Best Motorcycle Routes in Spain: Our Honest Selection

There is no shortage of lists claiming to name the best motorcycle routes in Spain. Most of them are written by people who have read about these roads, not ridden them. The same five routes appear in the same order, described in the same generic language, with the same stock photography of the same famous corners.

This is not one of those lists.

We are Mediterranean Routes. We design, ride and personally verify motorcycle tours across Spain and Portugal. Every route in this selection is one we have built a tour around — or considered building a tour around — and decided was worth recommending to the kind of rider who plans a trip from abroad and needs the roads to be genuinely exceptional, not just photogenic in the brochure.

What you’ll find here is our honest take: what each route delivers, what it doesn’t, when to go, and what you’d be missing if you chose something else instead. If you want to ride any of these routes with us — self-guided or with a local expert alongside you — the links are there. If you want to read first and decide later, read on.

How We Choose Our Routes

We apply three criteria before any road makes it into a Mediterranean Routes tour.

First, it has to work as a riding experience in itself — not just a means of getting from A to B. The best motorcycle roads in Spain have a quality of engagement: they ask something of you as a rider and reward you for it.

Second, it has to connect to something worth stopping for. A road that goes nowhere interesting — no village with a decent bar, no viewpoint, no piece of history — is a track, not a route.

Third, it has to work for the kind of international rider we design tours for: someone who has flown in from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands or further, has a week or ten days, and needs the roads to justify the journey. Not dramatic for the sake of it. Genuinely, memorably good.

The routes below pass all three tests. Here’s why.

The Best Motorcycle Routes in Spain — Our Selection

1. The Andalusia Grand Circuit

Andalusia is where we always send first-time riders to Spain. Not because it’s easy — the Sierra Nevada at altitude is genuinely demanding — but because it delivers more variety per kilometre than anywhere else in southern Europe. You can start in Málaga and, within a week, have ridden a karst mountain road with 1,500-year-old white villages on the hillsides, a high-altitude pass above 3,000 metres, a subtropical valley with Moorish architecture unchanged since the 16th century, and a desert that looks like it was filmed for a Western — because it was.

“The moment that stays with every rider we’ve taken through Andalusia is the descent from the Puerto de las Palomas into Zahara de la Sierra. The reservoir below, the Moorish castle above, the road carved into the cliff. You turn that corner and understand why you came.”

Our Andalusia circuit covers the Ronda and White Villages loop, the Sierra Nevada from Granada, the Alpujarras traverse and the Almería desert roads. Seven to ten days. Every stage is a day worth having.

→ See the Andalusia Motorcycle Tour
Self-guided and guided formats available. Airport transfer from Málaga included.

2. The Spanish Pyrenees — The N-260 and Beyond

The N-260 is the most consistently discussed motorcycle road in Spain, and the discussion is justified. It runs east-west along the length of the Pyrenees south of the main range — high enough to have real mountain character, low enough to stay open from May to October — and in its best sections it is among the finest sustained stretches of motorcycle road in Europe.

But the N-260 is only the backbone. The routes that branch north from it — into the Ordesa canyon, over the Port de la Bonaigua at 2,072m, into the Val d’Aran, through the Ansó and Hecho valleys — are in many ways finer than the main road itself. The Pyrenees rewards riders who go off the most obvious line. We designed our Pyrenees tours specifically to use those branches.

“The Port de la Bonaigua is the highest pass on our standard Pyrenees circuit at 2,072 metres. In September, the morning light at altitude and the colours of the beginning of autumn on the descent into the Aran valley produce something that is very difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t seen it. We try not to over-sell it to clients before they ride it. They understand once they get there.”

Our Pyrenees tour is based in Ainsa — the finest motorcycle base town in the Aragonese Pyrenees — with day routes radiating north, east and west from there. Five to seven days covers the essential roads; ten days allows you to extend into Catalonia.

→ See the Pyrenees Motorcycle Tour
Best season: June to September. September is our personal recommendation.

3. Green Spain — The North Coast and Picos de Europa

The north coast of Spain is the destination that surprises riders most. If your image of Spain is sun, heat and arid landscape, the Basque Country and Asturias dismantle it completely. This is green, wet, dramatic country — closer to the Scottish Highlands in character than to Andalusia — with mountain roads that drop into fishing ports and then climb again through beech forest.

