Ariel.Club Forum

Thank you Graeme for taking the time to organise and plan the 2022 Ariel Pyrenees road trip.
Driving an Ariel Atom up in the pyrenees has been one of my best experiences ever.
From the amazingly fast cornering, mind blowing acceleration, heart stopping braking to the loudest tunnel run I have ever heard, with stunning mountain scenery to look at. The hotels were all great and well chosen by Graeme.

That looks superb.

More pics ánd videos please!

Barn find in Pyrenees.

Thanks David.

I am a veteran of Ariel road trips now, and I would say that was one of the best, if not the best trip in terms of the roads and scenery, that Ive been on. We also had up to 10 cars at one point. more photos to follow, and Bob Robinson is putting together some GoPro footage.

We had a good mix of roads; Basque Country hills and coast line, Spanish and French Pyrenees passes up in the mountains and foothills as well as driving briefly through Navarra plains. We stayed mainly in small towns or villages, apart from the cities of San Sebastian on the first night and Pamplona on the last night. full list of passes on the original topic here --->viewtopic.php?f=64&t=18528

My personal favourite passes were;
Puerto de Larrau. N2011 (Spain) to D26 (France)
Col de la Pierre Saint Martin. D132 (France) to NA137 (Spain)
Port de la Bonaigua (C28 in Spain, just east of Vielha)
All of the Tour de France passes on French side (D618, D918, D934)

Top tip, don't do the Tour de France passes on the weekend like we did. Although probably the best roads of the trip, they were somewhat spoilt by the sheer volume of cyclists on the route. I have done it on a previous trip during the week and it was much much better.

The crossings were on Brittany Ferries new ship the Salamanca, from Portsmouth to Bilbao. Smooth sailing over, but a bit rough on the return. The ship was ok, but not as good as some of their older ferries.

All of the hotels were good, some excellent. If anyone wants the routes and hotels let me know. I will do this trip again, in an atom. I was in my Alpine A110, before I get the Atom 4 next year.

Some more pictures...

and some more...

more...

That looks like a great trip. Generally good weather too by the look of it.

Weather was good over all but there was some rain.
My car was the only one to find biblical rain on second day, so heavy that the road flooded and turned into a river I had to pull over to let a tractor pass.

GraemeW wrote:Thanks David.

I am a veteran of Ariel road trips now, and I would say that was one of the best, if not the best trip in terms of the roads and scenery, that Ive been on. We also had up to 10 cars at one point. more photos to follow, and Bob Robinson is putting together some GoPro footage.

We had a good mix of roads; Basque Country hills and coast line, Spanish and French Pyrenees passes up in the mountains and foothills as well as driving briefly through Navarra plains. We stayed mainly in small towns or villages, apart from the cities of San Sebastian on the first night and Pamplona on the last night. full list of passes on the original topic here --->viewtopic.php?f=64&t=18528

My personal favourite passes were;
Puerto de Larrau. N2011 (Spain) to D26 (France)
Col de la Pierre Saint Martin. D132 (France) to NA137 (Spain)
Port de la Bonaigua (C28 in Spain, just east of Vielha)
All of the Tour de France passes on French side (D618, D918, D934)

Top tip, don't do the Tour de France passes on the weekend like we did. Although probably the best roads of the trip, they were somewhat spoilt by the sheer volume of cyclists on the route. I have done it on a previous trip during the week and it was much much better.

The crossings were on Brittany Ferries new ship the Salamanca, from Portsmouth to Bilbao. Smooth sailing over, but a bit rough on the return. The ship was ok, but not as good as some of their older ferries.

All of the hotels were good, some excellent. If anyone wants the routes and hotels let me know. I will do this trip again, in an atom. I was in my Alpine A110, before I get the Atom 4 next year.

I would be very grateful if you would share the route and hotels. I had planned to go to the Pyrenees this year and frankly didn’t organize it in time. If I had known of a group going I might have got off my ass to do so. Next year hopefully.


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Ming, I'll be doing it again sometime, with a couple of variations, because I wasn't in my Atom.

The routes are on MyRouteApp.com. Create an account, its free, then search for the Group called "Ariel Club Road Trips" and apply to join. I approve it and you're in. All the routes I and others have been involved with during the last few years, are there.

Pyrenees routes in the 22 folder

Thanks v much Graeme


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Can’t seem to find an option to search for Groups?

Pls pls ignore found it.


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