MTB Trip Late March-Early April: Portugal, Malaga, Finale Ligare or…

Laid off with a few months cushion…

Anyone have some solid first hand info on places to stay, ease of travel to riding, and trails to hit in any of these areas? Lots of info online but a lot of it is selling packages and tours. Would much rather travel self supported to save some money.

I don’t need much in terms of lodging amenities - wifi would be helpful and the ability to ride from the hotel would be nice. Like most types of trails but prefer getting some vert over pedally xc style trails.

Any info is appreciated!

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No experience riding in Portugal but I lived there for a few years as a mormon missionary. Great culture, cheap for Western Europe, easy to get around.

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Haven’t gotten much info from folks but have a 2 week trip planned to Finale. Will update with some details of the trip, logistics, etc as I get em.

Chose Finale due to the mtb infrastructure, being a bit easier to navigate via trains versus Portugal, and gelato/coffee.

You need shuttles (guides) but you should go to Madeira. I haven't ridden the trails, but I have visited. Big vertical, insanely scenic.

I was in Finale a couple years ago in the fall (late September). We were guided, but it looked like it'd be really easy to do it unguided. If I were to go back, I wouldn't bother with a guide. Great riding there - there's a reason it has the reputation that it does. Everything from legit tech to flowy berms. We did 3 days there and didn't repeat a single trail, and there were tons of trails that I would've liked to hit that we didn't have time for.

Most of the trails we rode were on trailforks, and there are shuttles that run frequently - you pay something like $10-15 for a bump that gets you 3000 ft of vert. You could pretty easily get a bump in the morning and then do a long descent with a some short climbs in the middle to fill up the morning, then do it again in the afternoon. No idea what the weather there is like in late March / April. The only thing I'd mention is that weather up at the top of the trails can be fairly different from the weather down on the coast.

Stay in either Finale Ligure proper or in Finalborgo, which is a little less than a mile inland. Most of the shuttles seem to leave from the "Finale Outdoor Base" which is in Finalborgo. There's a bit more in terms of food and stuff going on in Finale Ligure in the vicinity of the coast, although much of it is pretty touristy. The train station is right in the middle of Finale Ligure, so if you're planning on just doing public transportation, walking to wherever you're staying will be a lot easier if you're in Finale proper. We stayed in an airbnb close to the train station, which was easy and entirely adequate.

Did Madeira about 10 yrs ago with family and friends. Booked a few days with the main company freeride Madeira. Guide had a horrible attitude, rentals were ragged but fine, and company lost one of the days we booked for mtb but it was still a good trip.

Trails are fun, dynamic, and the island’s ecosystem is really special. Very different vibe from Lisbon and the mainland (we thought much quieter). Great hiking if you have transport.

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Originally Posted by toast2266

I was in Finale a couple years ago in the fall (late September). We were guided, but it looked like it'd be really easy to do it unguided. If I were to go back, I wouldn't bother with a guide. Great riding there - there's a reason it has the reputation that it does. Everything from legit tech to flowy berms. We did 3 days there and didn't repeat a single trail, and there were tons of trails that I would've liked to hit that we didn't have time for.

Most of the trails we rode were on trailforks, and there are shuttles that run frequently - you pay something like $10-15 for a bump that gets you 3000 ft of vert. You could pretty easily get a bump in the morning and then do a long descent with a some short climbs in the middle to fill up the morning, then do it again in the afternoon. No idea what the weather there is like in late March / April. The only thing I'd mention is that weather up at the top of the trails can be fairly different from the weather down on the coast.

Stay in either Finale Ligure proper or in Finalborgo, which is a little less than a mile inland. Most of the shuttles seem to leave from the "Finale Outdoor Base" which is in Finalborgo. There's a bit more in terms of food and stuff going on in Finale Ligure in the vicinity of the coast, although much of it is pretty touristy. The train station is right in the middle of Finale Ligure, so if you're planning on just doing public transportation, walking to wherever you're staying will be a lot easier if you're in Finale proper. We stayed in an airbnb close to the train station, which was easy and entirely adequate.

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Thanks for the input man! I assume by not needing a guide you mean you’d rather just take a shuttle bump and navigate via Trailforks? I’m leaning that route but I’m also traveling solo so might do a guide for a day just to ride with some others and pick their brain on other trails.

Did you have time to check out anything else in the region? Other areas in closish proximity to ride or sights to see, etc?

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Originally Posted by GoSlowGoFar

Thanks for the input man! I assume by not needing a guide you mean you’d rather just take a shuttle bump and navigate via Trailforks? I’m leaning that route but I’m also traveling solo so might do a guide for a day just to ride with some others and pick their brain on other trails.

Did you have time to check out anything else in the region? Other areas in closish proximity to ride or sights to see, etc?

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Yeah - I think just getting shuttle bumps and showing yourself around would work pretty well. There were tons of people riding when we were there, so it's not too hard to find someone to ask for directions if needed. But there are plenty of guides operating out of there too, so you could probably find someone to guide you for the first day to kind of orient you, and then go out on your own after that.

