Good evening,

We’re planning a cycling tour in Denmark and I’m figuring out how to get there. We have electric mountain bikes (and since I’m really happy with mine, I’d prefer not to rent bikes there). We have 9 days.

- I looked into trains, but the prices aren’t great, and I’m worried we won’t always be able to take our bikes. Packing them in a bag and disassembling them seems overwhelming, especially given how big mine is.

- The Flexibus: we’d have to go through Paris from Lyon, which would waste a lot of time.

- Flying? It might not be more expensive than the train.

- We have a camper van, and I’m wondering if that’s an option. Do you know if you can park your vehicle for a week in a parking lot? I get the impression that parking time is limited. Thanks for your advice! Have a great evening,

Sandrine

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to figure out how to get from Paris to Marseille or Montpellier with non-disassembled bikes by train in early July 2025... and it’s a total flop!!! Can’t find any trains that offer the bike-on-board option! It’s so complicated between SNCF-CONNECT, OUIGO, and TER INTERCITÉS!!! Nothing’s simple! I want to take my teens and their cousins on a bike trip to the Camargue, but I’ll have to start planning way ahead to sort out bike transport!!! So glad I found VoyageForum for tips! !

I'm developing a free and open-source web app for planning walking and cycling trips (and even car trips). You can create a route by clicking directly on the map to add waypoints, and it can consist of multiple stages. The app provides tools to edit the stages and the overall route, and to display useful information (distances, altitudes, and elevation changes). A relief profile can be shown as a graph for a specific stage or the entire route.

Once the route is ready, it can be exported as a GPX file, which can then be used with a GPS or a mobile navigation app.

The app is built in JavaScript and runs entirely in the web browser. It uses the Leaflet library and several OpenStreetMap-based services. Initially developed for my personal needs (I enjoy hiking and cycle touring), I’d be happy to share it with anyone who might find it useful. It’s free to use, doesn’t require an account, and the source code is available.

Source code: https://github.com/patricklmarie/GPX-Route-Planner Online demo: https://patricklmarie.github.io/GPX-Route-Planner/

Hi everyone,

First post here to share a quick recap of our west-to-east bike trip along Algeria’s coast in January 2025. It was just the two of us—my partner and I—with French passports and not a word of Arabic. No friends or welcoming hosts in the country.

Under those conditions, we’d strongly advise against going.

Our original plan was to follow the coast from Algiers to Tunis. We ended up cycling from Algiers to Béjaia, then took the train from Béjaia to Annaba (with a stop in Constantine), and finally biked to the border. We were tailed by police the whole way—whether on our bikes, on the train, or even on foot while exploring towns. On top of that, we couldn’t wild camp and were limited to the few state-approved hotels that accept foreigners. Under those circumstances, connecting with locals was especially tough.

With such an omnipresent and intrusive police presence, we’d definitely recommend against this destination for bike touring. A really sad situation that completely cuts you off from the local population...

We’d been warned, we went to check it out, and we weren’t disappointed!

You’ve been warned.

Hi there, We’re leaving from Montreal and planning to bike the Petit Train du Nord route. Any ideas for loops so we don’t have to return the same way? We’re thinking of a one-week trip. Thanks in advance for your tips! Rachel

Hi, We’re planning to start the Camino del Cid from Vivar del Cid (Burgos) to Atienza in April. How can we get back and pick up our car, which we left in Burgos? I haven’t found any info on this. Thanks for your tips!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to bike around the Mediterranean. I’m supposed to go through North Africa, but it seems a bit complicated. Visas and travel in Algeria and Egypt only work if you book a hotel (no nights spent outside?). Libya is generally very unclear, and it seems you can only travel there with a local guide (which doesn’t exist for bike trips). If necessary, I’d skip Libya, but neither a bus ride nor a boat detour seems possible to enter Egypt.

Does anyone have tips on how to get around these issues and secure a visa?

Thanks for any advice!

Hi everyone,

I’m heading to Chile this coming November and I’d love to spend a few days cycling from Santiago (Chile) to Mendoza (Argentina).

Has anyone done this route before? If so, do you have any tips (stages, gear, accommodation spots, etc.)?

Also, to avoid carrying too much stuff, I’d like to rent a bike in Santiago. Any recommendations for a good rental shop?

Thanks so much in advance for your help :)

Clément

I'm planning a 3-day weekend with my wife on this cycle path. The articles about this route are old, so if anyone has traveled it recently and can give me an update on its condition, that'd be great. We're riding 1994 ROCKRIDER 340 mountain bikes but with 1.5-inch tires suited for road touring—will that work, or should I switch back to MTB tires? Thanks for your replies!

