Just trying to work out the cheapest yet easiest (i.e. not too much Englandshire driving) way to mainland Europe? We usually use North Sea Ferries Hull – Zeebrugge but it’s too expensive.

Also, any recommendations to ride in Germany, West Austria and (preferably) North-West Switzerland. We’ve been a few times but we certainly don’t know that much so any advice is welcome. Thanks!

I meant north-east Switzerland.

Doing something similar from Edinburgh to Livigno… booked with DFS dover Dunkirk. VW T5, £70 return. Good info from google e Livigno, trail maps, etc etc. Look at Dolomite Sport website too. We are hoping to do a Sella Rond mtb day….

Hull/Newcastle ferries are very dear.. hence the drive option.

We calculated flights with Easyjet inc bags and bikes to Basel as £670, then there is the getting around factor.

Boat to Dunkirk gets you out on toll free motorways and its no further.

HTH

I did a trip round that kinda area last year wae a couple o mates.
Took the usual M74/M6/M1/M25/M20 route to the channel tunnel(drove through the night to avoid the locals!)and then through Belgium to Winterberg bikepark in Germany(loads of tracks/options and a campsite and pub at the bottom of the lifts)
Went from there to Willingen and then on to Bullhead Mountain(Ochsenkopfberg) and had the place to ourselves all day.
Went from there down into Austria and went to Leogang, Saalbach Hinterglemm and Wagrain.
Drove through Switzerland from there to Livigno and it was well worth it. Had to drive home from there tho 🙁
We were looking for freeride/downhill stuff, thats why we chose those places.

is there still a ferry Harwich to Hook of Holland?. Its way quicker to Germany from a Dutch port than through France.

We just booked with DFDS from Newcastle to Amsterdam for £217 one way. Two adults and a baby and a 6 metre motorhome. They have a 25% off sale at the moment.

Will probably come back via Dover as we’ll just turn up and get a ferry when we’ve had enough. It’s a long drive back to Kinross-shire though.

When working out the cost of the journey don’t forget that going across the north sea ( I used to use the Rosythe / Zebrugge) saves a lot of driving and and a nights accommodation each way newcastle to dover and return must be best part off 800 miles. well over £100 in fuel?

Freiburg, Germany is in the S-W corner of Germany and has some top trails. just go and speak to any kids on bikes in the town – they’re all bike mad.

Ischgl, Austria has some fine trails that can be linked using the lifts.

a little further east and you have Leogang and Saalbach bike parks.

+1 for TJ:
We’re booked on Newcastle-Amsterdam and yes, it costs more than £70, but includes food, 2 nights kip (are you not planning on eating or sleeping en route; you can’t kip on the Calais ferry, it only takes a couple of hours)plus you get to watch Geordies disco-dancing (keep any anthropologist happy for a lifetime!).
I would rather spend an extra day at work earning the cash difference than have to drive the extra 1000 miles to Dover and back (infact I would probably rather spend the day at an HM prison!!).
Then there’s the extra 20 gallons of fuel..£130 at motorway prices?

Newcastle-IJmuiden ferry is extortion this year. Costing me many more notes than in recent years. But for me it’s 6-6.5hours on the continent plus whatever Newcastle-Aviemore is gonna be, driving alone, so no car share. Switzerland (Basel) is another 3 hours or so.

Shame Zeebrugge-Rosyth ferry stopped (again).

I said sod it and coughed up. Trade an extra 8-10 hours each way for a comfy bed.

Harwich-Hoek van Holland doesn’t really gain much – if you’ve driven from Scotland, you may as well drive the extra hour or so to Dover, and get a 1.5 hour ferry rather than a 6 hour+ ferry.

Can’t suggest any trail centery type stuff here. I just get a map (Meki Maps have bike trails)… and go experiment. Lots and lots of fireroad. Some sweet stuff in between, but you need to get lucky.

PS: thread hijack… any recommendations for route between Newcastle Ferry and Aviemore? A1/M90/A9? or A66/M74/etc.?

