Duration: 8-12 days • Distance: 1185-2185 miles • Average daily ride: 5.5-5.75hrs

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Col du Tourmalet. Col d'Aubisque. The N260. Coll d'Ordino. Port d'Envalira. There are just a few of the brilliant roads in the Pyrenees in France, Spain and Andorra – and all of them (and many more besides) are on this tour. It's pure mountain heaven.

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The tour ties in with the Santander ferry crossings, with options for Plymouth or Portsmouth crossings. The core tour is seven days long, but the Tour Pack version includes five daytrips around key stops, so you can expand the trip to fit with however much time you have between your ferries.

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What are the highlights? So many... The route is planned with minimal motorway, so it's into the mountains within half an hour of getting off the ferry, heading through Cantabria and La Rioja on the way to the Pyrenees. It heads to France first, tackling the Tourmalet and other passes made famous by the Tour de France, before hopping backwards and forwards across the border, packing in passes. It's a fabulous blast through one of Europe's most beautiful areas – and if you can ride the daytrips included with the Tour Pack, you'll really get to see each corner of the mountains. 

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What’s included on the route? Each day’s route has recommended places to stop for coffee in the morning and afternoon, a suggested lunch stop and planned fuel stops. Hotel suggestions are included too.

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How long is each day’s ride? These are full days in the saddle but not arduous ones: it's a bike trip, so the emphasis is on riding brilliant roads rather than stopping for sightseeing, but it's not an endurance test. If you're on the road at nine, you should be at the next hotel around 5:30pm. That's allowing for lunch, coffee and photo stops along the way. Saddle-time rating: six out of 10.

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Why seven riding days? The basic tour is timed to fit with the ferry schedule to Santander: sailing from Plymouth on a Sunday to land in Spain on a Monday, then returning from Santander to Portsmouth the following Monday. That gives you a day in hand to have a two-night stop in one of the destinations – either for a rest day with a spot of sightseeing or to ride a circular route. But you're not tied to those ferries: there are options to tie into all the Santander sailings and the Tour Pack has enough extra routes to let you expand the tour further, to fit with any sailing schedule.

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How is it supplied? Each download includes an interactive eBook of notes plus individual GPX files covering the rides, for sat navs and suitable phone navigation apps. However, I strongly recommend getting the Tour Pack which also comes with tankbag notes and a marked-up map as well as the five optional daytrips.

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Sailing from Bilbao? Any trip can be adapted to run from Bilbao instead of Santander. If you need this, just get in touch.