Best route in Europe

[pjam]

Hi,
I'm new to the site and have joined in the hope that someone can help me. I want to go on a cycling trip somewhere in europe for 10 days in the summer, was hoping to go to Norway but it turns out to be too expensive. Anyway, we'll be camping and don't mind cooking our own food every now and then. We're into beautiful senery, mountains, lakes that sort of thing. Could some please advise me on a good route that will incorporate a few if not all of these things. Or some advise on where to look for a good route would also be really useful. Thank you in anticipation of your response. I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks, pjam

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Hi pjam,

Beautiful scenery / mountains / lakes / camping / relatively cheap could lead you towards France. Apart from the obvious areas like the Alps or Pyrenees, there are other many areas such as the Massif Central, Vosge or the Vercour.

There are plenty of guides to cycling in France, and with a bit of care you could find a superb loop, centred on an airport accessible from where ever you're based, that would tick all your boxes. I say with a bit of care because not all roads in say the Alps are quiet and not every (ski) area in the Alps is beautiful.

If you don't want to fly, then areas of Brittany and Normandy are accessible by ferry from the UK, and parts of them are hilly, with a great mixture of rural and coastal scenery.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

...cycle along the German rivers....well you may need more than 10 days but you dont need to do them all...I think the south is going to be best.

http://www.germany-tourism.de/cycling/interactive_germany_map.htm

http://www.adfc-tourenportal.de/adfc/

 

[Cathryn]

Try the Tauernradweg in Austria, near Salzburg. It was our first bike trip and was breathtaking. You're surrounded by mountains but on a pretty flat bike path, going through gorgeous villages and towns.

 

[HJ]

The Inn Radweg in Austria, fantastic mountain scenery. Start in Innsbruck and follow the Inn to where it meets the Danube in Passau and catch the train back, as the profile shows (Höhenprofil) it not exactly hard work!

The Tauernradweg which Cathryn suggested is a wee bit steeper, but not really that strenuous.

Or the Mozart Cycle Trail (this one is in English) which is circular, starting and finishing in Salzburg (profile here).

Some of the best cycle guides to Europe are published by Esterbauer, but unfortunately only a few in English at the present time. The web site is worth poking around in as there is a lot of information there and more touring ideas. If the German really is a problem try using Babel Fish or such like. The map keys used in the guides are multilingual. Useful things to look out for on the web site are Übersichtskarten (overview maps of the whole route), Höhenprofil (route profile), and Übernachtung (accommodation list for the whole route)

 

[Cathryn]

Oooh Hairy Jock, I'm doing parts of the Mozart and Innradwegs next month. You've got me all excited HURRAH!!!

 

[HJ]

Oooh Hairy Jock, I'm doing parts of the Mozart and Innradwegs next month. You've got me all excited HURRAH!!!

In my dreams

Lucky you, wish I was going too, I have to wait until September... but we are going to stay at Schloss Grubhof near Lofer which you pass on the Mozart radweg (or is it the variant of the Tauernradweg). We are going to be slumming it.

 

[Dayvo]

Norway IS expensive, but that doesn't mean to say that you can't have a budget/affordable 10 days cycling here.

If you intend camping, then you can either pitch a tent at a cosher campsite (with all the luxurious facilities - toilets, HOT water, launderette, cafe & restaurant etc) or just wild camp, which is perfectly legal as long as you are not too close to private dwellings or disturbing wildlife; camping will save you a large chunk of money.

The possibilities are endless: from Oslo along and around the south coast; or from Oslo down the east coast into Sweden and Gothenburg/Malmo; or from Oslo across the interior to Bergen, or, indeed, even further up the northern coast, Lofoten, for example.

The scenery IS spectacular, the roads are quiet and well-surfaced, the people are friendly, and you'll be able to manage plenty of cycling hours late night/early morning due to the long summer hours of daylight!

http://www.cycletourer.co.uk/cycletouring/norway.shtml

or just Google 'cycling in Norway' for plenty of info.

 

[pjam]

Thanks everyone for helping me out. I've now got a lotr of food for thought and a lot of research to do. Thanks again, I'm starting to feel excited already. Roll on summer holidays

 

[Cathryn]

we are going to stay at Schloss Grubhof near Lofer which you pass on the Mozart radweg (or is it the variant of the Tauernradweg). We are going to be slumming it.

Wow...that looks gorgeous!!! Very jealous. Our hotels are much more modest, especially with the current exchange rate!

 

[HJ]

Wow...that looks gorgeous!!! Very jealous. Our hotels are much more modest, especially with the current exchange rate!

It is a wee bit above our normal standard of accommodation, a present from the inlaws, a weeks stay that is, not the whole Schloss (that's me dreaming again). I hope you enjoy your trip, that part of Austria it really is a great place to visit

 

[Eurostar]

Another vote for Norway. The locals are quiet at first and tend not to make the first move, but if you chat them up they're astonishingly generous. So be cheeky, knock on a door and ask if it's OK to camp nearby. I bet you'll be invited in for a meal and a shower etc. And you'll get an insight into their society instead of having the usual tourist experiences.

So you should have almost no accommodation costs. The right to wild camping is protected in law http://www.pinetreedevelopment.net/scandinavia/allemansratt.php

All you will have to pay for is food and ferries.

But you may have to manage without BEER which costs a bomb.

 

[Dayvo]

Found another link for Norway!

http://www.ecf.com/296_1

 

[Andy in Sig]

If you want a logistically simple and relatively flat route, then fly out to either Cologne, Frankfurt or Basel (depending how far you can get in the time you have) and cycle down the Rhine cycle route back to Hook of Holland and ferry it back to the UK

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

I may well be riding home along the rhine radweg this summer from Basel....may CU there!