Alto Tajo

Less than two hours from Madrid, and a world away. In the Alto Tajo, a young river has carved limestone gorges up to 200 metres deep in one of the emptiest corners of Europe: 105,721 hectares of protected nature and a UNESCO Global Geopark where griffon vultures and golden eagles outnumber cars.

For centuries, the gancheros, the river log drivers, floated timber down these canyons all the way to Aranjuez, with the river as their only road. Now the road is yours. You ride silent forest tracks past a turquoise lake, waterfalls and stone villages; you eat by the river and sleep beneath a Starlight-certified sky.