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    Route suggestions for the Alps and Balkans?


    Hey guys. Planning a bike tour to Istanbul next month. Im pretty happy with parts of the route. Those parts include the start, going down France towards Switzerland, which seems like a simple start, mainly following a EuroVelo path. The coastline stretch through Croatia and the Balkan countries is also somewhere I’ve really been wanting to cycle, so looks great! This again follows a euroVelo route. Please feel free to suggest alternative/better ways through those 2 parts I just mentioned, but, currently struggling with 2 other parts. The first and one in particular is navigating my way through the alps, pretty much getting from Switzerland to Ljubjlana in Slovenia.

    For this part, I initially planned to follow the Euro Velo which literally goes around the alps, through Germany, towards Linz and then back down to Slovenia. This was fine with me until I noticed how much longer it was, as well as I’ve started thinking that it would be so much more interesting going through at least part of the alps. Rather than taking some huge diversion to go around them. However, im not sure how doable going through the alps is? Ive done a couple of 1-2 week tours, so I have little experience but not much. I will be going through this section in July time, so temperature should be okay, more so concerned over climbs. The elevation gain of the route is pictured below, with the biggest climb at about 1800m (the alps start at the first big spike). Not sure how big this is in the grand scheme of things, would be great to know any suggested routes through this part! [Cycle.Travel](https://cycle.travel/) just drew this part out for me.

    The second part im not too sure on is when I hit Tirane in Albania, and need to head East to Istanbul. Because of my Shengen Visa time, I ideally need to not go into Greece. (I know Bulgaria recently joined shengen, I am factoring that into things as I cant avoid that!). But it would be great to hear any suggestions on what route you would take here as well.

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    https://preview.redd.it/r6mav7dm4gwc1.png?width=1328&format=png&auto=webp&s=2886e8723ca7de1e06680e8343588ae218c44559

    https://preview.redd.it/u12fubtk4gwc1.png?width=1573&format=png&auto=webp&s=794daff2b4589f1c71266cf8400dffc5903f5a66

    Thank you all so much in advance, I look forward to chatting!

    by Efficient-Pie5230

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    4 Comments

    3. belchhuggins on

      Hi! You can check out my [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/comments/xb11rp/ive_just_spent_a_month_cyclotouring_lengthwise/), where I described [this route](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fn9soerezf2n91.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1196%26format%3Dpjpg%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D24e8cc0a0340dd71c422614875e10e40e5f48067) that I took across the Alps. I couldn’t recommend it more. They will be the most beautiful part of your route (ok, except for Croatia), and the cycling infrastructure there is out of this world. It was so nice that this year I’m going back.

      Good luck!

    4. knomesayin on

      Highly, highly recommend going through the alps. The scenery is amazing and the climbs are worth it, as long as you have low enough gears to be able to deal with them. Just know that you will probably have some days where you do very low mileage (my shortest day was ~30k with like 1300m of climbing). I particularly recommend going through South Tyrol (Italy) and Austria through the Dolomites. My route through the Alps from Switzerland to Slovenia was this:

      Basel – Hohentengen – Rapperswil – Maienfeld – Davos – Zernez – Glorenza – Bolzano – Chiusa – Bruneck – Sillian – Berg im Drautal – Villach – Kranskja Gora – Bled – Ljubljana.

      This route was 90% on bike routes and small roads, with the main exceptions being the pass roads.

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