Hey everyone!
My friend and I are planning a long-distance bike trip through Europe this summer. We’ll be carrying tents and gear, aiming to cycle around 100 km per day, and wild camping where possible. The plan is to ride from Denmark all the way to Italy, mostly following EuroVelo routes, but we’re flexible.
Our biggest question right now is:
→ What’s the best way to plan a good, realistic, and scenic route?
We want to avoid boring or dangerous roads, and we’re hoping for a mix of quiet countryside, cool towns, and beautiful nature.
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Here are a few specific things we’re wondering about:
• Are there any apps or tools you’d recommend for route planning?
• Any must-ride sections or routes to avoid?
• Tips on crossing borders (especially Switzerland and Italy)?
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We’re both in decent shape and used to biking, but this is our first multi-week tour, so any tips are welcome.
I attached a picture of what I was thinking the route could look like😄
Thanks a lot in advance! 🙏
We’ll post updates as we go 🚴♂️🌍
by Ill-Asparagus-6128
7 Comments
Just a quick comment on the route in your pic, someone else complained in a thread the other day about the north western part of Germany being very boring. Commenters suggested that the eastern part of northern Germany would be more interesting. So you might want to consider that given your wishes for the trip.
I use the cycling layer on openstreetmap.org and ridewithgps.com to plan my routes, but komoot seems to be popular as well.
Hey, noticed you’ll be going though NL. Cycling there is great but you’re also setting yourself up for a big disappointment when going into Belgium 😉 (roads suck there). Suggestion would be to cycle trough National Park ‘De hoge Veluwe’ and ‘Veluwezoom’. It’s the only nature we have and honestly not so bad, it’s also not man made so there’s that.
Hey, just left Aalborg myself to do a tour :). For scenic stuff the short answer is elevation. If there is some elevation the route will be scenic. More elevation = more scenic. For finding quiet roads you’d have to design your own route which isn’t hard. I use Komoot. Set the start and destination and the move the points in between away from highways and through the countryside/villages/lakes/forest patches. If you are unsure about the road you can check street view in komoot.
There is no good way to cross northern Germany while avoiding the boring parts. But the alps should make up for it.
Best of luck to you and post some pics after you are done.
Hi
looks like you wanna go cycling like I’ll do in August. We’re coming from Stockholm and going to Amsterdam (home).
I don’t know about your Denmark part, you know best. You then have multiple options, once you’re in Germany.
Either you go the route via Hamburg – we are going to avoid that. No big cities for us, it’s just annoying.
Instead we’re taking the Ferry from **Glucksstadt -> Wischhafen**. so all you have to do is find your way down to Glucksstadt.
If you don’t wanna go through Bremen (it’s my hometown, so i’ll say hi to mom quick), you can cross the Weser (the river) earlier with ferry too.
Depending on how much Netherlands you want, you can do similar towards Groningen, and then take the Afsluitdijk and go towards Amsterdam.
https://preview.redd.it/7ugf0yowuf9f1.png?width=1054&format=png&auto=webp&s=2b041163b638e43dffb09de16fdb91b4db12423e
If you want **Hamburg,** then continue towards Hannover but via **Lueneburger Heide**. From there Target Eindhoven, then Maastricht, Liege (if you want ride Mur de Huy, lol), Charleroi and go to paris.
If you just want to somewhat amsterdam, then cross a bit later into the country and take the Limburg Area (mountains 🚵). From there you can go through the Ardennes in Belgium towards Paris.
If you want none of that smoke, from Amsterdam, stay on the coast line, go down the hague, go through Zeeland and their crazy bridges, all the way towards Dunkirk. Pray for tailwind.
[https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Amsterdam/Dunkirk,+France/@52.4909288,1.9652794,6.75z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c63fb5949a7755:0x6600fd4cb7c0af8d!2m2!1d4.9041389!2d52.3675734!1m5!1m1!1s0x47dc8b6dd9ff20b9:0x40af13e81646da0!2m2!1d2.3767763!2d51.0343684!3e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYyMy4yIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Amsterdam/Dunkirk,+France/@52.4909288,1.9652794,6.75z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c63fb5949a7755:0x6600fd4cb7c0af8d!2m2!1d4.9041389!2d52.3675734!1m5!1m1!1s0x47dc8b6dd9ff20b9:0x40af13e81646da0!2m2!1d2.3767763!2d51.0343684!3e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYyMy4yIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D)
For the Netherlands and Belgium it might be worth looking into ‘the Dutch Divide’ and ‘the Flanders’ Divide’. Two well-documented gravel routes with accommodation along the way.
If you don’t plan on visiting Paris, avoid it at all cost.
You can go through Alsace, and the Voges, basically going hilly/medium mountain regions. Then go south towards Lyon (avoiding it as well) then the alps, Switzerland etc ….