Musings on next year's summer tour

[Dave Davenport]

We do a 4/5 week tour during the school summer holidays (Mrs D works in school), this year we did home to Zagreb (flying back). We live fairly close to the Portsmouth ferry port with sailings to France & Spain and usually do a combination of ferries or ferry/flight.
The weather was a bit mixed this year (we camp) so we're looking for warmth & sun, the idea was to get the ferry to Santander and fly back from southern Spain / Portugal but the prices are getting silly, £435 for the ferry and £500+ for the flights back. We're toying with getting the ferry to Caen (£88), going down the easy west coast route to Spain (which we've done in the other direction), which would take about 10 days, then meandering about Spain for three weeks before flying back from Alicante (£250'ish to our local airport). We've covered a lot of France and northern Spain (down to around Zaragoza) before.
Has anyone got any better ideas?

 

[Brains]

Italy ?
Ride to newhaven
Route verte to Paris
Overnight train Paris to Nice
(optional train to Milan or Florence perhaps)
Follow the coast until time runs out

 

[Brains]

Germany
In my opinion the best and most under rated cycle touring destination in Europe.

miles and miles of cycle routes across the country and down into Austria

 

[Dayvo]

Southern Sweden, Denmark and northern Germany would be my suggestion.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Flights prices were going up by the hour so it's booked. Portsmouth-Caen ferry on July 27th, fly back Alicante to Southampton August 29th.

 

[mmmmartin]

Caen to Bordeaux - hotels, not camping - was the route for the Fridays Tour a few years ago. The route will be on the internet somewhere. Quiet roads, we recce'd it to ensure it was OK. Thereafter I'd suggest down to Irun and along the pilgrim's route to Santiago. Remember camping in Spain is all but impossible - hardly any campsites cos it's hot in the summer and no one camps in the winter, hence hardly anyone camps. Hotels are about €40 for a room.
but my fave is the netherlands, which is the best cycling in the world.
if you want beautiful scenery, go to Norway. There are astoundingly gorgeous views if you can see them through the rain.
[EDIT] - oops, overtaken by events as Dave has decided.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Italy ?
Ride to newhaven
Route verte to Paris
Overnight train Paris to Nice
(optional train to Milan or Florence perhaps)
Follow the coast until time runs out

Bit of a faff and we've done Nice and northern Italy

 

[Dave Davenport]

Germany
In my opinion the best and most under rated cycle touring destination in Europe.

miles and miles of cycle routes across the country and down into Austria

Did Germany and Austria on the way to Croatia this year, very impressed but we had quite a bit of cold, wet weather even in August.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Southern Sweden, Denmark and northern Germany would be my suggestion.

Sure it's lovely but we'd like some dry, warm weather and cheap booze.

 

[Dayvo]

Sure it's lovely but we'd like some dry, warm weather and cheap booze.

Scandinavian summers are great, especially in the south.

Alcohol prices, on the other hand... although Denmark compares to prices in England.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Remember camping in Spain is all but impossible - hardly any campsites cos it's hot in the summer and no one camps in the winter, hence hardly anyone camps. Hotels are about €40 for a room.

Not sure about that, we've done about eight weeks (in total) touring in Spain and have always camped.

 

[oldfatfool]

Bike bus to sth france and meander in the alps across france, meander through the pyranees and bus back grom lourdes. Best 3weeks ever

 

[steveindenmark]

Denmark. Great cycling infastructure but sadly lacking in plenty of cafes and eating places.

 

[mmmmartin]

Not sure about that, we've done about eight weeks (in total) touring in Spain and have always camped.

Interesting, @Dave Davenport - where were you? Details, details.....

 

[Dave Davenport]

Interesting, @Dave Davenport - where were you? Details, details.....

All over northern Spain, there aren't as many sites as in France, especially away from the coast but we've only ended up in a hotel once when the site we arrived at had shut down. When I looked on line for sites further south for our next trip (ending in Alicante) there seemed to be plenty.
On average we've paid about 15 euro on Spanish sites, which are generally better appointed than French ones.
These are the loo's at the site in the middle of Logrono.