Spain / Picos / Pyrenees
 

Hello everyone, planning is well underway for this years trip to Spain and Pyrenees so again, was going to throw this out there in the hope someone in the know replies and has all the answers, and helps others as well who may also be heading out there soon.

When our ferry docks in Bilbao, we plan to travel to the Picos and have a hotel booked in Ojedo, we stay there for 2 nights and have a large loop of the Picos planned whilst there.

The question I have are as follows:

1 - On arriving at Bilbao, I see that we can either take the coast route down or go via the Cantabrian mountains area. Can anyone advise the most preferable and advisable from their experience.
2 - Following these initial 3 days we plan to travel up to the Pyrenees area and over to Nice / Cannes area. Again, can anyone advise best routes from Picos to Cannes area - any advice appreciated.

I realise that we could spend weeks in Spain alone but we only have 7 nights and sail home from Caen so basically 7 days of riding between the Picos and Caen - thats the plan.

So, if you have been and can offer advice - chip in - its much appreciated and the assistance I have gained from this site previously would suggest that the advice received is usually spot on.

Thanks in advance

If I understand you correctly you only have 7 days for the whole journey. Yes?

If i'm correct, you are never going to see any of either of these two beautiful countries ( Spain and France), 'cos you will be sat on your bike on a motorway permanently on the move. It may look all very easy on a map, but believe me the topography in Spain and over the Pyrenees will not be give you enough time to do what you want, and in the summer months add at least 50% time to anything you may see on google maps. You won't see much of the Picos in two days, and it will take you 2 days at least to get across to Cannes between May and the end of August due to sheer weight of traffic in the holiday season and it's over 1000 miles across country. It's also over 1000 miles from Cannes to Caen, and although google maps says 11 hrs, don't believe a word of it, it will take 2 days hard ride on the motorway. If the weather is against you, (and it can quite easily happen) you'll be crawling along, especially over the Pyrenees where it can get really shitty and quite dangerous.

I've ridden all over France and Northern Spain in the last 10 years ( I live here), and have learnt to double my estimations on journey times in order to remain safe. My advice to you would be to forget going to Cannes if you don't need to, but have a relaxed time in the Picos, and spend a couple of days taking in some of France on the way up to Caen.

I've got to agree with Pongo particularly with regards to the Cannes /Nice loop. With only seven or eight days you're going to spend most of it on the bike and not see much at all.

I live (part time) a few hours north of Nice and it's the last place I'd try to visit in high summer. If you think the M25 is bad try a two hour wait for the peage outside Nice at 3.00am. In July /August that whole coast is just Paris by the sea.

Hi Gogsyboy, good morning from Bilbao. When are you arriving to Bilbao? Maybe I could lead you to Picos de Europa. In case I couldn't, I will tell you the best route to get there.
Regards. Jorge.

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