Finale Ligure: what trails, what bike, what to expect?

I did a lot of the trails in and around Ligure on a 2018 Evil Calling, 150f/130r

I wouldn't overthink it, you can have fun there on almost anything.

If you can, take a look at the Pietra trails. Also Isallo Extasy or Fast and Furious to Revenant is a fun, long downhill.
 

You are way overthinking this, any decent enduro bike will be absolutely fine. I rode there with ibis ripmo v1 and had a blast. Little Champery was my favorite trail, its sandy and grips really well, probably even better in wet. Only thing that threw me off was the amount of people, didnt expect top of Nato base was that crowded...

The trails you've named will make up for some great riding. The trails are quite rocky and hard packed (especially kill bill and madonna), worth a cush core in your rear if you known to harm a rear wheel when things get rough. If you can sqeeze it in, pedal over to DH men, classic EWS stage and most recognisable for all the media.

Hi, I live in Nice, agree with commenters above, just book a day of shuttling (which includes a guide), they will take you on all the classics you mentionned. 80% of the trails are flowy singletrack with some tech, mostly hardpacked soil with some sandy parts. There are some extremely rocky ones too, but that isn't the norm.

My recommendation is to mix it up by riding other much less crowded spots:

There are loads of spots as good as Finale within an hour's drive of Nice, you would need a guide though, 1001sentiers.fr is the best local guy, although there are smaller shuttle drivers around (e.g. Sospel). Spring will be too early for the bike parks.

Most importantly, if you want the Italian experience, stopping by Molini Di Trioria for a day of shuttling blows Finale out of the water. It is the same type of trails, just way less over-ridden and less traffic jams on trails. 

Take the Madonna. It’s built for the trails there. 

Do one day with single uplifts, in spring you should be able to fit in 3 shuttles in one day. Do a backcountry full day shuttle the other day, I can recommend Ride on Noli but the others are good as well. 

Either see if you can take a shuttle up to DH Men or pedal up there yourself, the view really is as good as in all the EWS photos. 

Bar Centrale in Finale for aperol and good snacks, there’s also a white and blue beach bar that looks a bit more modern that has really good tapas. 

Go to Finalborgo for dinner. Do not go to the big tent restaurants at the beach promenade in Finale. 

Bring inserts, the trails are very rocky. 

Hi,

I´m guiding for Finale Freeride,

surprise, surprise.. I recommend a guided Tour for the first day.(It´s "Full-Day", but maybe you can arrange it) The "Classic Tour" should give you an impression, what the range of trails is, you may expect. For the other day, you should book single lifts and combine long descents with them. They pick you up on several places.. just ask the office! So you can have up to 4-5 Trails with two lifts. 

What I can recommend the most... try to take more time! It´s one of the best areas in the world, and over 300 Trails are to explore.

Greetz,

Jan

I don’t mean to hijack your thread, notanengineer, but I’m also planning a trip to Finale in late May/early June and didn’t want to start a new one. 🙂 I’m wondering which hotels or B&Bs are recommended (or not recommended), preferably walking distance to the beach. 

TheBikeSideOfLife - cool, we will check that out 🤙

I've stayed at 2 different airbnb there. One was right down on the main walking street on the 2nd floor. It kinda sucked taking the bikes up and down there stairs. The stair way was pretty narrow and tight. I would look for a place that calls out bike storage. It would be pretty loud as well since it was so close to the main walking street (Via Tommaso Pertica) but it was nice to pop out and grab some food and drink. This was also good because we were arriving by train and it was a close walk to this place. 

The other place I've stayed was up on the hill a bit. It was more secluded and the walk into town only took a few minutes down a stair case. He had a garage with a bike stand and a nice view of the ocean. I would go back there but you do have to drive up the hill to get there. We had a car so not a big deal. This place was called Casa Barbara you should be able to find it on airbnb or google maps.

A lot of the shuttles and rides end in Finale Borgo. I have never stayed there but I wouldn't mind trying it a some point but would probably have similar issue as the apartment with bike storage. It a cool part of town and has a lot of good food options but its further from the sea.

We stayed in Finalborgo on our trip, and I don't regret it at all. It's much more charming than Finale Ligure (in my opinion), which is a lot more modern. That being said, we're Americans... so we might be more easily charmed by an "ancient" European village than people who travel in Europe frequently. 

We walked down to Finale Ligure a couple of times to walk around and check out the beach, but it didn't really offer anything outside the ordinary, since we can go to the beach and see "boardwalk" style beach towns pretty regularly. We also had two non-riding folks with us, and they enjoyed being able to hike up into the countryside in the Finalborgo area.

Also: we rented bikes while there, but our AirBNB did have a separate, secured bike storage for the building, which would have been nice, since we were on the second floor. We didn't have a car while there, so I can't really speak to parking. 

At Casa Barbra they had parking and we just walked or rode everywhere. The other time we arrived by train. Parking can be a bit difficult but do able.