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Suggestions for European tour?
Hello all,
My fiancé and I would like to take a bike tour (7-10 days) of somewhere in Europe for our honeymoon (mid June, 2007). We are thinking of France, Italy, or Scotland, but we are open to other suggestions, too. I was thinking of joining an organized tour (cbttour.com, etc.). My questions: 1) Are there suggestions for locations? 2) Should we hook up with a tour or just get a map and go? 3) If we go with a tour, what is a reasonable price? A quick Google search shows some 10 day tours for about $2500. Is that about right? 4) What are good bike tour organizations? 5) Are there good books that cover these topics? 6) Anything I should know that I'm not asking? Thanks, Lonnie |
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#2
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Suggestions for European tour?
Lonnie, I've done 51 bike tours in much of Europe and one in Cape
Breton Island. The answer depends on 1. How fit you are 2. How many miles you like per day. 3. How much organisation you want. I've NEVER gone on an organised tour. We just make it up as we go along, with a rough route in mind. In some countries you will need to book some places at certain times. What is the finest place? I would say, but it's hard and the weather can be foul, the west of Scotland, OR the Yorkshire Dales, but terrain EXTREMELY hard, or the West of Ireland, OR Corsica . If you want easy terrain, I was recently impressed by Denmark which has very good bike routes on easy terrain. It's surprisingly pretty, BUT you may have to book accommodation as it's sparse. Also, it's fairly expensive. France and Spain are excellent. Germany is less beautiful but has terrific cycling facilities. The Mosel and Rhine are fine cycles etc. Tuscany is beautiful but cycling either difficult or busy. In Greece, the food is poor, except on islands. I hear Crete is terrific. Sardinia is lovely but Sicily is too busy (not been there). |
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Suggestions for European tour?
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Suggestions for European tour?
On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 20:53:13 -0500 in rec.bicycles.rides, Ken
Pisichko wrote: Next summer I want to travel from the D-Day beaches through Flanders, through Belgium and Holland and onward to Peenemunde, Germany on the Baltic coast in about a month to 6 weeks. Any idea of what I should budget? I camp whenever possible and seldom "eat out", eating like the locals for lunch and making brekky and dinner whenever possible. ken, half the joy of europe is their cooking, especially in france and italy --- which is why i've always tried to get as much bike time in as possible when visiting either country. otherwise i'd gain far too much weight on my visits! you sound so much more frugal than me that i hesitate to recommend a budget. i'll scrimp on restaurant meals for months at home in order to have money to eat well when i travel. in france, i normally zip into the neighborhood patisserie (usually scoped out the night before) and grab some pastry for breakfast and perhaps bread for lunch, and then pop into a coffee bar or bistro to get a coffee to go (much cheaper). i like to buy fruit in season --- late summer is a great time, but even early summer has nice berries and early fruits. i found some fantastic cheeses & sausages at local farmer's markets, often on wednesdays and saturdays. produce, and dairy prices were slightly below urban alaska prices (highest in the US), meat prices were higher. without doing any cooking, but eating a pastry/bread/cheese/fruit breakfast and a sandwich, sometimes with a salad for lunch and a restaurant dinner, i was able to stay within my 40 euro/day food budget and eat *very* well. i found some very reasonable restaurant dinners in small towns by watching where the locals went --- the places that were full, lively, and had a reasonably priced menu were usually the ones i chose. i had a number of very nice dinners in the 15-20 euro range, some simple meals as low as 10. a very good value compared to comparable US places with far worse food. and i did allow myself a few splurges, too, the biggest being a $75 dinner in paris the night before i saw lance win his 6th tour. worth every centime, too. apparently you'll be cycling through normandy (great hard ciders!) and belgium (great chocolate). if you're really interested in the d-day beaches, you should also take advantage of the fresh seafood. in france, the really really budget places to stay are the robohotels known as formule1, usually priced around 27 euros. see http://www.hotelformule1.com/formule1/index.html |
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Suggestions for European tour?
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Suggestions for European tour?
