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iBikeRide now lists 56 mountain bike destinations beyond Great Britain, from the trail centres of Ireland, north and south, to the lift-served bike parks of the Alps, the enduro trails of Finale Ligure and the winter sun of Madeira and the Canary Islands. Every one is written for a rider travelling from Great Britain: how to get there, when to go, where to stay and who runs guiding, shuttles and hire. Here is where they are, region by region.
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What each listing gives you
A resort's own website tells you about the resort. What it rarely tells you is how to get there from Great Britain, or which airport, ferry or train makes most sense with a bike bag. So every destination below has four sections written for exactly that trip:
- Getting There from the GB: the nearest airports and rough transfer times, ferries, and rail where it is realistic.
- When to Go: the lift season or the best months, and what the weather does at either end.
- Where to Stay: which village or base to pick, and why.
- Guides, Shuttles and Hire: named, linked operators, so you can book uplift, a guide or a bike without starting from a search engine.
Destinations worth a trip in their own right are marked Multi-day on the listing. Smaller venues that make a good day out from a nearby base are marked full day or half day. Each country page lists everything we have in that country, so it picks up new listings as soon as they are published.
Ireland and Northern Ireland
For most riders in Great Britain, Ireland is the closest trip on this list, and it rides all year: the weather decides, not a lift timetable. Ferries run from Cairnryan to Belfast or Larne, Liverpool to Belfast or Dublin, Holyhead to Dublin, and Fishguard or Pembroke to Rosslare. Flights go to Belfast International, George Best Belfast City, City of Derry, Dublin, Shannon, Cork and Ireland West Airport Knock.
Republic of Ireland
8 listings
Ballinastoe, County Wicklow: 51km of blue, red and black at Coillte's National Mountain Bike Centre, about 45 minutes from Dublin.
Ticknock, Dublin Mountains: a red loop and a short black on the edge of the city, with views over Dublin Bay.
The GAP (Glencullen Adventure Park), on the Dublin and Wicklow border: a gravity bike park with uplift across two zones and around 32 named trails.
Carrick Mountain, County Wicklow: informal, rocky and quieter riding above Glenealy, with no operator or facilities.
Ballyhoura, County Limerick: the largest trail network in Ireland at 98km, five loops from a 7km warm-up to the 51km Castlepook. Worth a weekend on its own.
Coolaney, County Sligo: blue, red and black routes on the Ox Mountains with views out to the Atlantic, around 40 minutes from Knock.
Slieve Bloom, Offaly and Laois: seven waymarked routes from two trailheads, Kinnitty and Baunreagh.
Ballycuggaran, County Clare: a small, club-developed network of natural singletrack above Lough Derg, near Killaloe.
Northern Ireland
5 listings
Rostrevor Mountain Bike Centre, County Down: a 27km red cross-country loop, a 17km black and two downhill trails with uplift, above Carlingford Lough. About an hour from the Belfast ferry.
Castlewellan Mountain Bike Trails, County Down: six waymarked routes from green to black, plus a pump track, beneath the Mourne Mountains. It pairs with Rostrevor for a Mourne trip.
Davagh Forest Trails, County Tyrone: green, blue and red loops, a skills park and a pump track in the Sperrins. The forest is also an International Dark Sky Park.
Blessingbourne Trail Centre, County Tyrone: a blue and a red loop and a pump track on a private estate near Fivemiletown, with accommodation and hire on site.
Gortin Glen Forest Park, County Tyrone: around 12km of blue and red, mixing forest singletrack with open hillside, north of Omagh.
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The Portes du Soleil (France and Switzerland)
8 listings
One of the largest joined-up mountain bike areas in Europe, strung across the French and Swiss border, and each resort's lift pass also opens up the wider network. Geneva is the gateway, roughly an hour to an hour and a half by road. The lifts run from around mid or late June into September, with the most lifts open in July and August.
Morzine: the Pleney and Super Morzine gondolas on either side of the valley, and descents of 30km or more.
