Premiere Hotels
Accommodations may vary based on departure date. Any difference from what is listed below can be found by clicking on your desired date on the View Scheduled Dates or Private Dates tabs.
Hotel Maria Cristina
San Sebastián (2 nights)
Set in the city center, surrounded by gardens and overlooking the Urumea River, this elegant century-old hotel is just a short walk from sandy beaches.
Grand Hotel Saint-Jean-de-Luz
St-Jean-de-Luz (2 nights)
Built in 1901, this hotel has retained the charm of the belle epoque while seamlessly incorporating modern luxury. (spa)
Le Régina Biarritz Hôtel & Spa
Biarritz (1 night)
Seafront luxury and art deco elegance await at this historic hotel, with sweeping bay views and located just across from the iconic Biarritz lighthouse. (pool, spa)
This Trip Is Rated Levels 1-3
Every Backroads trip is designed to appeal to a wide variety of interests and fitness levels. We know your pace may vary from one day to the next—and your traveling companion's may differ somewhat from yours. So we present a range of mileage options, and each day you decide exactly what and how much you want to do.
Daily Route Options (drag to see full )
| Daily Route Options |
| 1 |
Walking/Hiking |
2* |
300 |
4 |
900 |
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| 2 |
Walking/Hiking |
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|
6 |
900 |
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| Kayaking |
around San Sebastián (1.5 Hours) |
| 3 |
Biking |
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|
14 |
1000 |
21 |
2000 |
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| Other |
Surfing Lesson (2 Hours) |
| 4 |
Walking/Hiking |
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5 |
800 |
7 |
1500 |
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| 5 |
Biking |
13* |
800 |
32* |
1700 |
40 |
2200 |
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| 6 |
Walking/Hiking |
|
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4 |
300 |
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Note:
* Includes shuttle.
Learn more about how we determine our activity level and fully support a range of abilities and interests.
Please note that our distance and elevation figures come from Ride with GPS. Other sources may give differing elevation figures due to different GPS and mapping technologies and other external factors.
Meals
All breakfasts, 5 lunches, 4 dinners
Available Bike Options
The key to a stellar day’s ride is a bike that’s perfectly in tune with your cycling style… Backroads has you covered with the best bike fleet in the world! Read on for your available bike options for this trip.
Backroads Titanium Bikes (Included in your trip price)
Our custom-built titanium bikes are specially designed for you—and we offer different models for varied terrain so your bike is ideally suited to the region. Our custom-made bikes are included in your trip price.
Touring Bike (Included)
Performance Road Bike (Included)
Backroads Custom Electric-Assist Bike (Included in your trip price)
Wishing for a little extra assistance up those hills? Our custom Backroads Electric-Assist Bike lets you experience the thrill of exploring on two wheels while providing a boost when you want it. We've modified a selection of our great Titanium Bikes with the intuitive BionX "pedal-assist" system.
Backroads Custom Electric-Assist Bike (Included)
Also Included
- Expertise and services of our experienced Trip Leaders
- Snacks and beverages between meals
- Additional guides and experts from the region on many trips
- Van shuttles to support a variety of route options
- Comprehensive Travel Planner with detailed pre-trip information
- Private guided tours at museums, historic sites, wineries and other select attractions as noted in the Travel Planner
- All gratuities at hotels and restaurants
- Special events, including wine tastings and other select attractions as mentioned in the Travel Planner
- On biking and multi-adventure trips, use of fully equipped Backroads titanium bike plus helmet and accessories
- Trailercycles, carriers, and kid-sized helmets for Family Trips
- Equipment and experienced guides for kayaking, rafting, snorkeling, sailing and canoeing as described
- Park and other entry fees
- Fares for trains, ferries and other modes of travel as listed in the Travel Planner
- Select coach transfers
- Baggage transfers and porterage
Get the Straight Talk about This Trip
We want to make sure you're on the right trip and that you have the best experience possible. Every Backroads trip is unique and this one is no exception.
Limited & Fixed Menus
On many nights, the gourmet restaurants where we dine offer specially prepared limited or fixed menus featuring a delicious selection of authentic regional cuisine.
Why Travel with Backroads in French and Spanish Pyrenees
Everyone at Their Own Pace
We design and support our French and Spanish Pyrenees trips to suit mixed abilities and varied interests—so you can set your own pace, then change things up as the day unfolds. And all guests are free to do the same, traveling together or apart, with no one cramping anyone else's style. Which sounds easy in theory, but it's hard to pull off. Here's more on how we do it.
More Leaders to Support You
On our French and Spanish Pyrenees trips we have an extra leader supporting you along the road and trail—for a total of three, compared to the industry standard two. So we can be in more places at once, giving personal attention to guests traveling at their own pace. Here's more on our Trip Leaders.
Get the Most Out of Each Day
Coordinating multiple activities throughout a single day can be tricky, but with Backroads you'll never know it. When you explore French and Spanish Pyrenees with us, you switch activities seamlessly without missing a beat. We invented the multi-adventure concept, and we're constantly adding new dimensions and fine-tuning the experience to make it even more enjoyable.
Quality You Can Measure
Since 1979, Backroads Founder and President Tom Hale has shown that staying #1 means constantly evaluating our performance using the best possible source of information: our guests. As we systematically analyze your feedback on our trip consultants, leaders, hotels, meals and on-trip activities, we never stop working to make a great company even better.
We Know Where We're Going
Tom Hale has been keeping Backroads on track, with one eye on the horizon, since 1979. His passion for active travel, and for ensuring the highest-quality travel experience, is evident in every detail we add to make a guest's trip unforgettable—and the fact he's right there in the office, making it happen. To hear Tom describe his vision, watch our video.
The Best Leaders in French and Spanish Pyrenees
Backroads has the best-qualified people to lead your trip in French and Spanish Pyrenees, and our guests back that up, rating our Trip Leaders an average of 9.75 out of 10 for all-around quality of performance. Get the facts (and no fluff) on how we recruit and develop the very best people for your trip.
Your Trip Will Run. Period.
Under our Book with Confidence policy, your Backroads trip will run even for one or two people (or a family of three or four), subject to a nominal extra fee. Or transfer to another trip, and we'll give you a credit. It's all part of our trademark commitment to treating guests with integrity, transparency and total accountability. Read all the details.
We Invented the Multi-Adventure Trip
After more than 30 years of creating Backroads Multi-Adventures, our trip designers know how to blend the perfect balance of biking and hiking with other activities to showcase the best of a region. And then they arrange the seamless transitions that would be so hard to orchestrate on your own—adding dimensions to your trip that are exciting, inspiring and just plain fun.
A Variety of Routes Each Day
In French and Spanish Pyrenees you head off each morning after choosing among several expertly designed routes—all with detailed directions, mileage and shuttle options. Unlike trips with one fixed daily route (or worse, one guide that everyone's obliged to follow), you're free to enjoy the best of the region at your pace, stopping wherever you want to explore further.
We Speak the Language
If we told you many companies' leaders can't actually speak the language where they lead trips, you'd say incroyable... ridicolo... không the tha thú. At Backroads, fluency in the local language is a given. Find out more on the best leader recruitment, training and development in the business. (And by the way, that was "unforgivable" in Vietnamese.)
Only the Best Hotels
On this trip featuring Premiere Hotels, you can count on the best lodgings French and Spanish Pyrenees has to offer. In fact, the hotels we've chosen in this region have higher retail room rates than those offered by any other active travel company—even when their trips cost more.
