Mountain Bike Trips in Europe

If you are making your summer riding plans, you should consider a trip abroad. I know, it sounds like a fuss (and it can be) but it is usually worth it. A few years ago a group of us took a trip to Morzine, France for a week of riding and had a blast. See Picture below-

Airfare was a bit pricy but the vacation was very very resonable. We booked a whole week (7 days, 8 nights) of guided riding which included transfers from the airport, a lift pass for the whole time, breakfast and dinner (except 1 night) and all the lodging for about $1,000.00 per person- including wine in the evenings. That is a smoking deal if you think about it, and even more so because the meals were awesome and the lodging very nice- Chalet style.

Lift assisted biking sounds very "downhill" here in America, but over in the Alps, there is still a lot of climbing to do after rolling off the lift. It doesn't hurt to have almost double the time descending as you spent climbing either.

We took our bikes and that was a pain in the ass. Actually, it wasn't a pain as much as it was how the airlines rip you off- the pulling the bike box around part wasn't that bad at all. I will take my own bike again in the future if they don't have them available or only have crappy ones to rent, but if they have good rentals, that is the way to go.

As soon as my fortunes turn around (if they turn around), I will be booking an even longer trip. If you are in a position to give it a shot I highly encourage you to give it a go. The group that we went with has merged with Flowmtb- http://www.flowmtb.com/ which I hear is quite good too. A couple others that I have heard good things about are listed below:

http://www.otp.co.uk/otp/
http://ridebig.com/adventures.php
http://mbmb.co.uk/
http://www.basquemtb.com/
http://trailaddiction.com/
http://rivierabike.co.uk/
http://puremountains.com/
http://switch-backs.com/bubion/

Charlie S.