How to Find the Best Trails

Chances are that you ride with a bunch of likeminded friends. Most of the time, they ride at a similar level and have a similiar preference for trails. They even might have suggested you the destination you are travelling to. Therefore, they might as well be the best source of information regarding trails and tours. 

In the good old days, where the online world did not exist, magazines where a great source for new destinations and trails. Also in the digital age, the printed as well as online magazines usually have a section where they present destinations and some of the trails. Be aware though that magazines can be biased as they get invited (or even paid) to write about a certain destination. 

If there is a local bike shop, you will want to head there and chat with the people working there. Get to know the locals and ask them about the best trails and tours in the area. Don’t forget to to buy something as they just spent part of their working time giving you advise. A six pack is usually also a good idea :-). 

If you have a hard time finding information about a certain area or you want to find that secret trail, go online and start following locals on strava. A good way to find people is to find popular segments and follow the fastest riders. Even though some riders have their privacy settings up high, chances are that you will find one with an “open” account. Now start to scroll through their activites and try to find a pattern of trails they use over and over again. 

There are many great trail and tour databases with a gigantic amount of trails. Depending on the region, you might find different databases useful. We can recommend trailforks.com, outdooractive.com, vtttracks.fr, ride.ch, komoot.com

If you can find a good number of trails on trailforks.com there is an easy way to find the most popular trails: Navigate to a specific regions’ trail overview and filter the list by “Popularity Score”. This is usually a good way to start your search. Going from here, you can pick trails with a high popularity score and then go to ride-logs that include that trail. Scroll through a number of ride logs (easily done in the app or mobile view) and see what other trails can be combined with this one. 

Follow other riders on social media. Often people post pictures with the exact location of a foto. You can then try to locate the trail and, using the other tips here, find tours that include that trail. 

Heatmaps have been used for intelligence use in the past (click). They can also be used to find trails and/or determine if a trail that you found on a topo-map is rideable. If there are no tracks visible on the heat map, it is usually very difficult to impossible to ride. Heatmaps are published by Strava, Trailforks and others. 

Talking to locals, even if they are not bikers is generally a good way to find popular trails. In the mountains, locals know which trails are used by bikers and if they are currently rideable. Especially in remote and wilder areas, it is highly recommended to talk to a few locals before heading out. 

If there is no bike specific information about an area or you are looking for the next great trail, topo maps is the way to go. Head over to our country overviews to see our recommendation per country. Once you discover a trail/route, it is recommended to cross-check it with heatmaps and pictures you find online.

If you are already on site, talk to other bikers and ask them what they have ridden in the area and they would recommend. Sometimes these conversations are easier on the trails than online where people might be more cautious in giving away their trail knowledge. 

Destinations that market themselves to mountainbikers usually have specific tours and trails they recommend. You can find them on their webpage and sometimes on printed maps that are available at the local tourist office. Make sure to cross-check them with other research as not all destinations have the same taste for singletrails as the avid mountainbiker ;-). 

If you’ve discovered a certain route, trail or peak you might want to establish if it is rideable for you. We use several tools to find images of the trails. You can use google earth and the swiss topo map (Switzerland only) for satellite images. These only give you an idea of the trail (width) and area. Additionally, you can use the search on google maps, google picture search, instagram location search and hikr.org tour database. 

Especially during and after the cold season you might want to check current snow levels at higher altitude. We can highly recommend to use webcams. If there are no webcams, the extensive use of social media (especially Instagram) can provide the needed information. Go on Instagram and search for a specific location. Filter the content for the newest picture and check how long ago it was taken.