We also rode in San Remo, Molini, and Sospel on that trip. All were awesome - rode some great trails in each of those locations. San Remo is a bigger town, and the trails above town are more like traditional DH shuttle stuff (lots of world cup DH teams go to suspension test / train on those trails in the winter). Molini is a cool little mountain town with some easily shuttled big descents. Sospel is just over the border into France. Similar to Molini - cool little town, with big shuttle-able descents. Sospel has a bit more variation in terms of geology and forests. All of those areas would kind of necessitate a guide. Partly because figuring out how to connect together the trails can be a little tricky (especially in Sospel), but mostly because you need someone to drive shuttle if you really want to get the most out of the area. The trails in all of those areas (and others I've ridden) are awesome - the main draw to Finale is just that the shuttle infrastructure is already set up, so it's easy (and relatively cheap since you don't have to sort out a guide / private shuttle). If you were looking to do some ebiking (and thus avoid the need for a shuttle), Molini in particular would be a pretty good spot for it.

Awesome, thanks again man. I have an itinerary set for Finale and will spend a couple days in Molini as well. I’ve reached out to a guide and have found some lodging in Molini but can’t seem to figure out transport to Molini from the coast. Did you have a rental or is there a bus that runs from Sanremo - Molini that I can’t seem to find on Google?

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Originally Posted by GoSlowGoFar

Awesome, thanks again man. I have an itinerary set for Finale and will spend a couple days in Molini as well. I’ve reached out to a guide and have found some lodging in Molini but can’t seem to figure out transport to Molini from the coast. Did you have a rental or is there a bus that runs from Sanremo - Molini that I can’t seem to find on Google?

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Nice!

We were guided through that whole zone, so the guide had transportation lined up. But I think there are busses that run from San Remo to Molini. Look at Riviera Transporti - it's the bus company in that region. You could also hit up the guide you're talking to - there's a bunch of shuttle services / airport transfer services that often aren't well publicized, so the guide might be able to help you line something up. Bus will obviously be cheaper though.

Didn't know where else to put this.... but I did a day of riding with the Freeride Madeira guys on Saturday so I thought I'd do a quick writeup since there doesn't seem to be any other info that I could find, and it might be helpful for others. Although I'll probably just echo the other thoughts out there on the internet already.

Great crew, and super passionate about the scene in Madeira. I only did a single day of riding so I didn't get the big picture; we rode on the east side, above Machico on a pretty sweet mix of forested and wide-open trails. The closest comparison I can think of is part Oaxaca, part Brevard (or any east coast tech?) and part interior BC. We were the "advanced" group (not sure what that means in relation to their clientele) and did a short warmup lap on an easy blue, but then got into good steeps and tech the rest of the day.

There were 6 guys in my group- I was solo, and they paired me with two guys from Italy, two from Germany, and one from Slovenia. We were all equal in ability with no one really slowing the group down; with an hour-long lunch stop, we managed to get 8 laps in, probably ranging from about 800' vert to 3k'... so I'm guessing 10k' for the day? Nothing we rode was overly difficult, but it was a fun mix of rocky, rooty tech and some legit steeps. Probably mostly black-level runs with an occasional double black mixed in.

They did manage to screw up my demo bike, even though I reserved it 7 months in advance and confirmed it with them a week ago. I ended up having to ride a pretty beat XL, which was way too big for me... not a huge deal since I made it work, but definitely not ideal. Otherwise, I'd say these guys are one of the better-run guiding operations I've come across, and the terrain here is pretty damn sick. Madeira itself is pretty hectic and busy, but we only saw a couple other people on the trails all day long.

Bump... thinking about doing a trip to Finale Ligure / Molini next spring. For those of you with experience riding there, thoughts on breaking it up with riding days? My initial thought is 4 days in Finale and 2-3 in Molini. It will likely all be guided, FWIW.

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Originally Posted by smmokan

Bump... thinking about doing a trip to Finale Ligure / Molini next spring. For those of you with experience riding there, thoughts on breaking it up with riding days? My initial thought is 4 days in Finale and 2-3 in Molini. It will likely all be guided, FWIW.

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That seems reasonable. There's a ton of riding in both areas, so you won't run out of trail. A bit more time in finale makes sense mostly because there's more options for restaurants and post ride activities.

A guide feels fairly necessary in Molini. Less necessary but still helpful in Finale.

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Originally Posted by toast2266

That seems reasonable. There's a ton of riding in both areas, so you won't run out of trail. A bit more time in finale makes sense mostly because there's more options for restaurants and post ride activities. A guide feels fairly necessary in Molini. Less necessary but still helpful in Finale. Sent from my SM-S931U1 using Tapatalk

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Seems like a solid breakdown. I'll add that having a vehicle to get to Molini makes planning much easier. I was able to figure out a shuttle to town but it wasn’t ideal due to timing of the train and when they could get me a ride up to town (just a few hours of down time lugging bike bag around, so not a huge deal).