Hiking and Biking Trails in Spain

Posted by Barbara Rogers Nov 3, 2006

Spain has just completed converting 930 miles of unused railway routes into signposted trails for walkers and cyclists. These vias verdes take travelers into Spain’s back country, past farms and over rolling hills, from the foothills of the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean.

Some border rivers and canals, some strike off across fields and through forests, and all of them are guaranteed to show a side of Spain that tourists hopping between the major sites of Madrid, Barcelona, Granada and Seville rarely see.

Because they were once rail lines, the grades are gentle and the paths wide enough for companionable biking or walking, without the dangers of road travel. Along the Sierra Via Verde in Andalusia, the former rail stations have been converted into lodgings, with restaurants serving local foods.

The website has a lot of useful information in English, but the guidebooks to the trails are all in Spanish. Fortunately, the maps are easy to read, and with only a few words of Spanish you can learn about the lodging and dining along the trails, as well as information on local fiestas and public transportation to and from the vias verdes.