Les Gets: around 128km of marked trails across two sectors, a 4X track, a jump park and a coaching track.
Avoriaz: a car-free clifftop resort with around 19 downhill trails across four linked sectors.
Châtel: 22 downhill tracks at Pré la Joux, slopestyle lines, a dirt jump area and a conveyor-lift zone for first-timers.
Champéry: the black World Cup downhill course, a red alternative and a village pump track.
Les Crosets: four red downhill tracks from 1.3 to 6.3km, and a four-cross course.
Champoussin: a small village base with no trails of its own, right beside the Les Crosets bike park.
Morgins: smaller and quieter, with a gondola to four green to red trails, a pump track and a valley gravel route.
The French Alps
7 listings
Beyond the Portes du Soleil, the big French resorts are reached from Geneva, Chambéry, Grenoble or Lyon, usually one to three hours by road. Rail is realistic here too: Eurostar to Paris or Lille, then a TGV towards the Alps. Most lift seasons are short, roughly late June to the end of August, with a few weeks either side at some resorts.
Chamonix: two lift-served bike parks, at Balme and Les Houches, and natural singletrack across the valley under Mont Blanc.
La Clusaz: lower and forest-lined, with 12 bike park trails and 125km of marked riding. About an hour from Geneva, one of the shortest transfers on this list.
Méribel: nearly 200km of lift-served riding in Les 3 Vallées, from a beginner zone in the resort centre to a double black World Cup track.
Les Arcs: around 151km of marked trails across the Paradiski villages, including the long La 8 enduro descent to the valley.
Tignes Val d'Isère: over 200km across both resorts, high and rocky, with a top station around 2,700m.
Alpe d'Huez: around 260km across the Oisans, dropping from Pic Blanc at 3,330m. It is the summer home of the Megavalanche.
Les Deux Alpes: more than 138km, from the glacier at 3,200m down to the village.
Switzerland
3 listings
Swiss trains and PostBuses make a trip without a car realistic. Bikes need their own ticket, and some PostBus routes need a bike reservation, which the listings explain. Seasons run longer than in most of France, into October at all three.
Verbier: nine lift-served lines and around twenty enduro routes in the 4 Vallées, about two hours from Geneva.
Lenzerheide: home of the STRAIGHTline World Cup downhill course, in the Bike Kingdom area. Zurich, then a train to Chur and a PostBus.
Flims Laax: eight lift-served trails, including the 1,150m Never End freeride descent, and seven waymarked gravel loops.
Austria
5 listings
Salzburg is the airport for Leogang, Saalbach and Schladming, and Innsbruck for Tyrol, with Munich as the bigger hub for both. Austrian lift seasons are some of the longest in the Alps, with several running from May into October or November.
Leogang: home of the Speedster, the World Cup and World Championship downhill course, with 15 lines from two lifts.
Saalbach Hinterglemm: over 120km of trails, linked with Leogang and Fieberbrunn on one ticket.
Schladming: 12 gondola-served trails on the Planai, around 42km, from blue flow to the former World Cup downhill.
Sölden: five bike lifts, 17 shaped lines and 16 natural trails, topping out near 2,800m.
Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis: nine lines from blue to black, with as much for families and first-timers as for experienced riders.
Italy
2 listings
Two very different trips. Finale Ligure is on the coast and rides best in spring and autumn, when the Alps are shut. Val di Sole is a high-summer lift park in the Dolomites.
See every Italy listing.
Finale Ligure: one of Europe's classic enduro destinations, with more than 200 numbered trails from the sea cliffs up to beech forest at 1,000m. Genoa is about an hour away, and Nice has more flights.
Val di Sole: a regular World Cup stop, with three reds and the Black Snake downhill track, each dropping about 550m. Verona is around two hours away.
The Pyrenees and Andorra
3 listings
Natural singletrack first, with lift parks alongside. Barcelona and Toulouse are the gateways, around three hours by road to Andorra, with Perpignan closer for the French side.
