Cycling in Girona: where to stay with your bike

Why cyclists love Girona

The riding is the draw. From the old town you can be on empty back roads within minutes, threading through cork forests, vineyards and stone villages toward the Empordà plain, the coast, or the foothills of the Pyrenees. The road surfaces are famously smooth, traffic is light, and you can string together a flat coastal spin or a full day in the hills without repeating yourself for a week.

It’s also a genuine cycling community, not just a place to ride. Girona is widely called the capital of professional road cycling — cycling-tourism sources commonly estimate around 300 pros and their support staff are based in and around the city (a widely-repeated figure rather than an official count). Bike shops double as cafés, group rides leave daily, and the whole town is used to people walking around in cleats — so the local knowledge, and the bike-friendly hotels, are far ahead of most destinations.

The signature rides

Rocacorba is the local benchmark — a steady, quiet dead-end climb of roughly 10–13 km to a summit topped with masts, long used by pros to test form. Els Àngels is the gentler classic: around 10 km at a modest average through forest to a sanctuary with a coffee stop near the top, which most Girona rides pass through sooner or later. Sant Grau winds through cork-oak forest toward the Costa Brava, and Mare de Déu del Mont, further north toward the Pyrenees, is the area’s big-mountain “hard day” objective. (Distances vary by source and start point — treat them as approximate and check a climb database for GPX.)

Girona is equally a gravel capital. The farm tracks and forest roads around Madremanya and the Empordà connect into huge off-road loops right from town. The flagship event is The Traka, a big international gravel gathering held around Girona in late April/early May with several distances — worth timing a trip around, or avoiding if you want quiet roads.

When to go

The sweet spots are April–June and September–October: mild temperatures, little rain, and away from peak summer heat and tourist traffic — which is exactly why the pros base here in those months. July and August are rideable but hot, so start early. Winters are mild by northern-European standards, with plenty of clear, cool riding days and lower prices, which is why so many riders come to escape the cold.

Getting there with a bike

Girona has its own airport (Girona–Costa Brava, GRO), and Barcelona–El Prat (BCN) is the larger international gateway about 90 minutes away, with frequent trains onward to Girona’s central station (also roughly 90 minutes from Barcelona by rail). Arriving car-free is entirely practical.

Once you’re there you barely need a car — the old town is compact and the good riding starts from the door, which is part of why bike-friendly accommodation matters so much here. When you’re off the bike, Eat Sleep Cycle (shop, workshop, hire and café) and La Fábrica (a speciality-coffee café founded by a former pro) are the classic cyclist hubs.

Where to stay with your bike

This is where CycleStay comes in. Girona has an unusual concentration of places set up specifically for cyclists — secure storage so a good bike never sleeps outside, a workshop for pre-ride fettling, a hose for muddy gravel days, and a breakfast built for a big day out. The hotels we’ve checked in and around Girona are listed below, each linked to its own site and the source of its cyclist claims so you can confirm before booking.