A bit disappointed with the forum's revival—there isn’t much activity or shared travel stories anymore.

Hi there,

I’ve got my flight ticket sorted—departing in mid-November and returning in mid-March. I’ll arrive in Santiago and leave from Buenos Aires. I’ve already been to southern Argentina, specifically Torres del Paine National Park, and I’d love to go back to do the full W trek (I only did the shorter version last time). I also want to do some hiking and maybe even tackle a summit. I climb and occasionally do some mountaineering, so I’ll definitely be going with a guide.

I plan to start around Temuco in Chile, with the idea of heading toward the lakes, then taking the Carretera Austral. I’m not sure if I’ll go all the way to Ushuaia—it’s supposed to not be *that* worth it, except for the bragging rights of saying you’ve been to the end of the world.

I saw there are lakes in Argentina too.

I don’t have a precise itinerary, but what I’d love is, once I reach the southernmost point of my trip, to take a mini-cruise to see some wildlife. Any tips for that?

What kind of sleeping bag did you take? Is a 0°C (32°F) one enough? And one last question: white gas stove or can I get by with my gas stove?

Nath

Hi there, New to bike touring, I’d love to start with a section of the Via Rhona to explore and share (route to be decided). Looking forward to exchanging tips!

Good evening everyone,

Since the forum came back, it's been a bit quiet—no one's sharing their adventures yet. I know it's the start of the season, so let's hope it picks up!

Last Saturday, my buddy Jean Paul (who’ll be 84 next month) and I rode through the cedar forest between Cavaillon and Bonnieux—I highly recommend it! I already knew the area. We started from Pont Royal: me on my latest women’s FUN RIDE SOLO mountain bike (kept it as simple as possible), and him on a road bike with gravel tires. The road starting near Cheval Blanc, called the Vidauque route, is paved but completely wrecked—full of potholes, abandoned for ages, and technically off-limits to cars (though 4x4s still use it). The views over the Cavaillon plain are stunning, but we had to push our bikes a few times. After that, we did 10 km through the gorgeous cedar forest, followed by all downhill and flat terrain through the Lourmarin valley, then Cadenet, before heading toward La Roque-d'Anthéron. From there, we tackled the dirt paths of Provence by bike—beautiful trails—and made our way back to Mallemort and Pont Royal. A great loop: 81.51 km with 908 m of elevation gain. And Jean Paul? Fresh as a daisy at the finish—what an impressive guy!

Now, the real reason for this post: At the start, we followed the Carpentras Canal, which runs from Mallemort to Travaillan (69 km total). I’ve seen some photos on Komoot, and it looks amazing—apparently, there’s always a towpath.

**HAS ANYONE DONE THIS BY BIKE BEFORE? COULD YOU SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE? THANKS IN ADVANCE!** Serge

Hi there, I’m planning to cycle around Taiwan in 2026 and I’d love to know if it’s possible to do the whole island on bike paths, how many kilometers that would be, whether wild camping is easy, and so on…

Hi there, I’ve been road cycling for several years, and I’m about to switch to gravel in the next few days—I’m waiting for my bike, which should arrive this week. I’m planning a bikepacking trip in a few weeks along the Véloroute V81, also known as the Vélosud, from Biarritz to Le Barcarès. Has anyone here already done this route? Any info is welcome, whether it’s about the route itself, gear, or accommodation. I’ll prioritize staying with locals as much as possible. On that note, I just signed up for the brand-new site *Guidon et Couette* ((www.guidon-et-couette.fr)), which offers free accommodation between cyclists across the country, but there’s almost no one listed along my route! Thanks in advance. Laurent.

France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria via Claudia Augusta and Italy via the Padana (AIDA) Alta Italia... http://cbandiera.free.fr/recits/2025-via-augusta/ 2024 already done, 2025 in sight

About 2,460 km with the Alps to cross, of course.

Faverges, Annecy, Geneva, Yverdon, Bienne, Bodensee, Danube sources, Ulm, Donauwörth, Augsburg, via Claudia Augusta, Innsbruck, Bolzano, Trento, Nervesa, Treviso, Mestre, Venice; Via AIDA (Alta Italia da attraversare / Padana) Padova, Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Milan, Novara, Vercelli, Chivasso, Turin, Susa, Mont Cenis Pass, Maurienne, Albertville, Faverges. A fantasy of Glaude’s for n+1 years For 2025? The story is already formatted

To be seen

Hi everyone, We’re planning to spend 5 months cycling as a family in Central Asia. To align with the weather, we’re thinking of arriving in Uzbekistan in April, heading toward the Ferghana Valley in late April/early May, and wrapping up with a long stretch in Kyrgyzstan from mid-May to early August.

