Spain: Picos de Europa and Northern Portugal

Thirteen nights through northern Spain and into Portugal at a relaxed pace, with the overnight ferry from Plymouth at each end. Riders bring their own bike, or hire one.

Santander lands it and the route goes straight into the Picos de Europa, a jagged limestone range with lakes, gorges, sleepy villages and empty sweeping roads, which is among the best riding in Spain and consistently the quietest.

Galicia follows through the high hills on part of the Camino de Santiago to Tineo, then Santiago de Compostela itself, where around three hundred thousand walkers arrive each year having covered the last hundred kilometres on foot, and the cathedral swings an enormous censer across the transept on feast days.

Portugal comes next through the Peneda-Geres national park above the Cavado river to Guimaraes, the birthplace of the country, then a rideout around the Serra da Estrela with the option of climbing Torre, the highest point in mainland Portugal at just under two thousand metres. A rest day follows, then a two-hundred-kilometre road the operator describes as the Spanish equivalent of Route 66, and a return to the Picos with a free day for the hairpin passes, where wolves have recovered enough to be seen occasionally. The ferry home leaves from Santander. The price is quoted per rider. Thirteen nights at this pace means short riding days and time to stop, which in this part of Europe is very much the right way round. Northern Spain and northern Portugal are also considerably greener and cooler than most people expect of Iberia, so this works as a summer tour when Andalucia is unbearable.