The Picos de Europa are the centrepiece. Three massifs of limestone reaching to 2,600m, split by river gorges — the Desfiladero de los Beyos, the Cares gorge — that produce some of the most atmospheric riding conditions in Spain. You can go from sea level on the Cantabrian coast to 1,800m in the mountains in forty minutes. The road quality in Asturias is excellent; the traffic is minimal outside August.

“Northern Spain is the destination we recommend to riders who have already done Andalusia or the Pyrenees and want something completely different. The food changes, the light changes, the architecture changes. You arrive via the Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry and you’re in another country inside the country. It requires a longer trip to do justice — ten days minimum — but the riders who’ve done it return to it more consistently than any other region we operate in.”

Our northern Spain tour covers the Basque Country, the Cantabrian coast, the Picos de Europa and Asturias, with optional extension into Galicia. Best from May to September; July and August are peak season.

→ See the Northern Spain Motorcycle Tour
Arrives via ferry to Bilbao or Santander — the ferry crossing is part of the experience.

4. The Costa Blanca Mountain Circuit

The Costa Blanca has a reputation problem for motorcyclists. The coastline itself — concrete, congested, built for volume tourism — is not where you ride. The mountains immediately behind it are where you ride. And almost no international riders know that, which means the roads are empty in a way that mountain roads this good have no right to be.

The Guadalest Valley, the Serra d’Aitana, the roads above Alcoi into the interior — within thirty minutes of the beach hotels of Benidorm you can be on a mountain road at 1,200m with views back to the Mediterranean and nothing in front of you. The surface quality in the Valencia region is excellent. The scenery shifts from subtropical coast to almond-terrace mountain to pine-forest interior in the space of an hour’s riding.

“We run our Costa Blanca circuit as a self-guided product because the logistics work perfectly from the beach hotels — riders rent a motorcycle, collect it at the hotel, and day-ride the mountain circuits we’ve designed. It’s the most accessible entry point we offer: fly to Alicante or Valencia, arrive at the hotel, have the bike waiting. The mountains are outside the window. People consistently underestimate how good the riding is.”

Our Costa Blanca self-guided routes are based in Benidorm, Altea or Calpe, with day routes into the mountain interior. Year-round riding; best March–June and September–November.

→ See the Costa Blanca Self-Guided Routes
The most accessible entry point into motorcycle touring in Spain for international visitors.

5. The Sierra de Guadarrama and Castile

Central Spain is the region that touring operators tend to skip over — it lacks the visual drama of the south and the alpine scale of the north. This is correct, and also a mistake. The Sierra de Guadarrama, north of Madrid, has roads that are among the best-maintained in Spain, empty on weekday mornings, and within an hour’s riding of the capital. The Puerto de Navacerrada, the Morcuera pass — these are day-ride circuits that Madrid-based riders use as their backyard.

Further west, the Sierra de Gredos — the most underrated mountain range in Spain — has roads through chestnut forest and above the reservoir of El Barco de Ávila that deliver scale and emptiness in equal measure. The town of Ávila (intact medieval walls, extraordinary position on the plain) and the roads south through the Puerto del Pico are worth a dedicated two-day loop.

“We tend to recommend the Guadarrama and Gredos circuits to riders who are combining a motorcycle trip with time in Madrid — it’s the only region in our network where you’re riding out of a major capital city into genuinely good roads within the first morning. The advantage is that you can fly into Barajas and be on a mountain road before lunch.”

→ See Central Spain Self-Guided Routes
Best combined with two to three days in Madrid. Routes designed for riders flying into Barajas.

6. The Spain–Portugal Crossing (Extremadura to the Alentejo)

We operate in Spain and Portugal, and the best rides we offer frequently cross the border. The transition from Extremadura — the wild, empty, dehesa-covered plains of western Spain — into the Alentejo in Portugal is one of the least-ridden and most underrated stretches of the Iberian Peninsula.

