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Islands and Italy - 2024+
A Grand Tour across Northern Spain, to the islands of Sardinia & Corsica, the Italian Lakes and Swiss Alps.
3500 kilometres in total: Santander to Barcelona; Ferry to Sardinia & Corsica; Ferry to Livorno, to Verona & the Italian Lakes; across The Alps to Switzerland & Lake Geneva, Home through French Jura and Burgundy.
Tour Outline
This one really is A Grand Tour! - probably at least 20 days but longer would be nicer to allow time to explore some of the amazing places along the route.
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First of all, the long, Brittany ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, followed by a cruise along great roads through the foothills of the Pyrenees towards Barcelona. We'll visit stunning, historically significant cities such as Logroño, Cuenca and Zaragoza.
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Next, we catch an overnight ferry from Barcelona to Porto Torres on the beautiful, unspoilt Italian island of Sardinia to explore some of the reputedly best undiscovered biker roads in Europe.
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A short ferry ride across the Strait of Bonifacio takes us to the equally stunning French island of Corsica to see how these French coastal and mountain roads compare with their Sardinian counterparts.
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A fast-ferry back to the European mainland takes us from Bastia to Livorno in Italy, where we'll take a steady meander through Tuscany and Lombardy to the Italian Lakes, perhaps for a couple of days' break in the stunning scenery of the Italian Alps.
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Beginning to re-focus on heading north, we'll cross the Alps into Switzerland to Brig, and Montreux on the shores of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) before heading into unspoilt Jura and Burgundy, and home, from the Channel port of Ouistreham.
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In total, the tour will cover about 3500km, and depending on how many city-exploring or rest days we build in, will take between three and four weeks.
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Corsica
Possible itinerary
I - Spain
We'll take the 'long ferry' from Portsmouth to Santander or Bilbao, not least as it cuts out a motorway drone through France and arrives at an ideal starting point on the Iberian Peninsula and takes us directly to some amazing biking roads.
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We'll track through the Basque country, Navarra, Aragon and Catalunya but choose some alternative routes and different places to visit from our last two tours that have included Spain, such as the medieval cities of Logroño and Zaragozo, and perhaps detour slightly to see the 'hanging houses' of Cuenca.
Turning east towards Tarragona and its beaches and impressive roman amphitheatre, and eventually to Barcelona, we could take a day or two's break from the bikes to visit more Gaudi architecture and amble along Las Ramblas, ahead of a night ferry to Porto Torres on the Italian island of Sardinia.
Zaragoza
Barcelona
Spain Gallery
Alghero
Sardinia
II - Sardinia & Corsica
Arriving in Porto Torres mid-morning, we'll take in Alghero for lunch, Sassari for an overnight stop, before working our way south towards Oristano and Cagliari. From here, we'll head across the island's interior to Nuoro, and to Olbia and Costa Smerelada in the north east.
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Sardinia is reputed to be littered with great biker roads both along the coastline and across its mountainous interior. We'll explore as much as we can before hopping across the Strait of Bonifacio to its neighbouring, French island of Corsica.
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Significantly smaller but equaly extreme in its blend of mountains and coastlines, we'll visit Ajaccio and Propriano in the south, explore the highland interior around Corte, to work towards Calvi and Cap Corse in the north. From Bastia on the east coast for a ferry to Livorno on the Italian mainland.
Sardinia and Corsica Gallery
Sardinia
III - Italy & Switzerland
Our ferry from Corsica arrives in Livorno in Tuscany, close to Pisa so we'll have time to posa against the Leaning Tower!
We'll cruise the Italian Riviera and Cinque Terre, before heading inland through the Tuscany countryside towards the Alps. After sampling the food capital of all Italy, Bologna, we'll visit the iconic city of Verona - the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. From here, to the fortified, hilltop city of Bergamo, gateway to the stunning Italian Lakes in the foothills of the Alps, close to frontier with Switzerland.
We'll tour Lake Garda and Lake Como, head into Switzerland at Lugarno, onto Locarno at the top of Lake Maggiore, briefly nip back into Italy again before crossing into Switzerland proper along the Simplon pass. Our route takes us to the picturesque alpine town of Brig, and on to Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman).
Bergamo
Ganter Bridge on the Simplon Pass
Les Chasserons, Jura Mountains
Beaune, Burgundy
IV - Jura & Burgundy
From Lausanne, we'll leave the lake and track north-west into the Jura mountains over the border in France. As an area generally visited by few tourists, Jura is reputed to be rural France at its most delightful with rolling hills and empty, sweeping roads. We'll aim for either Besançon or Dole, or perhaps Beaune in Burgundy as our overnight stop.
Having now left Jura on our homeward journey, we'll meander through Burgundy, home of some of the most famous of French wines, crossing into its neighbouring region, the equally well-respected wine country of the Loire valley.
Our likely final overnight stop on our Grand Tour will be the cathedral city of Orléans on the banks of the Loire, before the last blast across the Normany countryside to the Channel port of Ouistreham for our ferry home to Portsmouth.
Locarno on Lago Maggiore
