Due to the oil price not being favourable, it looks like I’ve got some time off coming up. Rather than mope around at home, i’ve decided i fancy doing some touring in Europe. I’ve had cycling vacations on the continent based at a hotel and I’ve done multi day point to point touring trips in Scotland. But I’ve never toured in Europe and i’ve never gone alone. So basically i am looking for some tips, ideas for a trip, or just for you to share any experiences you’ve had whilst touring in Europe. Or if anyone fancies going me even better!

The plan is to go fairly light, Packed rear panniers and one small rack bag. I’d be planning to stay in hostels rather than camping, probably looking at between 100 to 150 km per day (maybe less if it was awful weather or there was something interesting closer).

No real ideas on routes (or duration) yet, but probably southern Europe for the weather.

My main questions are
How do i get there – fly / ferry|?
Do i do a circular route or ride between two separate points (ferry / airports), if doing the latter how did you organise packing of bike?
What items that may not be obvious do you consider essential on a trip of this nature?

Any help or info large or small will be extremely appreciated as i’m going into it as a novice!

Cheers, Al.

Also, has any body got any experience with the warmshowers app / site. It’s like couch surfers but for bike tourists, where People who go bike touring offer a bed or whatever to fellow cyclists when they are at home.

Having done both (and train too), I’d go for ferry to get there if at all possible/practical. Much much easier than packing/unpacking bikes and less stressful altogether.

I think there are good deals to be had on the long crossings to Spain if you’re not taking a car. Or, depending on how long you’ve got, ferry to France and cycle down – it’s a great trip.

ferry to France and cycle down – it’s a great trip.

+1 & feeling jealous, last one I did was a quick blast to the south of France, but we cycled right from home in the chilterns & then used combination of ferry, cycling & trains to get to our starting point in chamonix and then flew back – but that involved some complicated bicycle packing.

When you planning on going?

In summer I would look at some of the German river routes, no shortage of accommodation B&B’s are very reasonable, and trains are usually plentiful and reliable.

If it’s sooner, there is a pilgrimage route along the southern side of the pyrenees that looks interesting.

Back in 2012, when I was unemployed, I flew to Linz in Austria because it was the cheapest (Ryan Air, £50 for bike in a plastic bag, no problems at all). Went south over the alps, camping in campsites to start with, then wild camping and occasional couchsurfing later on. First goal was through Slovenia to Pula in Croatia to see some friends, but just kept going. Across into Italy, down Croatia, through Bosnia, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and finally ran out of steam in Czech Republic.

I didn’t expect it at the time, but my favourite part was not planning at all – 3 days from idea to flights. Arrived in Linz totally disorientated, not even sure which side of the road to ride on. On the whole Europe/Europeans are really friendly to cyclists, lots of people to talk to along the way, great infrastructure (campsites, bike paths).

If you want specific places to go – I loved riding thorugh Bosnia, down the coast in Croatia (don’t go in high tourist season – too hot and busy), along the Danube from Budapest. I would avoid cities. Budapest/Prague/etc are lovely, but the ~20km going in and out are less fun than the countryside. I managed ~100-150km/day to begin with, down to 50-80km/day by the end (4 months later).

To answer your questions:

Fly. It’s easy. Disposable cardboard box or one of those CTC bags have been great for me on ~10 trips (and the bags double as groundsheet).

I wouldn’t do circular – flying in/out of different places is no trouble.

Best items were Kindle + lots of books, iPad for maps+GPS, radio, battery for previous 3. I packed heavy on the above trip (spare everything) and it was a pain, I’ve gone light every time since.

If it’s end of May this year I’m looking for a trip, I’d join you for a few days (so long as it’s sunny).

I have not done this but personally I know I would need some sort of goal. Even if I was flexible allowing myself to deviate there would need to be general them, be that cycle to Istanbul (sp?) Or visit every coast in Europe or Norway to Gibraltar.

batteryhorsesstaple, thanks, that’s the kind of help, motivation i’m looking for. I’m planning to do it asap. But if it goes well could be persuaded to do it again. End of May may make northern Europe favourable!

Peterpoddy has just finished a Belgian mini tour, looked really good. I’ll point him to this thread as he may be able to help

Looks like the best flight deal this weekend is to Marseille, so think i’ll plan to leave from there. Prevailing wind looks to be an Easterly but i may just book a hostel in Marseiile then roll the dice.

I envy you.

May the wind always be at your back.

Have a good trip.

Last year a group of us (4) Flew to Biarritz and rode the Raid Pyrenean route and flew back from Perpignan. Flying with bikes was easy but we made a few mistakes to omit next time.

I’d fly with a bike in a heavy clear bag, when you get there, fold it up and stick in your pannier or post it to a hotel that you’ve prearranged near the last day of your trip if poss. go to Castorama (french B&Q) and get some bubblewrap if you want to supplement too. We took bikes out in boxes and disposed of them at airport then messed around blagging cardboard boxes from Decathlon as they unloaded in the morning, which in reality was a nightmare as we then had to carry them on our bikes through rush hour Perpignan, they didn’t survive the flight all that well either.

PACK LIGHT, heavy bags aren’t much fun, at the end of the 1st day you’ll be looking for things to throw away. We credit card toured mainly and hosteled every night, took 10kg of stuff in bags but I’d say that was still too heavy, although I used pretty much everything I took and the weather was favourable for us, not cold and only rained for an hour once.

