Motorcycle Pyrenees: Self-guided Tour
The Pyrenees have some of the best riding in Europe. The Alps get all the love, but the Pyrenees also have breathtaking views, quaint Spanish towns, great tarmac, better year-round temperatures, is more cost-efficient, and the prevalence of non-riding opportunities make for a unique motorcycle holiday of Spain. With the Mediterranean urban center of Barcelona just over an hour away and the travel magazine worthy Costa Brava at one end of the mountain range, there’s a lot that the Pyrenees offer.
Ride Specs
Distance: 275 km (170 mi)
Duration: 4h 40m (not including stops)
Difficulty level: Intermediate to Difficult
Best season: July-September
Insider Tip: The climate in the Pyrenees can be a tricky one and very unpredicatble at certain times of the year. It’s important to plan out when the best time to go is, and how you should pack. Reference our seasonality guide to riding in Spain to shed light on this topic.
We’ve curated several route guides to follow as part of a larger motorcycle tour of the Pyrenees. You could spend over a week discovering the entirety of the Pyrenees, therefore we’ve created several, individual day itineraries which you can string together into a larger tour you are planning or take the “must-ride” and curate your own route. It’s the “must ride” sections that we’ve built each route guide around, and sprinkled in nice towns or viewpoints along the way as natural break points, but you can source these top roads in northern Spain to create your own itinerary.
First Sector: The Deep Gorge Road
Sector Specs
Main Roads: C-13, N-260
Distance: 88 km
Duration: 1h 20min
Start point: Have a coffee with your view!
We start our journey with a coffee on the terrace of Mirador Del Llac, which meets the edge of a reservoir surrounded by imposing rock faces of red stone. The view sets the tone for the type of nature you can expect to ride through on this day. Make sure you sit at the rear terrace, not the one in front.
Must-Ride Section: Road C-31, Camarasa to Cellers
Length of section: 38 kms (25 miles), 35 minutes
Once you’ve finished your coffee, kick-started your bike, or rather, engaged the ignition switch, we dive right into the best “must ride” section of the day’s tour. The reservoir leads us northwards on a road etched into the mountainside, flowing with the curvature of the river. The road is high up on the mountain giving us expansive views of the surroundings, little mountaintops peeking out over the foreground and background hills. It’s in these fleeting moments where you forget civilization exists. The grand experience of raw nature transports you back to an archaic era or an on-set shoot of an upcoming Jurassic Park film.
The expansive views give way to a tightening of the mountains, where the road needles through a “doorway” on to the northern side of the Sierra del Montsec, technically a part of the “pre-Pyrenees”; the foothills and lower peaks of the Pyrenees mountain range.
Must see: Castell de Sant Oïsme
Distance from start: 25 km, 25 min
About 25 minutes from the cafe, there sit the remains of a castle (Castell de Sant Oïsme) upon a rocky outcrop leering high above the reservoir. We highly recommend taking a quick stop, walking up the spiral staircase of the castle turret, to take in the surroundings. You can’t see the castle from the street, it sits behind the large red building of a hostal/restaurant.
Checkpoint 1: Sort
Distance from start: 88 km, 1h 20m
On our way to the second must-ride section, we stop in the town of Sort, a central hub for outdoor activity tour operators - if you want to go rafting, mountain biking, hiking, or rock climbing, it starts here. The town itself isn’t particularly beautiful or historical, but it does have more cafe/restaurant options than most towns in the area for a coffee break.
Alma's Café: sitting on the main road, this cafe has a bit of a hipster aesthetic, so you can be sure the coffee and the pastries will be on point
Cafè Pessets: Situated directly next to Alma’s café, Pessets has an older feel, but a wonderful outside terrace. Additionally, there are several other restaurant/cafe options on this road.
Second SectoR
We enter this section as the mountain peaks on either side get higher and the valley we ride through deeper. Our immediate view is walls of alpine trees until we begin our ascent out of the valley, gaining 1,000 meters in elevation. The standout part of this section is the series of switchbacks that leads us to the peak of the mountain where we can find a chairlift to the luxury ski resort of Baqueira/Beret. On this plateaued peak, or Puerto de la Bonaigua, there are several open parking areas where you’ll notice other groups of motorcycle riders congregating to take in the surroundings. And next to these congregating motorcyclists is the famous restaurant, Cap del Port, housed in a building that looks like the setting of a Wes Anderson flick.
