WHY CYPRUS?

Cyprus isn't somewhere most European riders immediately think of when they're planning an adventure trip.

Spain, Portugal, the Pyrenees, the Balkans, Romania and Morocco probably come to mind first.

Cyprus should be on that list.

The island is roughly 240 km from east to west, but rises from sea level to almost 2,000 metres. That relatively small area contains a surprising variety of riding: open gravel, forest roads, rocky climbs, mountain tracks, singletrack, rolling agricultural land and remote coastal trails.

And because the terrain changes quickly, you don't have to spend half a day getting from one type of riding to another.

You can leave western Cyprus in the morning, climb through the forests towards the mountains, ride at well over 1,000 metres, drop through traditional villages for lunch and finish the day back near the Mediterranean.

The following morning can be completely different.

THERE'S RATHER A LOT OF IT

When we first started exploring Cyprus, we weren't trying to create a route network. We were simply riding and seeing where things went.

Eventually we realised two things.

Firstly, there were far more trails than we'd expected.

Secondly, finding a track wasn't the difficult part. Finding the tracks worth riding and working out how to connect them into a genuinely good day's riding was.

That process eventually became Horizon Adventure Tracks — HATs.

We've now personally ridden and connected more than 2,100 km of routes across Cyprus, and the network continues to grow.

That ranges from easy gravel and forest roads that almost anyone with some off-road experience can enjoy, through to rocky climbs and technical sections that require considerably more concentration.

Which means a week doesn't have to consist of riding the same terrain at progressively greater distances from your accommodation.

You can choose a genuinely different sort of day.

CYPRUS HAS ANOTHER ADVANTAGE: THE CALENDAR

The riding season is almost the reverse of northern Europe.

July and August are generally too hot for the kind of riding we enjoy, so Horizon Rider doesn't operate its normal riding weeks then.

But spring and autumn are excellent, and Cyprus can offer very good riding conditions during months when large parts of Europe are cold, wet or under snow.

That makes it particularly interesting if your normal European riding year starts late and finishes early.

AND THEN THERE'S THE ISLAND ITSELF

Cyprus has been occupied, invaded, traded and fought over for thousands of years.

That history is scattered throughout the landscape rather than confined to museums.

Routes pass old villages, monasteries, abandoned settlements, archaeological sites and places where stopping for twenty minutes can unexpectedly become an hour.

There are also long stretches where the modern tourist version of Cyprus simply disappears.

The resorts are still there when you want a beer afterwards.

You just don't have to ride through them all day.

YOU CAN EVEN RIDE THE BEACH

There are places on the island where motorcycles can legally be ridden directly along the beach.

Not beside it.

On it.

It's one of those things that sounds slightly ridiculous until you're actually doing it.

WHY DOES ALL THIS MATTER?

Because a seven-day riding trip is short.

If you've ridden your own motorcycle across Europe before, you'll know how easily a week's holiday becomes three or four proper riding days surrounded by transit days.

Cyprus is an island, so almost everybody coming to Horizon Rider will fly.

That sounds like a disadvantage until the motorcycle is already here.

You land. You get to western Cyprus. Your bike and riding kit meet. And the following morning you're riding.

You haven't spent two days getting to the start of the trip.

And you don't spend two days getting home afterwards.

That's one of the reasons we think Cyprus works unusually well for this kind of riding.

The other reason is simpler.

We've spent years exploring it, and we're still finding places we want to ride.

Cyprus remains one of Europe's best-kept secrets.