2025 Poland to Slovenia with a stranger from Reddit
TL;DR :
Great success, not too many problems, all photos and videos here / Completed Komoot route
Key Stats
- Cycling days : 15
- +1 rest day, +1 celebration day
- Bikepacking distance : 1573 km (978 miles)
- Average daily distance : 104.92km (65.2 miles)
- Longest day : 179.07km (111.26 miles)
- Total Elevation : 10,439m (34,250ft)
- Average daily elevation 695m (2283ft). Despite cycling the same route, my buddy’s logged elevation was about 100m (300ft) more than me everyday, so mine could also be that.
- Countries : Poland, Slovakia, Czechia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia
- Accomodation : 9 campsites, 6 nights in a Hotel, 2 with a friend
- Using an Insta360 Go 3s attached to a baseball cap under my helmet, I recorded 15s clips at the touch of a button at various points throughout the days (eventually set to 30fps 1080p). I then took 2 seconds of each clip (some clips longer) and compiled them into 17 sub 2-4 minute instagram reels (this took days!) Each video has basic commentary about each day and is a window into the full trip.
Daily Diary Videos
Day 1 – Krakow to Brody 50.6km (31.44 miles) – Hotel
Day 2 – Brody to Zubrzyca Górna – 67.02 km (41.64 miles) – camp
Day 3 – Zubrzyca Górna to Belá – 104.99 km (65.23 miles) – camp
Day 4 – Belá to Nová Dubnica – 103.76 km (64.47 miles) – Hotel
Day 5 – Nová Dubnica to Ostrožská Nová Ves – 84.29km (52.38 miles) – Camp
Day 6 – Ostrožská Nová Ves to Brod nad Dyjí – 133.23km (82.79 miles) – Camp
Day 7 – Brod nad Dyjí to Vienna – 114km (70.9 miles) – Hotel
Day 8 – REST DAY – Vienna – Hotel
Day 9 – Vienna to Vojka nad Dunajom – 134.28km (83.44 miles) – Camp
Day 10 Vojka nad Dunajom to Budapest – 179.05 (111.26 miles) – Hotel
Day 11 Budapest to Velence – 75.59km (46.97 miles) – Camp
Day 12 – Velence to Paloznak – 85.77km (53.3 miles) – Camp
– Paloznak to Zalacsány – 110.25km (68.51 miles) – Camp
Day 14 Zalacsány to Čakovec – 120.49km (74.87 miles) – Hotel
/ Day 15 – Part 2 Čakovec to Ribnica na Pohorju – 123.3km (76.62 miles) – Camp
Day 16 – Ribnica na Pohorju to Celje – 86.47km (53.73 miles) – Friend
Day 17– Bonus day of celebration – Friend
The Good
- The cycling infrastructure in every country : highways, lanes, paths, crossings, cafes, stands, leagues ahead of the UK. It’s plain to see where a lot of european union money has been spent.
- I felt safe everywhere and everyone was friendly
- The food was a solid 7+ everywhere (apart from some of my questionable camp creations). There was one thing i’d like to make at home, a toasted sandwich of kebab style pork shavings, plenty of rocket, and some sort of paste/spread. This was in Czechia and something the waitress through together herself. I’d kill to eat that again
- The weather : Rained only once and whilst we were at lunch
- Camp setup : Under 10 mins to pitch tent, blow up mattress + pillow, and get a brew going
The Bad
- The weather : Climbing in exposed 35°C isn't fun, we were stopping for drinks often.
- One puncture for me (fixed in 7 mins), 2 punctures for buddy running tubeless. Even after a shop fixed the first with a plug, it failed and he resorted to tubes.
- ⅔ Hungarian campsites were pretty basic but same price as nicer ones elsewhere.
- I really hate climbs
The Ugly
- We missed our flight home because our train in Slovenia broke down + late bus + crazy traffic. (I later claimed £250 back through travel insurance – get travel insurance people)
Bike problems and maintenance
- Lost a part of my kickstand, so had to throw the rest away. It did work alright, but if you use, I recommend taping the parts together when adjusted to length as they screw together.
- My GPS tracker was in my Brooks saddle and stopping it from molding to my butt shape. Post removal of this, and an angle adjustment, I had much less chaffing
- My gears were tuned to my road wheels and skipping and clicking. I flipped my bike upside down and made fine adjustments.
- Replaced front brake pads
- Tightened front and rear brakes from time to time.
- I had one puncture in Hungary which was quickly dealt with
- Stem bag opening was narrow and I lost two straps for the other
- WD40 makes a bike feel brand new.
Kit problems
- I didn’t take the bag for the folding seat. Meaning when it was in a dry bag, there was no flat bottom, so it didn't sit tight on the front fork cages.
- The Temple fork cages are narrow and barely suitable for 5L dry bags
- My Garmin Edge 830. It’s unable to receive new routes mid ride, not a problem for the 840 that by buddy had.
- My insta360 Go 3s had major problems for the first few days and refused to save in a lower quality. I was also unaware of the ‘memory full’ beep and missed a chunk of one of the days. After about day 5 it started to work. Considering i was recording sometimes over 90 clips a day (over 1400 total), I needed a lower quality for memory saving.
Kit praise
- Sea to Summit pillow and matt
- Durston X-Mid 1 – Superfast pitching
- Aero bars are a comfort game changer
- Hip bag for camera slung behind back, resting on rear bags so that no weight is supported by your body
- – Insta 360 Go 3s – Initially very flawed – would not record with settings I set. I magically fixed this and for most of the trip, I was shooting exactly how I wanted.
- The Alpkit BruKit lights up sometimes on the first spark, and boils water superfast.
- Buddy had never used a Tyreglider – his rough words on changing a tyre with it – “It’s so easy! That’s the fastest i’ve ever done that” I also highly recommend it, and not just because it’s a local invention.
- Flextail tyre and matt pump – both very quick and easy to use.
- The Cummulus X-Lite 200 Sleeping bag was just right for this trip. Only needed to wear layers when in the mountains (I don’t usually wear clothing to bed)
Route Praise
There were so many amazing bits from each day (all available in linked videos) but if I were to be specific :
- The gravel paths in the Carpathian mountains that challenged us
- The cycleway from Vienna towards Budapest. I went 50km (30miles) without seeing a pedestrian, dog, car. A flat path (arguably boring) for fast miles
- Going downhill through the Slovenian mountains
Route Problems
- The path along the river after Benov is an up and down hiking trail, a bit of a hindrance for our bikes.
- Unbeknownst to us, we entered into Croatia through the exact area where the highest concentration of Roma people live. They harassed us and tried to pull on my breaks whilst I was cycling. The path literally is a pile of rubbish, i’m not exaggerating . Thanks a lot Komoot.
- We adjusted some days to from ‘gravel’ to just ‘cycling’ on Komoot to ease our miles. Some of Komoot’s gravel sections are just silly diversions and zig zags away from perfectly good roads.
- When adjusting routes on the fly, sometimes we ended up on fast roads that felt dangerous and ended up coming off them for our safety. Hungary was an example of where the roads were not great, and the driver’s driving was ‘ambitious’.
Where will I go next? Possibly a much longer round trip from France to Estonia (via Scandinavia), and back through the Baltic states, Poland, and Northern Europe
Happy to answer any questions you may have
by davidlen