Bike & Hike Routes

This page contains some great hiking, road cycling and mountain biking routes, mostly around Andalucia, Spain. Each entry links to a descriptive page + maps. And for your convenience, I also include a downloadable GPX track file for your GPS.

(By the way, if you have an iPhone, a great app for managing and using GPS track files is Rego! If you already have Rego, you can click on the GPS links below in iPhone Safari, and choose Rego to open the file, and they’ll get immediately imported.)

10 Comments

Jim Allen

Matt,
Just back from staying in Marbella family have an apartment, really enjoyed the trip, im sorry i didnt find your notes until after I came back to Ireland. Some of the routes i wasnt sure if it was safe to cycle on,I was worried about cycling lane, I tried route to estapona but turned back just after Porta Banus, traffic was to heavy. Also learned to cycle up to 10 in morning and after 7 at night, found it a bit hot. On route to Istan at what stage of route are the short hard bits. Looking forward to planning next trip.

August 30, 2010 Reply
Ben

Thanks so much for your info page. You are the best cycling route resource for this area on the net, its much appreciated.

April 10, 2011 Reply
Ben

just to let you know, the profile and GPX links are not functioning for me

April 10, 2011 Reply
- Matt Henderson
  
  Thanks for the catch, Ben. I recently moved my blog files to the Amazon S3 service, and those didn’t make it. I’m uploading them now so in about 10 minutes the link should work again.
  
  April 10, 2011 Reply
Frederik

Hey, great site.

Just back from Marbella. Cycled the road to Ojen many times.

Including one epic ride from Marbella to Ojen – Monda – Tolox – Yunquera – El Burgo – Ronda – San Pedro – and back to Marbella. All the way around the Sierra de Las Nieves natural park. 150 kms, 2850 m elevation. The most beautiful ride of my life. Challenging climbs, but never too steep to get really uncomfortable. The cloudy weather lowered the temperature to a tolerable 19 degrees celsius.

A ride that really makes you a better cyclist. Took me a day or two to recuperate from. Highly recommendable 🙂

April 27, 2011 Reply
Stan Blair

Hi Matt,

Have just got back from an attempt of the Estepona loop via Casares.

I live in Estepona and this week purchased my first road bike. Generally my fitness level is not too bad for a 48 year old, but i’ve not cycled for about ten years.

As i was saying, an ATTEMPT of the loop was made, but as I was not sure of how nasty it was going to get before reaching Casares and it is only my third ride on the bike ( had a couple 40 minute outing in the week) The decision was made to take a right turn about 8km up the A8300 and head back to Estepona completing a 25km loop in an hour plus with the mid morning August heat seemed a sensible option.

My question to you Matt is, how ‘ugly’ does it get before you get upto Casares and is it a route a beginner could handle?

It was tough, but my climbing surprised me to the good, being out in that heat definitely worried me though!

August 14, 2011 Reply
- Matt Henderson
  
  Hi Stan, I’ve not been going out in this heat during the day myself, but rather waiting to go out in the evenings. That ride up to Casares is fine for a beginner, if you take enough water. It does get steeper towards the top, though. Good luck!
  
  August 14, 2011 Reply
Stan Blair

Thanks for that Matt!

I’m a bit nervous of using the A7 as a lone cyclist so if you have any other similar loops in this area that would be much appreciated, ie I noticed the road to Benahavis is popular, can you recommend anything in that area?

August 14, 2011 Reply
Lee Aldrich

Hi Matt,I think we met once at los Merinos,Alhaurine.I was considering doing the off road route through the Sierra de Nieves from Monda to Ronda if it exists .Do you have any imformation for me.Have you done it and would it take 2 days.
Thanks Lee.

April 19, 2012 Reply
- Matt Henderson
  Hello Lee,
  
  To go from Monda to Ronda, I believe you would need to do the following:
  1. Begin on the Monda-to-Istan route.
  2. Half-way, turn right towards Tolox.
  3. 10km before Tolox, you’ll come to Puerto de las Golondrinas, where you will turn left.
  4. After maybe 8km or so, you’ll pass some white houses (two, I believe), at which point you’ll come to a fork.
  5. To the right, is a big climb, and you’ll eventually come to the area of Quejigales (a natural park)
  6. From there, there is a route to Ronda, but I unfortunately don’t know it.
  I’ve done the above 1-4. I started on 5, but due to time had to turn around.
  
  I’m fairly sure you could do the whole thing in a day. 1-4 should take you about 4 to 5 hours, or less.
  
  If I were going to do the route, I would search Wikiloc.es for GPS tracks that, when combined, would cover the whole route.
  
  Good luck, and let me know how it goes!
  
  — Matt
  April 19, 2012 Reply