Good morning everyone . I'm now crossing Greece and after wanted to go Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland any places that you can recommend? Not looking for big city's more beautiful landscapes or old castles.
by fireisbeautiful
Good morning everyone . I'm now crossing Greece and after wanted to go Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland any places that you can recommend? Not looking for big city's more beautiful landscapes or old castles.
by fireisbeautiful
13 Comments
Malbork Castle. Wawel Caste (but you have to go to a big city to see it). Trail of Eagle Nests Castles.
Also don’t use google maps. Try Komoot for example.
Where exactly are you in Greece? If I am close, your red pin looks close to where we cycled in ’22. Looks like east of Kalambaka, where the beautiful Meteora monasteries are in the mountains. Wasn’t on my plans, but my travel partner-in-crime suggested it. Good call!
Then we went SW to the coast from there. You’re hitting a part of Greece I’d still like to see.
Honestly, I actively avoid anything that’s labeled a ‘must-see’, because in my experience any place that gets that much attention to be known across borders is ruined by fuckloads of people.
I usually take the “ask the locals”-approach, especially in the Balkans. Yeah, it’s a bit more difficult, but you haven’t lived until a serbian grandma forcefeeds you her homebrew palinka after merely asking for directions 😀
I’ve ‘missed out’ (doesn’t feel like it to be honest) on a fair number of national monuments and other such sights and it derailed my plans more than once but I don’t regret it for a second.
Kosice in Slovakia, second biggest city, very beautiful.
I am Hungarian, so maybe I can help you out with some tips regarding that country, but all boils down to what are you interested in?
Why are you using Google Maps for creating your route? It will be horrible.
Use bike specific websites for that such as bikerouter.de or Komoot.
Unrelated, but why is your saddle so low?
Enter Poland near Jurgów or Sromowce Wyżne. Follow the VeloDunajec bike route across the beautiful Dunajec Gorge and further down to Tarnów. Then head west across the Niepołomice Forests and later along the Vistula River to Kraków.
Some of those routes are more touring and family friendly, but go through places that you should consider must sees 🙂
there’s a bunch of old (and a few not so old) castles in Poland and countless interesting/beautiful spots worth visit. some routes are more packed with goodnesses, but i don’t think you’ll get bored. shout if you’re into any specific vibes.
best time is mid April to end of June, then it usually gets a tad more rainy and way more crowded as vacation season kicks in. and it’s still quite warm till October, although sun starts to set quite early by then.
personally i would double the comment above and highly suggest to stay away from google maps and use Komoot for routing/navigation. Komoot isn’t perfect, but in my experience it is close to perfect and is way better than any other tool to route you around on a bicycle.
addition, this map may come as a good reference point for Poland: https://velomapa.pl/szlaki
there’s a bunch of nice routes on that website, but you’ll have to use google translate or something similar to read through. here’s one you’ll probably be cycling by and it includes some gorgeous castles – done it last year on a cargo bike and can recommend: https://velomapa.pl/szlaki/szlak-orlich-gniazd
As you’re going through Romania, head to Transylvania and see Corvin or Bran castle.
Your wallet
Use the website cycle.travel !!
It’s the best.
You can take a look at my website [https://veloplanner.com](https://veloplanner.com)
It has all the official cycling routes on the map and you can plot your own route based on it. Touring profile will try to stick to the official routes. There are useful layers which shows hotels, campings and historic attractions.
You could also consider Kraków. It has castle and nice old town. It’s a big city but there is very good cycling infrastructure so you will not cycle with cars. From Kraków you can follow “Szlak Orlich Gniazd” (The Trail of the Eagles’ Nests) where you will see bunch of old castles and it ends in Częstochowa. There is a [monastery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasna_G%C3%B3ra_Monastery) where was famous battle.
You could also consider VeloDunajec route, which is one of the best in Poland.
Further north you have cities with nice old towns and castles: Toruń, Grudziądz and Kwidzyn. They are along the Vistula river.
https://preview.redd.it/k0wpf3r8c1oe1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=311ebc444d4fc51effa8187210d5739681d29493