Bikefriendly recommends the best routes for traveling with children.
Surely many of you have ever considered doing family cycle tourism, but you finally gave up because you couldn't find a suitable proposal. We are clear, the answer is in the Greenways.
The practice of cycling As we understand it in Spain, in any of its forms – trips with panniers, road marches or mountain bike events – involves a series of trips that, if you do not have 'family responsibilities', do not pose any problem. What's more, they are part of that bit of adventure that surrounds this magnificent sport.
But when we decide to 'settle down' and start a family, the adventure can turn into a nightmare, especially when it comes to combine family responsibilities with our love of cycling. Once this change of 'chip' has been overcome, they begin to emerge the desire to go on bike routes with the little ones in the house. The best way, without a doubt, to convey our passion for this sport. And the technology and the world of accessories in the bicycle sector have advanced so much in recent years that we can now take bike routes with children without that involves excessive effort for us and in complete safety for them. Since the front child seats or rear location, to cycle trailers of various types, without forgetting the traditional tandems, the options are multiple to be able to take the little ones with us. And before you know it, you'll have them at your side pedaling their own bike.
But, when the time comes to decide a destination or route to traveling by bike with children, the repertoire seems to be reduced quite a bit, especially due to the number of conditions that surround this type of trip (reduced mileage, low technical level, etc...). In this sense, the Greenways promoted by the Spanish Railways Foundation They seem to us to be the perfect alternative to start cycling as a family.
Firstly, due to its geographical distribution –up to 125 itineraries spread throughout Spain- that allows each and every one of us to have some Green Way closer than we imagine, so trips to the beginning of the route do not involve long hours of travel.
And secondly, due to the characteristics of these itineraries, paved or compacted earth paths, which follow the route of a disused railway track and, therefore, do not have ramps or significant slopes, so they are within the reach of any family cyclist; from which he wears a child chair or a cycle trailer to which you pedal with children who already use their own bicycle, without forgetting other family members who, possibly, are not used to pedaling regularly.[videoplayer main_style=”style-1″ video_link=”https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY7HDdf99AQ” title_font_options=”tag:div” subtitle_font_options=”tag:div”]The Greenways Program was born in 1993 with the aim of rescuing from oblivion the more than 7.600 kilometers of disused railway lines. – or that were never used – with the aim of reusing them from an ecotourism point of view. Since then, these old railway routes are being conditioned to be traveled by travelers who are somewhat different from those who traveled them by train: cycle tourists, walkers and people with reduced mobility.
Many of these itineraries have also become tools of economic development for the people -and the inhabitants- of the areas through which they pass, thanks to the implementation of service companies linked to cycle tourism such as bicycle rental, bars or restaurants, or accommodation. In fact, our Bikefriendly Quality Seal has numerous hotels on Greenways or very close to them, and which have one of their main attractions in this type of family itineraries.
More info: http://www.viasverdes.com/
Photographer: Miguel Ángel Muñoz Romero