Sella Rond mtb day

When i was there last August a couple of the guys I met said that the rules around trails were changing this yr or next year. All the red/white walking tracks would be off limits which would be a real shame – I rode the Sellaronda in a day and it was a complete hoot. Would be good fun if you used the lifts as well I reckon.

Problem solved:

Andy:-
A1-A697-A68-Embra bypass-M90-A9..
I think we’ve payed more than £700 for 3 of us on the Newcastle ferry inc cabin and scoff..still worth it unless you like dossing in the car, living off ‘sarnies and the scenery in the south of England is inspiring..
We’re going for 3 weeks and the extra outlay on the ferry is pretty insignificant in the overall cost of the trip.
Superfast ferry from Rosyth was ace, though getting you in at midday was always a bummer!

Did Rosyth-Zeebrugge a few times last year and it was nice and handy from central Scotland (if expensive). Replacement for Superfast was Notsofast, so you arrived 1400 CET IIRC, but a lot faster than the latest incarnation – a freight only service that takes 31(!) hours.

Heading for Hull instead this year.

We use P&O Hull – Rotterdam from north of England. Evening sailing so maybe saves a whole day off work, arrives in morning ready to drive at 8am. Still a bit pricey and they hike prices in summer – was £270 return for 4 in a van with cabin for May BH weekend. In summer it is £470 for the same trip….

Did Harwich-Denmark last year and it was a right drag of a drive to Harwich – wouldn’t fancy it from Scotland.

We are going to try a stopoff in Pfalzerwald – looks to be plenty of waymarked singletrack and some mad technical museums to break journey for the kids:-
http://www.mountainbikepark-pfaelzerwald.de/
http://sinsheim.technik-museum.de/en
http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en

Another journey break idea – there is an mtb route around the outside of the Nurburgring (and some singletrack Nordic walking routes in the centre that look fair game).

Freiburg is a good suggestion – mtb worlds were near there in 1995 at Kirchzarten.

Flims in Switzerland also sounds interesting and easy to access from San Gottard road but websites are a bit hopeless.

We generally go to Berner Oberland area but not really an mtb mecca – more just because we like the place and gradually finding some singletrack. Most waymarked / tourist board mapped “mtb” stuff is tarmac! Singletrail maps are probably your best starting point anywhere in Switzerland http://www.singletrailmap.ch/singletrailmap/index.php

NZCol,

From a 2011 Website

As quickly as possible!!!

Magical, I’ll have another look at DFDS and see what’s possible…

I used to live in Heidelberg and visited Freiberg a lot but had fallen away from biking at the time so never investigated. I’ll definitely check out the Schwarzwald in general in that case. It’ll be good to do a lot of our holiday in Germany so I can get the German speaking back and my wife can practise – Swiss-German is too dissimilar.

Thanks very much so far…

Not sure if this’ll work out for you or even if it’s still possible but we sort of ‘fell on it’ a few years back trying to work out stop over points enroute to Southern Spain from NE England

Anyway, we found it quite cheap to book separate nights with Eurocamp for the stop-overs – they include a Dover-Calais crossing in the price
We then upgraded to the Hull-Zeebrugge boat for, not a large sum – can’t remember exactly but it was a lot cheaper than trying to book that boat independently

Just to show how skewed the ferry prices are, I checked my theory [sort of]

6th July to 12th July, Hull-Zebrugge with 4 berth cabin – £497 return

Eurocamp, same dates, same ferry and cabins and one week’s camping in the Loire £508

Couldn’t see the option to select different sites each day so not sure if they still do that

So far we’ve been around Zurich – up Zuriberg and Uetliberg and have knocked about around the hills and villages near Merenschwand in Aargau. We’re probably going to Austria next (Montafon was suggested by my brother-in-law so if anyone has a better suggestion, let me know!). Might try Kaprun or Kitzbuehel again, can anyone suggest any guides in Austria?

After that, we may go to Freiburg, as suggested above, with Davos on the way (know some folk there).

Any other advice is always gratefully received…?!

Ischgl is Montafon. go towards bludenz, over the Bielehohe pass and you’re there. sorry, don’t know of any comapanies there.