Pisa to Barcelona - any route advice

[mnichols]

Thanks everyone - great responses. Very helpful

[keithg]

I found cycling out of Barcelona airport into town a pretty unnerving and unpleasant on busy dual carriageways.
You may want to pack up your bike in town and get the shuttle or a taxi to the airport.
Have fun, sounds like a great route.

[mnichols]

I've downloaded all the routes and then linked them together

It's mostly Eurovelo 8, which disappointingly steers away from the coast very early - anyone know why this is?

[ossie]

I've downloaded all the routes and then linked them together

It's mostly Eurovelo 8, which disappointingly steers away from the coast very early - anyone know why this is?

Eurovelo routes tend to be quiet / safe routes when it comes to traffic. The coastal roads are probably very busy, I know they are around the France / Spanish border.

It can be infuriating at times when the routes divert miles out of the way to avoid a so called busy stretch of road when it may be doable. The answer is to use Eurovelo as a rough guide and base your ride around it, don't stick to it religiously.

I've also found that Eurovelo routes will often divert to the nearest small town / village quite unnecessarily on occasion - I'm sure this is a bit of ruse so that local businesses get to benefit from passing cycling traffic.

[mnichols]

I've downloaded all the routes and then linked them together

It's mostly Eurovelo 8, which disappointingly steers away from the coast very early - anyone know why this is?

Eurovelo routes tend to be quiet / safe routes when it comes to traffic. The coastal roads are probably very busy, I know they are around the France / Spanish border.

It can be infuriating at times when the routes divert miles out of the way to avoid a so called busy stretch of road when it may be doable. The answer is to use Eurovelo as a rough guide and base your ride around it, don't stick to it religiously.

I've also found that Eurovelo routes will often divert to the nearest small town / village quite unnecessarily on occasion - I'm sure this is a bit of ruse so that local businesses get to benefit from passing cycling traffic.

Good advice. Thanks