Robert Reimann’s answer to Active Travel: What places in Europe are good for taking bike tours?
3. January 2012 by Robert Reimann
I’ve been researching European bike tours and routes professionally for the past three years and have traveled by bike all around the world over 25 years.
There are so many places for great bike travel in Europe that finding the right route depends on what you are looking for in a trip. If it’s quintessential European scenery, beautiful villages and castles, Germany is ideal. The river routes along the Rhine, Mosel or Elbe Rivers are mostly flat and easy to navigate. Some of the most interesting and undiscovered places to cycle in Germany are in the former East, try Saxony Switzerland outside of Dresden for some stunning scenery amid unspoiled villages and castles free of tourists. The Alpine regions of Germany and Austria offer stunning mountain scenery (and great beer).
If you’d like guaranteed great weather, go for Spain or Portugal (though avoid the southern parts in August – it’s too hot). But be careful, there are big stretches of lonely landscape and sprawl housing left over from the real estate boom and crash. It’s best to avoid the overbuilt coastal regions of Costa Brava and Costa del Sol. Go for the Basque country or the region around Madrid and Toledo instead.
Italy and France are the established classics for European biking. Tuscany in Italy can’t be beat, try the Loire Valley in France for castles. If you’re looking for the ultimate road bike ‘classics’, you’ll want to head the the French Alps and ride some of the Tour de France routes or the northern Italian Dolomites and follow the stages of the Giro d’Italia.
Off the beaten path, go for Slovenia. It’s as small as New Jersey yet offers the Alps, a cosmopolitan capital city and the Mediterranean. And speaking of the sea, if you’re after as much coast as possible, head to Croatia, Turkey or Greece.
If you have any questions, you can contact me at info@bikesherpa.com
What places in Europe are good for taking bike tours?
