We are permanently based in Spain, in the inland Costa Blanca region, so that is where our holidays and tours are. Cocentaina, where we live, is a pleasant small town with all amenities. We are very close to 3 Vias Verdes (former railway lines) and Eurovelo 8 long distance cycle route. Some of our routes are on flat former railway lines, some more hilly and some are very hilly, suitable for experienced riders only. We change our holidays each year, only repeating every 3 years or so. Most of our holidays are centre based, but we are planning moving on tours for the future.
Peter has been cycling all his life and has been organising tours and holidays in Spain since 1996 when he began organising holidays in Mallorca. Marjorie has been organising cycling holidays with the CTC for 10 years. We mostly ride our tandem around the Alicante/Valencia regions and have currently set ourselves the challenge of visiting all 141 municipalities in the Alicante province by bicycle. So far, we have been to 97 of them. We also ride into the mountains off-road using forestry tracks.
Our leading style varies according to the type of tour/holiday. Some people like to be led, so as not to have to think about the route at all, others are happy with GPS or route sheets and go off at their own pace. We tend to meet up at road junctions, summits or bars and restaurants at lunch time.
The roads we use are almost devoid of traffic once we are away from towns and villages. We are likely to see more cyclists than cars, and we often see the Pro Tour teams out training.
We stay either in a comfortable guest house or local hotels, depending on the numbers on the holiday. Most of our holidays have between 6 and 8 participants.
As mentioned above, we live in Spain, so that is where all of our holidays have been. It means that we have built up an intimate knowledge of the area, often visiting places that even local residents didn’t know existed. We have an extensive library of routes from very easy to very challenging, and we are constantly finding new roads. We can change each holiday year on year for several years without repeating the same one.