In April 2016 Chris and I plus two ‘occasional cyclist’ friends were the first clients of 2016 with the tour firm ‘Iberocycle’ for one of their 7 day self guided tours in Northern Spain. – The picture is of the approach road to Frias – one of the gorgeous hilltop towns along the route. The company does other tours in Spain/Portugal too.

It was a brilliant tour, spectacular eagle laden scenery, ridiculously quiet roads and lanes, well specified mainly half board accommodation and overall a great ‘middle of the road’ option for cycle touring where both route and accommodation are pre planned (but route is variable if preferred) and your heavier luggage moved ahead for you.

The detailed route info included variable distance options, from 25/40 to 65 miles daily, and was hilly enough for us to feel we’d earned our dinner and glass or two of Rioja! Having our accommodation and meal pre-arranged meant we were free for 2 or 3 hours tourism and a little aperitif quaffing between the days ride and eve dinner.

The tour company were fantastic – as there were 4 of us the tour was tailored to our dates. (Tues to Tues) We were picked up at Bilbao airport, taken to their office near Santander to be fitted with excellent Trek hybrids (they’d gone to considerable lengths to tailor the bikes to our previously given measurements, and we took our own saddles and helmets, e-bikes are an option too) and then on to the Hotel at the start where we were briefed and then left to it for 6 days, with them a call away should assistance be needed.

They then drove us back to the Airport (Chris and I then stayed on in Bilbao for 3 days, using the excellent and cheap Bilbao City Rooms)

A great ride, well organized and very reasonably priced given the high level of service and accommodation.

Recommended.

Richard Attwood