Is Mountain Biking in Colombia Mostly Singletrack or Dirt Roads?

The honest answer is that it depends on the ride. Mountain biking with MBC in Colombia is not one continuous kind of trail. Some rides use real singletrack, others use rural dirt roads, farm tracks, gravel or paved connectors, and many combine more than one surface in a single day. The Andes expedition, for example, is documented at roughly 60% singletrack, 30% gravel and dirt road, and 10% paved. The Guatapé Backcountry ride is deliberately a backcountry-road ride where no singletrack experience is needed. The Mono Cuco is singletrack the whole way.

There is a second question underneath this one, and it matters just as much: do you pedal, or do you get shuttled? MBC riding is not a lift-served or repeated gravity-shuttle model. You generally pedal the riding itself, and where a vehicle or boat is used it is for trailhead access, luggage, repositioning or extraction, not to carry you to the top of a descent. This page explains both, so you know what you are actually booking.

Is it actually singletrack?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and the difference is worth knowing before you arrive. On some MBC rides the singletrack is the whole point. The Mono Cuco is described in its own terms as singletrack throughout: root networks, rock slabs, compressed dirt and stream crossings, with no road transfers mid-ride. The Andes expedition documents its surface split as about 60% singletrack. The Coffee Region includes steep coffee-farm singletrack and long cloud-forest descents. The Amazon includes jungle singletrack, though its routes and conditions vary (more on that below).

On other rides, singletrack is a minor part or not the focus at all. The Guatapé Backcountry ride is a rolling backcountry-road ride that states plainly that no singletrack experience is needed. The 3 Piedras day asks that you are confident on unpaved gravel roads and light trail, with no technical singletrack required.

So “does Colombia have singletrack” is the wrong question. The useful question is “does this specific ride use singletrack, and how much.” We try to answer that on each ride’s own page, and the summary below gives you the shape of it.

Singletrack on the Mono Cuco Trail.

Dirt roads, farm tracks and mixed surfaces

A lot of good Colombian riding happens on unpaved rural roads, farm tracks and old routes, and that is not a lesser experience. Some of the most memorable riding here moves through coffee country and remote hillsides on surfaces that were never singletrack and were never meant to be. The point is not that dirt roads are inferior to trail. The point is transparency: you deserve to know whether a given day is singletrack, unpaved road, farm track, or a mix, so the ride matches what you came for.

We try to call things by their real names. Singletrack is singletrack. An unpaved road is an unpaved road. A farm track is a farm track. Where a ride blends them, we say so rather than describing everything as “trail.”

Do you pedal or get shuttled?

This is the question that most often gets a misleading answer elsewhere, so here is ours plainly. MBC does not sell lift-served or repeated gravity-shuttle laps as its normal riding model. The riding itself is generally pedaled. You climb and you descend under your own power. Some trips use vehicles for trailhead access, luggage movement, repositioning between sections, extraction, or other logistics, but a support vehicle is not a chairlift and the riding is not downhill-only.

That distinction is easy to lose, because in some Colombian riding scenes, especially gravity and enduro-oriented ones, riders climb by road or by shuttle and descend on trail. That is one style of Colombian riding. It is not the whole country, and it is not how MBC rides work.

Point-to-point, support vehicle, and shuttle are not the same thing

Because people use these words loosely, it helps to separate them:

Pedal-powered ride. You climb and descend under your own power. This is the MBC norm.
Support or repositioning vehicle. A vehicle that carries luggage, moves the group between valleys or access points, or assists with extraction. It is logistics, not an uplift.
Point-to-point ride. A ride that starts and ends in different places, a journey through terrain. Point-to-point does not mean downhill-only.
Gravity shuttle. A vehicle whose job is to carry you and your bike to the top of a descent, run after run. MBC does not run this model.

On the Andes expedition, for example, a support vehicle handles luggage, assists with extraction and repositions to planned access and support points, without continuously following every stage of the ride. You are still pedaling the ride.

What “XC”, “trail” and “enduro” can mean here

Labels travel badly. The same word can mean different things to a rider from North America or Europe and to a local operator, so it is worth looking past the label. XC terminology in particular can be used loosely, and in some local riding conversations it may include long unpaved-road or mixed-surface riding rather than continuous singletrack. “Enduro” in Colombia still tends to involve real pedaling rather than pure shuttle laps.

Rather than trust a category, look at the things that actually describe a ride:

surface (singletrack, dirt road, farm track, gravel, paved connector, or a mix)
how much climbing, and whether you climb on road or trail
how much and what kind of descending
route type (loop, or point-to-point journey)
support (self-sufficient, or a support vehicle for logistics)
technical character (loose, rocky, rooty, exposed, or smooth and rolling)

If you evaluate a ride on those, the label stops mattering.

What different MBC rides actually look like

A few real examples, not a full catalogue, to show the range. For the complete set, use Find Your Ride.

Guatapé Backcountry is a rolling backcountry-road ride, gentle and not technical, with no singletrack experience needed.
3 Piedras is a long day mostly off-road on unpaved gravel roads and light trail, with no technical singletrack required.
Mono Cuco is the opposite end: singletrack throughout, advanced, with root networks, rock slabs and steep descents, and no road transfers mid-ride.
The Andes expedition is the documented mix: about 60% singletrack, 30% gravel and dirt road, 10% paved, with sustained climbing (it is explicitly not a rail-trail descent).
The Coffee Region blends steep coffee-farm singletrack and cloud-forest descents with road and trail connections across a multi-day route.
The Amazon is an expedition that can include jungle singletrack and forest roads, with boats connecting sections. Its exact routes and operating environment vary by departure, so it is not a fixed surface and not continuous singletrack.

What a riding day can contain

There is no single typical MBC day, and we would rather not invent one. Depending on the ride, a day might include climbing on rural road or on trail, sections of singletrack, farm-track or gravel connections, one or more descents, photo and wildlife stops, and, on some trips, vehicle or boat repositioning between sections. The mix depends on the ride. A gentle backcountry day around Guatapé and a sustained singletrack day on the Andes expedition are both “a day of mountain biking in Colombia,” and they feel almost nothing alike.

How to choose the terrain that fits you

Surface is only half of the picture. A surface type is not a difficulty rating: singletrack can be easy or technical, an unpaved road can be steep and physically demanding, and altitude can make simple terrain hard. To match a ride to your fitness and technical level, use the fitness and skill levels guide, which is where the how-hard question belongs. To match a ride to the terrain and style you actually want, use Find Your Ride. For the wider picture of riding here, see mountain biking in Colombia, and if you are weighing your own bike against the included one, bringing your own bike covers trail versus all-mountain setups.

Riding surfaces and routes can change with conditions and over time. Ride details are described on each ride’s page. Last reviewed: September 1, 2026.