Spain: BMW Backcountry Explorer, Andalusian Coast

Six nights along the Andalusian coast on trails, opening with a full day of BMW-approved off-road training on a private thirty-acre facility, with riders split by ability. The programme is run in partnership with the organisers of the official BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy.

Malaga is the fly-in point, with a transfer to the staging hotel and a welcome dinner, and the training day comes first, which is the right order: the trail riding afterwards is on big adventure bikes and the skills are needed rather than merely nice to have.

The riding then runs west along the coast to Tarifa, at the southernmost tip of mainland Europe, where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean and the wind funnelling through the strait has made it the windsurfing capital of the world. The Andalusian white villages follow inland, then Cadiz, among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in western Europe, founded by the Phoenicians some three thousand years ago and sitting on a spit almost surrounded by sea.

The Sierras of Grazalema and Ronda come next, Grazalema being the wettest place in Spain and consequently far greener than the rest of Andalucia, before the return along the Mediterranean coast to the staging hotel and a farewell dinner. The headline price is per rider on their own bike, with hire bikes available at a higher rate and a separate price for two riders with two bikes. For anyone who has bought a large adventure bike and never taken it off tarmac, this is the trip that fixes that, and the training day means the first trail is not also the first lesson.