet1608]

Ride magazine did a tour of Spain and posted all the routes on their website.

I downloaded them and joined a number of them together to make an 8 day tour last year. We ended up going through the Picos and all the way out to the Atlantic coast beyond Santiago de Compostela and back again.

If I went again I would probably stay more in and around the Picos mountains possibly heading towards the Pyrenees as well.

The roads were quiet, food, beer and hotels great and, best of all, quite cheap.

All the best

Dick

[Davel]

Sounds good.

Apparently, because of the limited sailings and slots, it now looks as though we'll sail into Santander and head up to Roscoff, so it looks like a change of plan.

Will look at the suggestions in case we can incorporate then into a route.

[Hooli]

Pyreenes

N260? I think it is that goes right along them on the Spanish side.

[black-k1]

Our trip last year was to Northern Spain and France. http://www.old-gits.org/2015.htm

The Picos were so good we're back again this year.

[Davel]

That's brilliant - thank you so much!

[Harby74]

The N260 is a great road with big dams to stop at, ski resorts and plenty of hair pins and switchbacks, so very twisty and thin in places, so you need to be cautious as lorries use it, I stayed in La Pobla de Sucar overnight(looked a great little town, but it was raining on the morning we left so didn't hang around) travelling west doing the N260 and arriving in Pau,

The main route from France into Spain heading south between Bayonne and Vitoria-Gasteiz has some great tunnels and twisting bridge interconnects as you pass through the Pyrenees, that fast or slow riders will enjoy.

We tried to stop in Pau for steak too, but parking for bikes is a nightmare, but there is some nice scenery if you fancy a walk round.

Don't forget Le Mans on the way down and back too, you can ride the road sections of the track and there is a nice town square with some more steak restaurants.

[Andybow]

r1flyguy1 said:

Here's a hotel we stayed in great location to base or a first stop en-route higher into the Pyrenees

http://www.hoteltierradebiescas.com/en/disfruta-co...

I'll second that. Great hotel, cheap and in a great location

[MrsMiggins]

black-k1 said:

Our trip last year was to Northern Spain and France. http://www.old-gits.org/2015.htm

The Picos were so good we're back again this year.

You guys always seem to have an adventure or two each year. Does it get more difficult to organise as the numbers are increasing?

[black-k1]

MrsMiggins said:

black-k1 said:

Our trip last year was to Northern Spain and France. http://www.old-gits.org/2015.htm

The Picos were so good we're back again this year.

You guys always seem to have an adventure or two each year. Does it get more difficult to organise as the numbers are increasing?

The 2015 trip was a bit of a challenge to organise as there were lots of hotels that needed to be booked in advance – you can’t simply turn up in a town with 19 of you and expect to easily find a hotel. Additionally, it was further complicated with three different groups taking three different routes to get there so hotels had to be found in locations that didn’t make for impossibly long days but ensured that the ground was covered.

Having said that, it just required that outline routes were identified and the hotel and ferry bookings were done early enough to ensure we got what we wanted. I tend to look for possible hotels on Booking.com then see if I can contact them directly to discuss group discounts etc. (Although 1 hotel in France wanted to charge me more for booking direct than booking through Boking.com!)

With a large group there’s always differences in opinion as to which class of hotel to use and what to pay. One of the advantages of being the one doing the organising is that I get to choose the hotel and if the others don’t like it they’re welcome to book their own!

However, the main thing that makes a large group trip work is everyone understanding that there is no tour guide and there is no one other than themselves responsible for making things work. Everyone understands it’s just a bunch of mates with a shared interest riding in the same area and staying in the same hotels. Everyone (including me who booked to hotels etc.) is on holiday and if something is not right or needs attention, it’s up to each individual to sort it out for themselves.

I set the 2016 trip limit as no more than 20 to keep it managable and currently have 27 booked!! (We’ve filled all the bike spaces on the there and back ferries!) Other than the fact that the choice of hotels reduces due to the group size, organising for 27 is proving to be no more complicated than organising for 7. In fact, in some ways it’s easier as, when there is a smaller number, people expect their "specific requirements" to be catered for where, with a large group, everyone seems happy to just accept what I arrange.