Information sources
Some useful information was provided beforehand from various local Tourist Information Offices in response to an email enquiry. Some of these may be closed during the winter when you may be planning a tour but we generally had very good responses. The material supplied not only helped us with route planning but helped contribute to an overall richer experience. Tourist office details for any region of Spain can be found via www.spain.info. The regions have their own web sites and these can be a valuable source of information. For example http://www.turismoextremadura.com/index.html
Accommodation
As with many areas of Spain within reach of major cities, weekend visitors to the area mean that it is advisable to reserve accommodation for Friday and Saturday nights. During the week, booking is probably unnecessary although care should be taken to avoid the times of the village festivals. For example, in Burgohondo we were the only guests in the hotel. The previous week it had been full each night during the annual festival.
The tour reports provide some comments on specific accommodation. In planning where to stay we used a combination of tourist office supplied lists and/or the hotel lists available at the main Spain tourism web site or various regional web sites.
When to go
Late April/early May has proved the most successful. Earlier in April and in September we experienced some poor weather. Even in early May we've found that some hostals weren’t open due to refurbishment. On the plus side, tourist destinations have been quiet. Apart from at the hotels in Ávila and Ciudad Rodrigo, we've often been the only guests.
Maps
Maps used were from the 1:200,000 series of the Instituto Geografico Nacional. These were useful for the contour information, although for route finding, the Michelin 1:400,000 map was fine. An alternative is the Geo/Estel 1:250000 series. All routes were chosen by aiming to maximise the use of Michelin green roads (‘Scenic road’). Using the on-line version of the Michelin map was useful in planning routes. For example in locating accommodation addresses from the tourist information lists (http://www.viamichelin.com).
Where available, links to Googlemaps details are available from the appropriate tour home page. More will be added when time permits.