Cycling in Tarragona

rollingscone

Planning our second annual intensive Spanish course (Mrs RS) /being fat on a bike (me) trip but Valencia is too expressive this time and we're looking at Tarragona.

Anyone had any experience of cycling there?

Are there any off road routes / segregated cycle paths for couples spins?

Fozzydog3

What a great place for cycling ! I was there last september and it was the best trip I've had by far.

How many days are you going for and how far are you thinking of cycling each day ?

Tarragona itself isn't laid out too good for cycling (it's manageable though with a little courage). The Francoli river has a dirt trail running alongside it but the views aren't amazing.

The route we did which I would recommend was,

Tarragona up the Francoli river to L'Abiol ( we were supposed to go to Siurana but we tapped out there and got a taxi ) I'd Highly recommend stopping off at Siurana though it's a lovely little village nestled on the edge of a cliff although cycling there might be very challenging.

From L'Abiol we went to Prades which has some great off road trails or if you like you can just stay on the roads which are in excellent condition and really quiet.

The from Prades we cycled to Poblet which was the most beautiful place I've ever cycled through just miles of winding mountain roads ( also in excellent condition) and all downhill. It reminded me of the opening scene in the Italian Job. We stayed in the monastery in Poblet which was cool but the town itself isn't that great.

From Poblet we went to Montblanc which I would highly recommend if you want to impress the mrs. It's a Medieval walled village with great cafes and restaurants and extremely cheap considering how nice it is.

And from Montblanc we went back to Tarragona. Over all I'd say it was about 100 - 120 km's, it's a tough slog to Prades but it's definitely worth it as from there back to Tarragona is all downhill through some amazing old villages.

If you've any more questions give me a shout.

greenspurs

+1.

I cycled a bit there 2 years ago. Fab roads, not too busy, courteous drivers (all I met were anyway).

Not sure about cycle lanes etc, as I was on the main road from Cambrils, up the mountains to La Massara, Prades , perfect surface and very quiet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH9z1QZNq_A

rollingscone

Thanks for the replies.

Plan is to Air BnB for two weeks while my wife goes to class/proficiency exams in the morning I'll get some miles in during school hours then we spend the rest of the day together.

We did this in Valencia last year.

She's too nervous of traffic to do any road riding but did 50+ k of Cycle path/ gravel riding on a hybrid last year in Valencia and was if anything more capable than me on the gravel and singletrack on a basic hybrid.

There's a great cyclist hidden in there somewhere.

Fozzydog3

rollingscone wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Plan is to Air BnB for two weeks while my wife goes to class/proficiency exams in the morning I'll get some miles in during school hours then we spend the rest of the day together.

We did this in Valencia last year.

She's too nervous of traffic to do any road riding but did 50+ k of Cycle path/ gravel riding on a hybrid last year in Valencia and was if anything more capable than me on the gravel and singletrack on a basic hybrid.

There's a great cyclist hidden in there somewhere.

Well if it settles her nerves, its so quiet around prades that we were cycling on the wrong side of the road for 15 minutes before noticing (I blame exhaustion).