I haven’t really dug into the third part (Kyrgyzstan) yet, but from what I’ve seen on the forum and online, cycling across Uzbekistan doesn’t seem all that appealing: long, straight desert stretches with lots of trucks.

Has anyone come across any "hidden gem" routes they’d be willing to share? I’ve already noted that it’s best to avoid riding toward Tashkent. I’m looking for routes between Bukhara and Samarkand, and any nearby areas that are nice for cycling.

I’d love to fly into Dushanbe to reach Samarkand, but we all agree that it’s not a good fit for the season (early April) if we’re cycling, right?

Thanks for your feedback! Ludo

Hello, I have a TX400. We're heading to the Andes this spring, and I wanted to see about changing my cassette to switch from an 11-35 to an 11-42 so I can tackle the big climbs more easily. So far, I've only found discussions from cyclists who switched from a 48-36-26 chainring to a 44-32-22. Has anyone kept the original chainring and just changed to a larger sprocket?

Coming soon: https://www.Biclou.com/parcours/durance/ Starting from Faverges: 900 km over 9 days



Here’s the detailed Durance route starting from Briançon

Age (80+) is making us stop our 20 years of bike travel (a good part of Europe), so we're selling (together or separately) our two touring bikes and switching to an electric city bike.🤪 They're already listed on a big national multi-product sales site, but potential buyers don't seem to know what a touring bike equipped with a Rohloff is....🙂 So my question: Do you know of a site where I'd have a better chance?😉 They're ROSE VTC bikes, Black Water III models from 2012.

Hello, I’m 72 years old and I’m flying to Beijing from Rome on March 26th. My return is planned for May 11th from Ulaanbaatar to Frankfurt. I’m thinking of buying a cheap bike in Beijing and riding to Hohhot, stopping to see the Great Wall of China along the way. From Hohhot, I’ll take the train to cross the border and get off at Sainshand in Mongolia, then continue to Ulaanbaatar. Can anyone give me some tips? Thanks! Gérald

Hi there! Every year, we go on a cycling trip abroad with panniers, lasting about two weeks. We stay in step lodgings, guesthouses, and the like. We mostly take small roads and really enjoyed northern Montenegro and Albania last year.

We’d love to hear from anyone who’s cycled in these countries before: tips on finding quiet roads, highlights of the regions we’ll pass through, how welcoming the locals are, and so on. Thanks in advance for any replies or exchanges!

Hi there, I’d like to cycle around Guadeloupe during the Christmas holidays. I was wondering if it’s dangerous, if it’s easy to rent a bike, and to find accommodation along the way? Thanks!

I’ve gotten used to crossing Europe by bus to return by bike. It was really convenient to take the bike without having to disassemble it. But FlixBus no longer accepts bikes... What alternatives do you know about? Thanks.

Hello fellow cycle-tourers! First post on this site for our first big family cycling adventure with our two teens (12 and 16 years old) over 2 months. We're preparing to leave in June/July from Erdeven by bike, then take the train from Auray to Paris, followed by a FlixBus from Paris to Copenhagen with our 4 bikes. After that, we're looking to refine our route: Should we go to Sweden via Helsingborg and then head up to Stockholm along the west or east coast? Maybe passing through the Gotland islands, then via the Åland Islands, why not Turku? Then off to Estonia to Tallinn, ride a bit along the coast, and return by bus if we can find one that takes 4 bikes. :))

Could you share any tips on routes in Sweden: west coast or east coast to prioritize in the south? We’ve heard it’s a shame not to go up to Norway, but we’re worried about the elevation and don’t see how to make a loop work in our 2 months / 1500 km. Any ideas? And the southern Finnish coast: should we go all the way to Helsinki or not? Maybe at the expense of Estonia?

In short, we know choosing means giving something up, but if we can do it with advice from fellow cyclists, that would be amazing! Thanks in advance for your tips! Anne-Sophie and the whole Breton family: David, Axel, and Maude

Hi, I’m looking for info on doing a solo bike trip from Chelyabinsk to northern China via Omsk. What’s the best time of year to go? Can I do it staying only in hotels and restaurants—without having to haul a tent, stove, etc.? Also, is there a border crossing point in northern China, because I can’t find anything on Google Maps? What’s the road condition like? Thanks

Hi there! I’m really keen to cycle from Bruges to Amsterdam. Has anyone here done it before? We’re a group of three—is it easy to find accommodation on the go, or should we book ahead? If we do a round trip and take our bikes, would it be simpler to plan two different routes?! Thanks so much! Laurence from Bayonne