The roads through the Natural Park of Monfragüe (storks and black vultures in the limestone cliffs above the Tagus), the crossing at Valencia de Alcántara, and the descent into Portugal’s cork oak plains are riding that most European motorcycle tourists have never encountered. It’s not dramatic. It’s long, empty, golden and strange — the kind of landscape that stays with you because nothing prepares you for how much space there is.

“The Spain–Portugal crossing is the tour we recommend to riders who have already done one of our Spain-only circuits and want to extend the range. It’s also the circuit we ride ourselves when we have time to ride. There is something about the Alentejo in spring — the wildflowers, the silence, the complete absence of tourist infrastructure — that produces a quality of experience you can’t manufacture with a famous road.”

→ See Spain & Portugal Combined Tours
The full Iberian Peninsula experience. Self-guided or guided.

Which Route Is Right for You?

If you’re coming to Spain for the first time and want the greatest density of extraordinary roads in the shortest time: Andalusia. It delivers the widest variety and the most consistent road quality across the most accessible season window.

If you’re a technically confident rider and the Pyrenees are on your list: the Spanish side is better than the French side. Come in September.

If you’ve already done one of the above and want something completely different: northern Spain. The Picos de Europa and the Basque Country are in a different register from the rest of the country.

If you’re based on the Costa Blanca and have a week of riding: the mountain circuit behind the coast is genuinely good and requires very little organisation.

If you want to combine motorcycle touring with a city: Madrid + Guadarrama/Gredos is the cleanest combination. Bilbao + Basque Country works equally well.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best motorcycle route in Spain overall?

There is no single answer — it depends on your experience level, the time of year, and what you want from the riding. If we had to choose one: the Andalusia Grand Circuit in October. The weather is perfect, the roads are empty, the light is extraordinary, and the variety — from high mountain to white village to desert — is unmatched in a single region.

What is the best adventure motorcycle route in Spain?

For technical challenge and altitude: the Pyrenees, specifically the circuits north of the N-260 into the Ordesa canyon and over the Port de la Bonaigua. For remoteness and emptiness: the Spain–Portugal crossing through Extremadura and the Alentejo. For visual drama: the Picos de Europa in northern Spain.

What are the best motorbike roads in Spain for beginners?

The Costa Blanca mountain circuits (Guadalest, Serra d’Aitana) and the Andalusia White Villages loop (Ronda–Grazalema–Zahara) are the most accessible for riders at all experience levels. Both have excellent surfaces, manageable gradients and plenty of stopping points.

When is the best time to ride in Spain?

Spain has a long riding season — March to November across most regions. The finest windows are: Andalusia in March–May and September–October; the Pyrenees in June–September; northern Spain in May–September; the Costa Blanca in March–June and September–November. Avoid the Andalusian interior in July–August (40°C+).

Do I need to book a tour operator or can I self-guide?

Both options work. Self-guided touring in Spain is entirely feasible if you speak the language, are comfortable navigating, and have done the research. What a tour operator adds is local knowledge of the roads worth finding, pre-booked motorcycle-friendly hotels, pre-loaded GPS routes, and someone to call if something goes wrong. Mediterranean Routes offers both formats; many riders start with self-guided and choose guided for their second trip.

What motorcycle is best for riding in Spain?

Most touring and adventure bikes are ideal for Spain’s roads, which are paved throughout. A mid-size adventure bike (BMW F900GS, Triumph Tiger 900, Honda Africa Twin) is comfortable across all the regions we operate in.

How do I book a motorcycle tour with Mediterranean Routes?

Contact us via mediterraneanroutes.com/en/contact. Tell us your preferred region, dates, group size and experience level. We respond within 24 hours and offer a free video briefing call before you commit.

The Route Starts Before You Arrive

Every motorcycle tour we design begins with someone deciding that Spain is worth the journey. We take that decision seriously — which is why we ride every road before we recommend it, stay in every hotel before we book it, and continue to ride our own routes each season to verify that what we told last year’s clients is still true.

The routes above are the ones we believe in. Not because they appeared on a list somewhere, but because we have ridden them and know what they deliver.

If any of them sounds like what you’re looking for: we’re here.

→ Plan Your Motorcycle Tour in Spain with Mediterranean Routes