At this point, we are about 2.5hr, or 140km, into the ride. We have a scheduled lunch stop in the town of Vielha, about 25 minutes from this point, which is certainly worth a stop. However, you can make a stop now at Puerto de la Bonaigua for traditional Catalan cuisine in a rustic, mountain cabin setting.
Sector Specs
Main Roads: N-260, C-28
Distance: 72 km
Duration: 1h 17min
Checkpoint 2: Lunch Break
Puerto de la Bonaigua
Distance from start: 140 km, 2h 10m
Cap del Port: Steeped in history, the building was initially constructed in 1924 to serve as accommodations and storage for the electrical workers maintaining the power lines leading from the hydroelectric dam in Les, several towns over on the French/Spanish border. It now serves as a restaurant to feed hungry cyclists and motorcycle riders in the summer and skiers in the winter.
Les Ares Compared to Cap del Port, Les Ares offers higher quality dishes, with a rustic, mountain cabin-like ambience, earning the better rating of 4.6 stars. Both restaurants offer traditional Catalan fare.
Vielha
Distance from start: 160 km, 2h 40m
Vielha is a charming mountain town that captures the beauty of the Val d’Aran valley with its well maintained cobblestone streets and traditional stone houses. Vielha has many unique restaurants and boutique shops. Even if you’re not into artisanal organic honey, it is hard to deny that these shops don’t give a town that quaint feeling that’s pleasant to walk around.
Restaurant suggestions
Era Placa: The outside terrace on the main square allows you to see the town’s people interact and get a feel for Vielha. We typically don’t go for the restaurants on the main square, but that rule is generally reserved for large, touristy cities.
Cafe Nuevo: very near Era Placa with a lovely terrace of its own, and you can park your bikes within eyesight of the terrace. Great if you’re in the mood for pinchos (small bites), tapas, and 2 euro glasses of wine.
Gourmet d'Occitània (lunch available Fri-Sun): Spanish version of a gastro pub: hot sandwiches, grilled cheese (toasty), hamburgers, and soups under 15 euros. Match that with a 2.50 euro beer, we’re feeling pretty good.
Braseria El Racó: grilled meats, potatoes, and grilled vegetables, this restaurant will offer you a more hearty meal than the other listed options. Set in a rustic, tavern-like atmosphere.
Kuki's & Co.: the healthy food option in town
After you’ve finished your lunch, have a quick stroll around the town to let the lunch digest. It’s a very pleasant town and will only take 15 minutes to walk the nice bits.
Third Sector: Boí Taüll
Recommended to us by our local motorcycle mechanic in Barcelona, Boí Taüll is a ski resort in the heart of the Pyrenees. It’s not the resort our mechanic recommended, but rather, the road that runs through the towns of Boí and Taüll, terminating at the base lodge of the ski resort. Complete with several switchbacks, this road gains 800 meters (~2,600 ft) in short order where you’ll notice the vegetation thinning out from dense green to bare, unforgiving rock formations.
Giving these alpine backroads a greater “off-the-beaten-trail” feeling are the free roaming cattle and sheep that are part of the surrounding landscape and can be found on the edges of the roadway. Just be careful when taking corners hard, you don’t want to go up against something double your weight.
Since this road is a dead end, it is essentially a detour, albeit a “must-ride” detour. If you are behind schedule and want to cut 1 hour from the ride, you can continue on to the next highlighted section and end point shortly thereafter which is only 20 minutes from the entry point to the Boí Taüll road.
Sector Specs
Main Roads: L-501
Distance: 30 km
Duration: 20m
Checkpoint 3: Quick break
Distance from start: 200 km (125 mi), 3h 20m
On the way back, it’s a good time for a quick break to stretch your legs in either of the small towns of Taüll or Boí.
Bar de la Plaça this bar is situated on the town square, neighboring the church built back in 1123. The bar is fine for a drink or coffee, go elsewhere for food. Parking is 5 min walk from the town center.
Restaurant Mallador also has an outdoor terrace, but parking and accessibility is better. Right off the main road, you can park your bikes up just outside the restaurant.
Final Stretch: The Escales Dam
Similar to the First Sector, this section of road follows the curvature of a reservoir but it may not have the same level of impressiveness. We finish off the ride at a view point at the base of the reservoir where the hydroelectric dam is located.
Distance from start: 202 km (125 mi), 3hr 25 min (not including stops)
Length of section: 12 km (~7.5 mi)