Hi there, Last spring, I set off from Villeréal (47) on a road bike and reached the North Cape after 6 weeks of cycling. I had a particular concept: I’d cycle each stage (averaging 140 km) and then return to the starting point either by carpooling, hitchhiking (not often), bus, or train. I’d meet up with my van (a Trafic) and then drive the same stage to eat and sleep there. This approach let me choose where I stayed for the night and, most importantly, ride the distance I wanted—my longest stage was 217 km—without carrying any weight, since I can’t imagine doing a fully self-supported bike trip. I did a first 3-week stretch that took me to the top of Denmark using this method. Then I drove back to Hamburg in my van, left it there, and flew back to Bordeaux. I spent two weeks at home because my autistic son was staying with me, then my wife and I flew to Hamburg. We picked up the van and drove back to the top of Denmark to catch a ferry to Oslo. For this second leg, my wife drove the Trafic, and we met up along the stages, which allowed me to focus solely on my ride. I chose to go through Sweden—it would’ve been much more complicated going up through Norway because of all the tunnels, frequent small ferries to cross the fjords, and a lot more elevation gain. I had favorable winds most of the time, a few hiccups, but overall everything went smoothly, and I stuck to my route and schedule. I kept a travel journal on My Atlas—here’s the link: https://www.myatlas.com/danielcramay/du-47-au-cap-nord

Assalamu 'alaykum, Hi everyone,

This thread is to echo some posts I’ve read on this forum while researching a potential bike trip from Annecy to Mecca. I came across several discussions where members mentioned being very interested in cycling to the holy city.

So, God willing, I plan to attempt this journey from January to June next year. The idea is to head to Turkey first, then assess the most reasonable routes based on the geopolitical situation around Palestine and as far as Iraq. Since the Turkish-Syrian border is closed, the only remaining (and I mean *only* remaining) overland option would be to go through Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq, then Jordan, and finally Saudi Arabia.

That’s the first major challenge of this project. The second is timing. Due to the schedule, I’ll be starting in the middle of winter across Europe and finishing in the peak of summer in Saudi Arabia. If I’d had a choice, I’d have waited a good dozen years—but well, twelve years...

I won’t go into too much detail about the planned route in this post, but here are the broad strokes already set: Annecy to Istanbul. The rest is a bit too far ahead to map out properly. Crossing the Italian border via the Montgenèvre Pass. Straight through northern Italy as quickly as possible (not necessarily very pleasant) to reach Ljubljana. The fastest route through Croatia to spend as much time as possible in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbia via the Sandžak region. It crosses the Pešter plateau, which intimidates me at this time of year—its nickname, the "Siberia of the Balkans," says it all... Then Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey.

I’m open to any advice on this itinerary. The choice was made to pass through as many Muslim-majority regions as possible. In the middle of winter in the Balkans, I don’t feel mentally up to bivouacking alone in that climate. So, I’ll try to find accommodations in mosques or even with locals as much as possible.

That’s the project in a nutshell. The big catch—some of you may have already noticed—is that I’m doing this solo. Yet, this is strongly discouraged by our Prophet—peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. So, I invite anyone interested in joining this project, whether closely or from afar, to reach out and contact me. Any contribution is welcome, whether it’s company for the whole journey (one can always hope!) or just part of it. Advice, contact suggestions, places to stay, and information about Hajj or Umrah are also appreciated.

Thanks for reading this far. I’ll try to check my VoyageForum account from time to time to see if anyone has responded to this thread and will happily reply to your messages and questions.

Take care, Assalamu'alaykum.

Sam

hey everyone,

I’m landing in Madagascar with a buddy before the end of April 2026. We’re planning to bike around for about twenty days or so. We don’t have a specific goal other than exploring the country and meeting the locals.

Ideally, we’d prefer a loop route starting from Antananarivo with a good chunk of it along the coast. On the bike side, we’re used to riding 6 to 8 hours a day, depending on the needs, encounters, and mood 😉 Any feedback or tips from trips around this length?

Thanks in advance, Jérôme

Hello there, pedal-powered Young Boys! Claudio (still from Faverges) dreaming about a cycling getaway in Italy from Faverges (train all the way to Turin) from Turin down to Venice along the Po River and back via the Padana (Alta Italia da attraversare – Northern Italy to cross) The tricky part is getting from Chioggia to Venice. I read it’s possible by hopping on a boat from island to island, but it sounds a bit stressful. Has anyone already tackled this route?

Thanks, and cheers to all! http://cbandiera.free.fr/parcours/Padania/

Claudio