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I have this mad post covid idea about doing a bit of touring around europes enduro spots.
My first mission is that I want to get down to south east france, Sospel and Roya valley etc.
I am thinking eurostar to Marseille then local trains to Nice.
I have found accommodation in Sospel who will collect me and bike from Nice train station.
Can I take an e-bike on the eurostar? Has anyone done this?
Boo answered my own question.
Bike on board suspended because of covid.
https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/question/Can-I-take-my-bike-on-Eurostar
So cycle to car ferry and take local trains?
TGVs and bikes are rarely compatible IME.
German, Belgian, Dutch and Swiss trains are bike compatible.
Take the boat to Holland and travel via Germany? Some of the German ICE trains are super fast. The German rail site will work on all European timetables and is available in English (even got me to the far end of Slovakia before they joined the EU). I think it may tell you which trains take bikes too. Worth a play to sort out your route. Would an Interail ticket work for your trip?
https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
Generally my experience of French public transport is that it makes the UK look good. The rest of Europe is much better.
Would an Interail ticket work for your trip?
I did not know these still existed, do I have to pretend to be 30 years younger?
It appears you can now get them as a non-youth now. Unless you are distinctly non-youth (OAP?) then you pay more but the passes do still exist.
Just looked at Interrail.
€940 for 90 days unlimited trail travel in Europe. That is cheaper than most commuter line season tickets in the UK for the equivalent period.
Unfortunately I don't the think you can use one in your 'home' country, however you define it. Is the solution just to commute to somewhere abroad!
The interrail tickets are a great way for getting about europe, I use them from France, including to go visit family back in Scotland, with the X days in XX period tickets you get 2 days travel in your home country so although they're not a solution to commuter woe they still work a bit! Flaws are you need to pay an excess to use the channel tunnel, and a booking fee for the TGV. If you can book well in advance its cheaper to do that for the TGV and tunnel, otherwise the flexibility of the ticket makes it a winner. As for taking the bike, it seems to be frustratingly difficult (or expensive) on many continental services, however if the bike happens to be in a bike bag, it doesn't seem to be the same issue....
The obvious next step of the journey would be along the med into Italy and San Remo, Finale etc, then up to the alps, but there's so many possibilities, kinda jealous! For the journeys across multiple countries I find the Austrian OBB website the easiest to make bookings (worth it on the busy legs if you're doing a 9hr journey to make sure you get a seat), with a bit of help from the amazing seat61 website to work out what trains to use. Overnight trains can be a handy way to save cash on accommodation if they exist for the bit of the journey you're doing.
The obvious next step of the journey would be along the med into Italy and San Remo, Finale etc, then up to the alps, but there’s so many possibilities, kinda jealous!
This was my plan! I may never come back.
We did Sospel, San Remo and Finale Last September in the camper. Trails are amazing, weather was scorching.
We needed the E bikes in Sospel as you have to book the uplift van and guide for the day which was very expensive for 2 of us and there were no other riders to share the costs.
The Sospel trails also needed a bit of work on them as the growth was impassable in places. Quite a few also had rock falls on them. It didn't look like they had much traffic on them due to COVID.
You can down load alot of the trails from Ride Sospel.
We did Sestriere on the way back but there are better places to rise in the Italian Alps.
Valberg and Les Orres are worth a few days