This year we’re flying to Geneva, following most of the Route des Grande Alpes before hooking a right and flying back from Nimes. infact I booked the outbound flights yesterday.

I’m a big Warmshowers fan, I’ve used it a lot in France and the Balkans, It’s a reciprocal site so I probably wouldn’t use it unless you’re happy with the thought of letting a touring cyclist crash at yours for the night. Unlike Couchsurfing people on WS understand that you’re going to have a big-as bike with you and you’ll be tired etc. (No joke I’ve had Cs hosts whom I’ve told I’m cycling from Berlin to Istanbul who look wild-eyed when they see the bike and realise ‘oh you’re ACTUALLY cycling’).

My only tip would be that almost every village in France has a church, most of which have a graveyard and every graveyard has a tap of cold drinking water in it for the flowers. That may sound obvious but before I knew that I was knocking on doors for water until one day a very grumpy old man came out, clearly annoyed that I’d disturbed his siesta, grunted, led me to the cemetier, pointed to the tap with another grunt and went home. Give a man a fish etc.

Marmaduke that info is great about the water. I’m riding down through France from Belgium in the summer so I’ll definately use that help. I’m doing it on the transcontinental race so then going to Italy,Slovenia,Croatia,Bosnia,Montenegro,Albania,Greece and Turkey. Will be travelling pretty light,with some alpkit bike packing kit. I’m both excited and apprehensive.

The water tip could be a life saver.

I don’t know whether i should be happy about this or not. I’ve just had a job come in for the 10th of April. I’m pretty gutted as it had taken a fair bit for me to wind up the courage to do this. I had pretty much everything sorted. I’ll just have to have everything ready to go for when i get back. The extra couple of weeks should bring more places into play weather wise as well. Thanks for all the tips so far though, i hope to put them into practice very soon!

I’m doing a short tour in Normandy this May. The ferries Portsmouth to Cherbourg and back from Dieppe to Newhaven are less than £60 in total. Cheaper and easier than flying. French motels (Ibis etc) are pretty cheap if you can’t make Warmshowers work out.

Apparently work is only 7 days so i’m going to have everything ready to go and get the F outta here as soon as i get back on shore.

I’ve done a 2-week trip across Spain & France. I was headed to my dad’s house so bought a bike bag from decathlon and had them deliver it there. Putting bikes on the plane is really not a hassle. In terms of advice on the road:

1. Think of what you’re going to do with your mind. 8 hours a day on a bike quickly becomes – physically – quite easy. Especially in summer when you’ve got plenty of time. But mentally it can be mind-numbing. I wrote a blog and spent the days composing that day’s blog post in my mind and then writing it on a blackberry which took up lots of time.

2. It’s good to get an idea of where good bike shops are along the route in case of emergencies.

3. (This may be personal to me) I’ve done a couple of multi-day tours and I always find the first couple of days really hard, then I have a rest day, feel absolutely superb the day after the rest day and then settle into a rhythm. So if you’re feeling horrible on day 2 or 3 don’t lose faith.

4. Doing 100km+ in a day is pretty easy so long as you get it right – eat well and at the right times. It can be miserable if you f*ck it up. One time I was eating lots of chips, meat and no veg and my hands started peeling dead skin. Another time I got badly constipated from not drinking enough water and was in all kinds of trouble; dizzy, sick-feeling, altogether not good. Another time my and a friend decided to push on up a big hill before lunch and both got the bonk. I was shaking and weaving across the road from low blood sugar. Having said all that, on days when you get it right it feels like nothing can stop you.

Dang, yeah, I’ve been there before. Especially after a few days on the bike when the body is pretty much constantly in calorie deficit. I plan to take a day here and there (or at least an easy day on the bike), i may tie these in with a bigger town or city and take a day to mooch around, and generally be a tourist.

Well, the trip is on, drive down to Edinburgh tonight and fly to Marseille tomorrow. Can’t wait!!!!

goodluck, and have fun.
missed the thread first time around.
Mrs Stoner and I spent 3 months 8 years ago riding across Spain and France.
Travelled light.

http://pompinos.blogspot.co.uk/

and that was with camping kit. Took the idea from a Dane who I think originally posted on STW about 10 years ago, called Boesgaard. He and his girlfriend did a 2 week b&b tour on pompinos with carradice barley saddle bags. They even climbed Ventoux.

Best time ever. Would love to do it again. Anyone want to child-mindfor 3 months?

Have fun! Don’t die!

Thanks guys, been amazing so far.
Day 1, Marseille to Toulon
Day 2, Toulon to Frejus
Day 3, Frejus to San Remo (tough day)
Day 4, San Remo to Finale Ligure
Day 5, finale to Alessandria (including a 940m climb over 16.7km at 3.2%, it was tough dragging 26kg of bike and kit over that!!!
Got another 8 days riding at least to go. It’s currently battering it down with rain you’ll be happy to know!

Fantastic, and a lovely part of the world

Enjoy

Brilliant, although we need pictures!

My wife and I are planning to cycle down through the Loire Valley at the end of July, just a short 4 day tour covering about 250 miles, we can’t wait.

This book might be of interest