Spanish Pyrenees.

The Spanish Pyrenees run two-thirds of the peninsula's northern border, but the walking and riding worth your time concentrate in three blocks. The Aragonese centre around Ordesa and Monte Perdido. The Catalan east around Aigüestortes. The western Navarrese foothills where the Camino crosses from France.

Ordesa is the headline — one of the deepest limestone canyons in Europe, with the south face of Monte Perdido rising 3,000 metres above the valley floor. The high-level walking is unhurried but committed: long days on rough ground, hut-to-hut between mountain refugios. Aigüestortes carries fewer visitors and more water — around 250 alpine lakes — and suits week-long traverses better. The GR11 high route links both coasts in roughly forty days; most sensible itineraries take a week-long bite of one massif.

For cycling, the Spanish approaches to the great Tour climbs — Tourmalet from the south, Aubisque, Portalet — are tougher than the French sides and emptier of traffic. Road riding is unfussy and consistent. Mountain biking concentrates around Boí and the Vall d'Aran.

Best season runs late June through early September for the high routes; snow lingers above 2,200 metres before that. May, June, and September give you the lower valleys at their best — lush, quiet, and a few degrees off the high-summer heat.

The bag-transferred, self-guided walking holidays Mooch lists work well at this lower altitude, where village inns line up at the foot of each side-canyon. The high traverses are hut-to-hut and self-supported.