I'm about to about to take the plunge for my first long distance tour and I have some questions.
I'm starting in France, biking down into Italy, and then taking a ferry over into Greece and biking to Turkiye, Istanbul in specific. My return flight is out of Athens, so if I’m delayed or late or just straight up exhausted when I get to Athens, I’ll just chill there til I fly home. But, my current plan is to push past Athens, go to Istanbul for two nights, and then take a ferry to Bandirma. From there I then bike down to Izmir / Ceceme and then ferry back to Athens.
I’ve done a lot of research, but I struggle to get solid answers to all of these:
1) I arrive in Paris, I’ll have my bike in a box. I’m staying in Belleville. My current plan is to take the RER to Gare du Nord, and build my bike there, load my bags and stuff up, and then bike to my hostel. Is this smart? Is building my bike in Gare du Nord asking for any kind of trouble? Biking out to CDG airport seems like an absolute nightmare, and taking a cab seems super expensive.
2) On the subject of nightmares, biking into Istanbul seems super bad, so I was thinking of taking the commuter train in from Corlu to skip all the highways. Is biking directly into Istanbul as bad as I think, and is taking the commuter train smart? I've read that bikes can be difficult to take onto the trains, but I think that's for the bigger ones? I've also been thinking about taking a train from Thessaloniki to Alexandoupoli because I've heard that stretch is pretty brutal with little biking infrastructure.
3) After Istanbul I'm going to ferry over to Bandirma, I was going to angle myself and cut through the middle, hoping to get to the coast near Ayvalik, and then reconnect with Eurovelo 8 into Izmir / Ceceme. But what’s the middle part like? Is it bikable? Is there stuff? It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of bike infrastructure, but it also doesn't look like megahighways. Or is it smarter to hug the coast the whole way down?
4) – it's a big trip, so any tips you have about my route are super appreciated
The route – https://imgur.com/a/9Gp3doC
by beardon
3 Comments
Hi there! First of all, congratulations, it stems a nice trip.
I did something similar 4 years ago, starting from Italian border with Slovenia, then Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and finally Turkiye.
I can only answer to the part regarding travelling in Turkey.
In my experience, Turkish trainline is not the prevalent mean of transportation. Consider that most people move with bus lines, there are several (cheap) private companies. I did Istanbul – Sofia, and took me 8 hours, with my bike in a box cause i came back by plane from Sofia and I did not have any problems.
For what concern cycling towards Istanbul, it was quite terrible. Roads don’t guarantee too much space for cycling and it was the most stressful part of the travel. I felt quite in danger, expecially entering Istanbul.
But it is not impossible.
For the other things I can t say much. I think you can do everything you feel appropriate, it would come as you will travel
Have fun
I didn’t do any cycling on a recent trip to Turkey, but honestly it isn’t something that I would want to do having used the trains and very busy roads!
> 2) On the subject of nightmares, biking into Istanbul seems super bad, so I was thinking of taking the commuter train in from Corlu to skip all the highways. Is biking directly into Istanbul as bad as I think, and is taking the commuter train smart? I’ve read that bikes can be difficult to take onto the trains, but I think that’s for the bigger ones? I’ve also been thinking about taking a train from Thessaloniki to Alexandoupoli because I’ve heard that stretch is pretty brutal with little biking infrastructure.
I’m not sure how you are checking train times but these trains don’t really exist. There is a railway line from Çorlu to Istanbul but it is a regional line and only gets one train a day (leaving Çorlu is 2035 in the evening). I don’t know if you can take bikes on it. The train goes to Halkalı railway station in Istanbul which is on the edge of the city anyway. It starts at Edirne so you could board earlier if you wanted. There was a morning train when I was in the area earlier this year but that no longer shows on the TCDD website. In the end a late running connection from Bulgaria meant I missed them and had to hastily re-plan onto a bus.
The western extent of the cities suburban rail network is at Bahçeşehir – but it only gets a limited peak hour service – trains only become any good at Halkalı (where what long distance trains there are from the west terminate) and run from their under the city every few minutes. A few years ago the railway was re-routed east of Yedikule railway station and the old route from there to Sirkeci had a track taken out and replaced with an off road cycle route which looked nice.
I didn’t notice any bikes being taken onto the commuter trains nor any sort of facilities for them. I don’t know what the rules are. The trains do though start at Halkalı. Even for the peak out trains that start furthur wst in Bahçeşehir they do not run to the city center and you have to change in Halkalı. I did though see bike spaces on the metro trains and https://www.metro.istanbul/en/content/sports sounds very promising. Line 9 and 3 run a good distance west. Even off peak they where still very busy. I think using them to head into the city center (hence boarding trains at/near the start) would be much more practical than traveling out of the city center.
Istanbul has lots of ferries – many of which run along rivers as well as just across them – I saw bikes on plenty of them. Though none really run out west.
The railway line between Thessaloniki and Alexandroupoli is not currently in operation. Trains are running between Thessaloniki and Drama only. And there is one train each day (around 1500 in the afternoon). I have no idea what the situation with bikes on it are.
> Is building my bike in Gare du Nord asking for any kind of trouble?
It has a bad name, but in my experience it is not as bad as its reputation. If you arrive at day time I’ld say it should be fine. Not sure about night time.
> Biking out to CDG airport seems like an absolute nightmare,
Not done it, do your research, but I suspect that if you take Rue de New York to the east and head for Thieux it is quite doable.
> Is biking directly into Istanbul as bad as I think, and is taking the commuter train smart?
There are certainly plenty of negative stories about it. It doesn’t have to be as bad as some people make it out to be, but as with many big cities, it is also not a pleasure ride so imho a train or ferry is a very reasonable alternative. If you want to bike, and don’t mind hills, dirt roads and some extra distance, via Arnavutkoy, Bulgari forest and then along the Bosporus south into Istanbul seems the best option. Don’t know the ins and outs of taking the bike on the train, but I hear plenty of people that take the boat.
> from Thessaloniki to Alexandoupoli because I’ve heard that stretch is pretty brutal with little biking infrastructure
Don’t know what you qualify as brutal, but there are a good number of smaller roads and there is an option to go via Bulgaria which is certainly fine. The question is how much detouring and hills you are willing to accept. And with respect to bicycle infrastructure, what do you expect/want? As long as the traffic is not too bad I’ld say it is good enough. You are not going to find quality bicycle infrastructure comparable to northwestern Europe.
> But what’s the middle part like? Is it bikable? Is there stuff? It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of bike infrastructure, but it also doesn’t look like megahighways.
Not sure what you are looking for, but cutting across is likely better (less traffic) than following the main road more or less following the coast.