Dennis P. Harris wrote:
On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 20:53:13 -0500 in rec.bicycles.rides, Ken Pisichko wrote: Next summer I want to travel from the D-Day beaches through Flanders, through Belgium and Holland and onward to Peenemunde, Germany on the Baltic coast in about a month to 6 weeks. Any idea of what I should budget? I camp whenever possible and seldom "eat out", eating like the locals for lunch and making brekky and dinner whenever possible. ken, half the joy of europe is their cooking, especially in france and italy --- which is why i've always tried to get as much bike time in as possible when visiting either country. otherwise i'd gain far too much weight on my visits! you sound so much more frugal than me that i hesitate to recommend a budget. i'll scrimp on restaurant meals for months at home in order to have money to eat well when i travel. In outback Australia there is a total lack of people with shops. That said, i had to carry dried food and got water from rivers - without treatment/boiling. Cannot do that in Europe nor in North Ame4rica I'd wager you... in france, i normally zip into the neighborhood patisserie (usually scoped out the night before) and grab some pastry for breakfast and perhaps bread for lunch, and then pop into a coffee bar or bistro to get a coffee to go (much cheaper). That sounds like what I want to do - forget the McDonald's/family restaurants whenever possible... i like to buy fruit in season --- late summer is a great time, but even early summer has nice berries and early fruits. i found some fantastic cheeses & sausages at local farmer's markets, often on wednesdays and saturdays. produce, and dairy prices were slightly below urban alaska prices (highest in the US), meat prices were higher. That is what I wanted to hear as confirmation of what others have told me about Europe in the '80s and '90s... without doing any cooking, but eating a pastry/bread/cheese/fruit breakfast and a sandwich, sometimes with a salad for lunch and a restaurant dinner, i was able to stay within my 40 euro/day food budget and eat *very* well. i found some very reasonable restaurant dinners in small towns by watching where the locals went --- the places that were full, lively, and had a reasonably priced menu were usually the ones i chose. i had a number of very nice dinners in the 15-20 euro range, some simple meals as low as 10. a very good value compared to comparable US places with far worse food. Every now and then it is good to have a prepared meal. When I was travelling in outback Australia and came across a town (say like Burketown after bicycling for 4 days west of Normanton), I would stop by at the pub (usually the only one in these small towns) and have a counter lunch that was huge and with lots of FRESH vegetables. A "beeah" (or 2 or3) was always nice too. It also gave me a chance to talk with the locals and find out more about the location than any guide book could tell me. and i did allow myself a few splurges, too, the biggest being a $75 dinner in paris the night before i saw lance win his 6th tour. worth every centime, too. apparently you'll be cycling through normandy (great hard ciders!) and belgium (great chocolate). if you're really interested in the d-day beaches, you should also take advantage of the fresh seafood. My big splurges in Australia were 2 sessions of music with daddy Cool band members, AND helping 2 friends in Australia (who I had not seen for 35 years) celebrate their respective 60th birthdays on 2 successive evenings. Paid for their meals and we celebrated long into those 2 nights.. in france, the really really budget places to stay are the robohotels known as formule1, usually priced around 27 euros. see http://www.hotelformule1.com/formule1/index.html I slept in a hammock while in outback Australia - beside the road. If i found myself in a town i would stay at the trailer park (aka caravan park) and set the hammock up between 2 trees. In the 6 weeks on the road I never once had to sleep on the ground - even "spindly" Ironbark trees had incredible strength and supported my 100+ kg mass with no problem. I understand European campgrounds are not usually with trees for setting up a hammock. Then of course there are more options - but at a cost. Ken, Canada |
#8
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Suggestions for European tour?
We could give better answers if we knew things like:
1) What style of single-day rides on what kinds of terrain do you usually do in your home country? 2) What style of multi-day bicycling vacations in what kinds of places have you done in your home country? 3) What did you like or dislike about those tours and rides? 4) Have you traveled in Europe before? Have you traveled in non-English speaking countries before? 5) Do you wish to travel with other couples (and singles) throughout the trip? Are you accustomed to organizing your own independent non-bicycling vacations? 6) What it is that your hoping to get out of this bicycling vacation in Europe? Why Europe rather than some other place? Why bicycling rather than some style or emphasis? Sharon and I live in the northeast U.S. and when we do single-day rides at home we usually put our bicycle on a rack on the back of our car, drive to some pretty area with fun roads and ride there. When we take a multi-day vacation with our bicycle, we usually drive to some place and stay in a motel room (or our parents' house), and each day either ride from the motel or more often put our bicycle on our car and drive to a starting point which looks like it will have some great riding. Usually we try to figure out some likely nice route on a map, working together with any hints we can get from bicycling guidebooks or websites for that area. On bad-weather days, we just leave our bicycle in the motel room and drive somewhere do some non-bicycling activity. Near as I can from several bicycling vacations in the France, Italy, and other western European countries, most serious serious European riders have the same style as we use in the U.S. -- i.e. when we're riding in France and Italy, the majority of bicycles we see are being carried on cars. We figure the Europeans must have a clue about the most fun style for bicycling trips in Europe, so . . . So on our bicycling vacations in Europe, we've always followed the popular local style: We bring the car rack folded up in our airline luggage, pick up a rental car at the airport when we land, put our bicycle on the car and drive to our hotel room in some pretty region that's supposed to have fun riding. Michelin 1:200000 maps usually have pretty roads and steep hills marked, so we usually figure out a loop route for each day from the map, drive our car with bike on it to some village on the loop, and start riding from there. After 3-5 days based in one region, we usually drive to a different region for another 3-5 days, then drive back to the airport, return the car, fold up our rack, and fly home. Ken |
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Suggestions for European tour?
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#10
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Suggestions for European tour?
3) If we go with a tour, what is a reasonable price? A quick Google search shows some 10 day tours for about $2500. Is that about right? Hopefully for you is that all included. Please chech following links in dutch language and you'll see that it can at a much lower price !!! http://www.vostravel.be/zomer/index.htm http://www.zuiderhuis.be/bb/ Danny Belgium |
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