barcelona mountain bike self-guided tour

23 km – 220m   
12,4 miles – 722 feet

The Carretera de les Aigües along with Tibidabo, one of the best-known points of the Collserola mountain. It’s easy access from the city makes it one of the most popular places for running, walking or cycling.

This simple route runs along the Carretera de les Aigües where the hardest thing will be to climb from the city to it, once up there, the track will take you on an entire dirt path that is completely flat. From there you can appreciate the beauty of the city from above, since it follows the whole mountain always offering beautiful views of the best-known buildings of the city.

Once finished, the route returns to Barcelona where you will cycle along the Diagonal bike lane, to arrive calmly at our Eixample location.

19 km – 440 m  
11.80 miles – 1443 feet

This route will take you from our store to Sant Cugat crossing the Collserola park. It has no more complications than a climb and descent, but in no case it’s a difficult road because it passes through a wide forest track and is in good condition.

Once in Sant Cugat, there is an option of taking the train back to the city or pedaling back.

You can read this post in our blog in which we talk about the train-bicycle relationship, its rules and its cost depending on the type of train: Train and Bicycles in Barcelona

This beautiful route runs through quiet forests and roads that are the great lung of our mediterranean city.

Cycle the tracks of Collserola to the top of Barcelona with a GPS from Terra BikeTours

22 km – 530 m  
13.60 miles – 1738 feet

This route is a variant of the previous route, it will also take you from our store to Sant Cugat, with the addition of a longer stretch of climb that will make you reach Tibidabo. It adds a little more difficulty but it’s really worth it for the views from the viewpoint, the restaurant to stop for a beverage, the Sagrado Corazón church or the amusement park. This way you can say that you have climbed to the top of Tibidabo, the highest point of Collserola and the best known peak in Barcelona.

38 km – 916 m  
23.60 miles – 3005 feet

This route, like the previous two, will take you from our store to Sant Cugat crossing Collserola. In this case, however, it is a round trip. On the way there the track will take you on one path and on the way back will bring you on another, so you will not repeat the same path which will allow you to see different corners of this mountain.

The route consists of two climbs, one on the side of Barcelona and one on the other side, on the slope of the Vallés side, very different between them since the sea side is drier and the side of the valley is greener and leafier.

It is a pleasant route, not excessively hard but long enough, to be a good choice for those who want to make a good excursion through the pine and oak forests

54 km – 1.200 m 
33 miles – 3.937 feet

This route could be said to be the Premium version of Collserola. In this case the tour will make you go around the Natural Park.

It will be a constant up and down, so you will have to be fit enough to endure a physically demanding 5 hours of cycling. Technically it does not have great difficulties, even if it’s hard due to mileage and unevenness.

During these 54km you will travel through the forests of the Collserola Natural Park and forget that you are so close to Barcelona, ​​you will only find other cyclists or people hiking especially on weekends. A perfect route for those who want to do a full day of cycling without getting far from the city.

47 km – 960 m 
29 miles – 3150 feet

The starting and ending point of this route is the town of Vic, located in the heart of Catalonia and famous for its sausages.

To get there, you will have to take the train or move in a private vehicle.

Once in Vic, the track will take you to the Natural Area of ​​les Guilleries-Savassona, a place with a great history of bandits and smugglers, where due to the geography of the place, they found perfect hiding places.

It’s not an excessively hard route so it will allow you to enjoy the magnificent surroundings that this area offers to its visitors.

The track will guide you to the banks of the Pantano de Sau, built in 1958, which was left by the residents of Sant Romà de Sau, the town that was covered by water at the end of the dam construction, in 1962. If you visit in the season of lower water coverage you can observe the bell tower of the church in the village and even some of the buildings of the old town.

It is an area that is not very crowded and with few villages, so if you find a source of water, do not miss it because, in hot weather, they will be very necessary and they are not abundant.

On the way back you will cross Les Guilleries again but from another variant, to ride the way back to Vic, where you can take the train back to Barcelona or stay around to visit this beautiful city.

52 km – 1.263 m 
32,3 miles – 4143 feet

Like the previous route, you will also have to transfer, by train or private vehicle, to the Montserrat area, specifically to Monistrol de Montserrat, the starting and ending point of this route.

This tour will make you go around the Montserrat Massif, an emblematic massif and symbol of Catalonia for its spiritual component and for its morphological uniqueness. If the day is clear, something quite common in these lands, you can observe the mountain from all perspectives.

Without being excessively hard, it’s long and accumulates elevation so you will have to have a minimum physical form to face it with guarantees and, like the previous route, take advantage of the water sources you find since there are not too many villages along the way.

Although you have to travel there, it’s a route that is very worthwhile and, if you have never been to that area, we would even say that it’s essential, a unique mountain with a high sentimental value for the Catalans.

32 km – 810 m 
20 miles – 2657 feet

This is the MTB ride recommended for Enduro lovers or experienced riders who want to know some of the trails that the Collserola Natural Park hides.

The route has as an initial and final point our store on Valencia street from there the track will take you to the beginning of the mountain through the streets of Barcelona. Once there, it will take you up the path to the St. Cugat road where you will take the first single-track of the day, which goes down about a kilometer and then back up again to go find another single-track, this time much longer, which will take you directly to Sant Cugat. As with the other routes that pass through Sant Cugat, if you do not want to pedal any more, there is the option of catching the train back to Barna.

In Sant Cugat, the GPS will guide you on a bike path until you find a wide track where you will climb again in search of more technical trails. Arriving at the amusement park, where the last technical descent of the day begins, a single-track that will bring you from the highest point of the mountains to the city, where the GPS will bring you back to our place.

This route is ideal to do with double suspension bicycles due to their technical requirements since 45% goes through technical paths. All the climbing sections are by forest tracks so technically they are affordable for everyone. The descents, on the other hand, are all on trails of moderate difficulty with some tight areas with high difficulty.

Along the route you will find several water sources, as well as when you pass through the city of Sant Cugat, where you can stop to buy beverages and food supplies if you need it.

48.5 km – 1045 m 
30 miles – 3428 feet

This MTB route is probably one of the toughest that we offer, not because of its distance but because of the climbs you will find since it passes through another mountain range and it’s a lot steeper than Collserola. The Serralada Marina, which is the name of this mountain range, in addition to being more rugged, also offers another type of forest and grants other types of roads than Collserola so for those who have already been to Collserola and want to see other areas that we have near the city of Barcelona this might be a good option.

The route begins and ends at our local on Valencia street. To leave the city, the track will lower you to the coast, where you will continue towards Sant Adrià del Besos to take the cycle path of the river Besos. You will continue along the bike path to Santa Coloma, where the track will introduce you to the mountains. Once there, the asphalt is over. We recommend filling water in Santa Coloma since once in the mountain, you will not find any source.

Already on the mountain, you will alternate hard climbs with mostly medium level technical descents, although some technically more demanding, along trails. The whole route is cyclable except a small section of about 100m that you will have to get off the bicycle and push.

This route has more urban stretch since the exit of Barcelona on that side is further from our premises, but it’s really worth it, you can see the magnificent views of the city of Barcelona, ​​the entire coast and inland of Catalonia. The terrain could be divided into 60% tracks and trails, 10% path and 30% asphalt.

• GPS rental, track and map. Price per day: 12 €/person

• Bike Rental – Aluminum 29er: 29 €/person
• Bike Rental – Carbon 29er: 40 €/person
• Bike Rental – Full Suspension: 46 €/person