Picos de Europa cycling vacation, Spain

Throughout our journey we stay at generally small, locally or nationally owned independent hotels - we never block book. Our itinerary takes us through small towns and villages, who owe their livelihoods to agriculture and quality tourism. In fact, the whole of the region’s economy depends largely on travel and tourism. Instead of running people through on a bus, we guide them by bike and thereby encourage local interaction and the purchase of handicrafts and produce, particularly the famous Cabrales Cheese!

The Picos region is one of outstanding natural beauty; low-impact travel practices such as ours promote and sustain efforts to keep the area clear of mass tourism in favour of more personal and in turn, lower impact hospitality infrastructure. We also only take small groups of around ten people - this minimizes our impact and maximizes our attention to each individual.

Another fact that cannot be overlooked is the simple enjoyment locals have in seeing the riders pass through town. When laying down the arrows, the “chalker” lets the locals know that the group will be passing through town in 30 minutes or so, and the older residents often line up on benches and cheer us as we pass.