Accommodation

The lodge

The Setting

On our centre-based mountain bike and gravel bike holidays, you’ll stay at Pure Mountains’ beautiful, off-grid lodge, where the emphasis is on simple luxury. The lodge sits in its own grounds, within the Parque Natural de Sierra Nevada, at an altitude of 1,650 metres. From the lodge, there are panoramic views of the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the Mediterranean and the Rif Mountains of Morocco. Read more about the location here and weather here. This part of Spain is very keen to attract more visitors and to combat rural depopulation. You won’t see “Tourists Go home” banners here!

The Space

The lodge is registered with the regional tourist board as a casa rural, guaranteeing high standards of comfort and safety.

The spacious, light-filled guest rooms open onto a cloistered Moorish patio with a central fountain. Each room has its own bathroom. You can request twin (90cm/3 feet wide) or double beds (180cm/6 feet wide). The beds are firm and very comfortable, with duvets and cotton sheets.

Guests eat in the open-plan sitting/dining room, or on the terrace in warmer months, and relax in the patio, in the gardens, or in the sitting room. For the cooler evenings there is a powerful wood-burning stove.

The abundant sunshine and solar panels ensure a supply of electricity and hot water.

There is a generator for power backup and a gas boiler for extra hot water and central heating in the cooler months, in addition to the wood-burning stove. Water comes from our own spring.

The WiFi, washing machine and dog cuddles are free.

All meals and drinks at the lodge are included in the price of your holiday.

Breakfast

Breakfast is served in the dining room, or on the south-facing terrace. You can feast on porridge, toast, cereal, fruit salad, eggs, freshly squeezed orange juice, fruit, yogurt, cheese, tea and coffee.

Lunch

At lunchtime the 4WD support driver sets up a picnic table with bread, local cheeses, tortilla, ham, chorizo, salad, hummus, olives, nuts, cold drinks and tea and coffee. Folding chairs are provided, of course! We also fit in a tea/coffee break during the morning’s riding.

Tea & Cake

When you get back to the lodge, you can choose between tea and freshly-baked cake, or a refreshing cold beer (or both).

Dinner

Our highly-praised cook prepares hearty and delicious dinners from fresh, local ingredients. Special dietary requirements are willingly catered for.

Beer & Wine

The beer is usually Alhambra (from Granada) or Victoria (from Málaga). The house red wine is a substantial Spanish tinto. The house white is usually a dry white from Castilla La Mancha.

We’ve built a mini bike park in the grounds of the lodge, giving you the chance to have fun and improve your bike skills, on the doorstep. The XC course is short but vicious and popular with riders who like a challenge! It makes the most of the steep terrain to include swooping singletrack, tricky climbs, tight switchbacks, drop-offs and bermed gully crossings. We also have a constantly evolving pump track.

Bike workshop

We have a fully equipped on-site bike workshop. You are welcome to use the work stands and tools, or you may prefer to sign up a Total Bike Care package

After a few years in Spain, we were missing real ale. So, we decided to set up the Pure Mountains Brewery. It’s a full mash set-up, which means starting from scratch, working with ingredients including barley, hops, yeast and gallons of mountain spring water. Brews include Honey Buzzard, Heavy Horse and Black Goat. You can buy Pure Mountain Real Ales for €3 per 500ml bottle.

Where is the bike lodge?

The Pure Mountains lodge is perched above the village of Bérchules, in the Sierra Nevada Natural Park in Andalucía, southern Spain. We’re about two hours from Málaga and the Costa del Sol and 90 minutes from Granada and the Costa Tropical.

Sierra Nevada and La Alpujarra

The area which stretches south from peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the Mediterranean Sea, is called La Alpujarra. Mulhacén, the highest peak of the Sierra Nevada, reaches 3,482 metres in a lunar landscape. The coast is known as La Costa Tropical for its warm climate and exotic fruit plantations. Between these two extremes lies a paradise of south-facing meadows and terraces, irrigated by snowmelt and ancient water channels and dotted with authentic, flat-roofed, white villages. Bérchules is a traditional, working village. It’s off the tourist trail but it has a bank, pharmacy, shop and several bars.

What’s the weather like?

The south of Spain enjoys a generally dry and sunny climate. Having said that, we are in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the weather can change suddenly.

View the weather forecast for our local village of Bérchules here. You can find annual statistics and averages here.

January to March is usually sunny, with snow on the tops. It can be chilly, but great for mountain biking, gravel riding and hiking. April to June are lovely months, with the mountains in flower and water gushing in the streams. July and August are too hot for riding bikes! September to December are cooler and a perfect season for mountain biking, gravel biking and hiking, with chillier nights gradually creeping in.

The air is incredibly clean and fresh and the night sky is a revelation.

Because of the huge range of altitude locally, we plan the mountain biking, gravel biking and hiking routes according to the weather. In the cooler months we tend to use lower routes and in the hot months we use the higher tracks and trails.