Pyrenees: the eastern range from Cerdagne and Capcir to the Luchon valley, natural riding first with several uplift parks.
Pal Arinsal: Andorra's World Cup venue, with more than 60km of lift-served trails dropping over 1,000m to La Massana.
Naturland: more than 70km of waymarked routes from 2,000m above Sant Julià de Lòria, a good day out from a Pal Arinsal base.
Portugal and the Canary Islands
4 listings
The winter options. The islands ride all year and come into their own when the UK is wet, while Lousã is best in spring and autumn. All four are flight trips, and on the islands most visiting riders use a shuttle operator, which the listings name.
Madeira: shuttle-served enduro from the high plateaus down through laurel forest towards the sea. Its winter is mild but also its wettest time, and the airport has strict wind limits.
Lousã: ten graded routes, around 110km, including enduro descents of over 11km from Trevim, under two hours from Porto.
Tenerife: the slopes of Mount Teide, from over 2,000m through pine forest to the Atlantic, on a large legal forest track network.
Gran Canaria: no trail centre, but more than 350km of routes from the south coast to almost 2,000m, through several climate zones in one ride.
Germany
3 listings
The one region here you can reasonably drive to from Calais. The Sauerland parks also run a long season, roughly April to early November.
Winterberg: 17 trails and three lifts in the Rothaar Mountains, plus a free beginner course.
Willingen: 12 lift-served tracks, including a former World Cup downhill and a 4X course. It is 30 minutes from Winterberg, so the two make one trip.
Nürburgring: three signposted routes around the Green Hell, from 24km to 55km, with no lift.
Slovenia, Czech Republic and Slovakia
6 listings
Less well known in Great Britain, and quieter for it. These are flight trips with a hire car.
See every Slovenia listing, every Czech Republic listing and every Slovakia listing.
Maribor (Pohorje): Slovenia's largest gravity park, around 18 trails including a World Cup black run, and a long season from around April to November.
Kranjska Gora: Slovenia's first dedicated bike park, around 20km of green to black trails at the foot of the Julian Alps.
Velika Planina: a cable car up to a herdsmen's plateau, with gravel roads and one well-known technical descent. A day out, not a trip.
Rychlebské stezky (Rychleby Trails): around 20 named trails, roughly 45km, including the Superflow loop.
Singltrek pod Smrkem: twelve loops, around 85km, in the Jizera Mountains, some crossing the border into Poland.
Kálnica: around 18 downhill, enduro, dirt jump and pump track lines, and a skills area with an airbag landing.
Sweden
2 listings
Two parks on the Hallandsåsen ridge in the south, near Halmstad and Ängelholm airports.
See every Sweden listing.
Vallåsen: 14 routes served by a chairlift and a T-bar, with a campground right beside the trails.
Kungsbygget: a compact sister park five kilometres away, linked to Vallåsen by a waymarked trail.
Planning a trip
- Check the lift timetable before you book. Lift seasons shift a little every year, and the early and late weeks often run fewer lifts and trails. Each listing links the operator's own page.
- Bike bags: check your airline's sports equipment rules and fees before you book, and check that your transfer can carry a bike bag, because not every vehicle can.
- Lift pass or free to ride: the Alpine bike parks need a lift pass, while trail centres like Ballyhoura and Rychleby are free to ride, though some charge for parking. The listings say which.
- Weather and altitude: the highest Alpine trails can hold snow at either end of the season, Madeira's flights can be diverted in high wind, and Lousã's forests can close on days of extreme fire risk in summer.
- Getting there without flying: the listings give the Eurostar and onward rail route wherever it is realistic, which covers most of the Alps and Germany.
Over to you
Ridden any of these? Open the listing and add your review, photos and videos. That is what helps the next rider decide.
If we are missing a destination you rate, or something on a listing is out of date, a lift that has closed, a new operator, a trail that has changed, tell us and we will get it corrected.
Photo by mark soetebier on Pexels