Bicycle Approach

Bicycle touring offers numerous advantages when exploring tourist attractions in Europe. The speed and convenience of moving from one attraction to another are just the beginning, with many more benefits to be discovered.

With bicycle trips, there are no traffic jams or detours for one-way streets or pedestrian roads. You can generally go wherever there is walking access and faster than any other way with minimal effort.

Bicycle touring does not limit you to the beaten path. You can venture off to places difficult to reach on foot or by public transport.

Getting lost or making detours are not a problem and add a sense of adventure to sightseeing.

When we plan our daily parking spot for our trips, we ensure we park the motorhome outside any paid parking zone in unrestricted parking areas.

By strategically parking our motorhome outside paid zones, when we plan our daily parking spot for our trips, we save on high parking fees and the cost of public transport. This gives us unrestricted time to explore and eliminates the hassle of returning to top up the meter or the risk of parking fines.

Generally, this means parking 2-5 km from the town centre. We can reach the heart of the attractions in just 15-30 minutes by bicycle. We can even visit attractions on the way to the town centre, making the most of our time. This bike tourist approach saves money, time, and effort, making it a definite game-changer.

Additional Planning Options

In our planning, we are always on the lookout for bike tourist opportunities like:

Cycling around lakes that are within and outside of towns. This might be in a natural area or within city limits that can include attraction detours.
Cycling along rivers and canals that flow through towns or a more extended trip covering several towns on river/canal banks.
Cycling along rivers through gorges that have pedestrian/bike paths. These routes are generally not paved, but we have found that those we have done to be adequate for our budget bikes.
Cycling more adventurous routes like up mountains or mountain passes or ski resorts. Often, we cycle and even push as far as we can, lock the bikes, and walk for the rest of the journey. The short-term pain is worth all the effort because it’s downhill when we return to the bikes, meaning minimal time and effort.

What about a MTB-focused trip?

In the warm months, there are endless opportunities to experience ski resort downhill trails in the Alps and other mountains. The obvious advantage is that the cable car does all the uphill work for you. This is a dream option for me but not a possibility for my wife and one of my daughters.

There organised bicycle touring options available in Europe focused on mountain bikes that cater for a wide skill range.

Check out Go Alps and Ride the Alps

Bicycle Advantage

Advantage Discovered

After our first motorhome trip, we decided to find a better way to get around when sightseeing because walking was a bad option.

Our first trip in a motorhome was back in 2005 without cell phones and navigation devices. With our limited information, knowledge and experience, it should have been a crime to take on what we did. We bumbled along with many missed steps, difficult challenges, and unforgettable experiences, all of which culminated in a life-changing experience for all of us.

Of all the things we survived, one of the worst was the amount we walked. It was exhausting! Walking is slow and compounded by getting lost, making wrong turns and always waiting for public transport. After the trip, we decided we needed to find a better way and concluded that a bicycle was the answer.

For our next trip, we started in Hamburg because we had family there who could lend us bicycles. This proved to be a real game-changer! After experiencing the bike touring option, with our first trip still burned into our memories, we determined we would make bicycle touring a non-negotiable part of all future trips.

Advantage Confirmed

14 reasons why bicycle touring is the best way to see cities, towns, and the in-between places.

Europe is very bike-friendly, and bikes are an essential travel option for locals. Those using motorised vehicles are very considerate and aware of cyclists.
There are seemingly endless dedicated bike lanes that are generally well-maintained, well used and improving all the time. Some countries, mainly Eastern Europe, are behind in this respect, but we did not experience any problems cycling there.Bike lanes are very convenient and safe. They are the best way to avoid motorised and foot traffic. Bikes have a right of way over all other traffic and are only second to foot traffic.
Bike lanes are generally more direct than other traffic routes.
Bike lanes often follow scenic routes along rivers, canals and beachfront. We love adding these routes as an extra option or a detour on our way to our destination.
Bike lanes are taken into account by Google Maps when calculating routes, making navigation easier.
Bicycle touring is much less strenuous than walking. We found that we cycled around the whole day without being exhausted, while just a morning of walking was a killer.
A bicycle is slow enough to take in all your surroundings and fast enough to see everything quickly and with minimal effort.
A bicycle is flexible enough to stop, see, or take pictures anytime.
A bicycle is the best way to see the abundance of large city parks, green areas and nature reserves in Europe.
A bicycle takes you right to the entrance of attractions or, at minimum, very close. This means less walking and less time wasted.
A bicycle allows you to go anywhere in cities and the countryside. It always gives you options!
A bicycle can be parked and locked anywhere close to everything.
A bicycle not only allows you to cover lots of ground, but making wrong turns or getting lost is effortlessly corrected. Conversely, with walking there is always a heavy price to pay.
Bicycle touring enables visiting places on the outskirts of towns that would not be an option with walking or public transport.

Our Conclusion

For us, the bicycle is a significant game-changer and a non-negotiable addition. We can see in a day what other methods would require 2 to 3 days to achieve and with minimal effort and cost in comparison.

This is why we could see as much as we have on our European trips. Bicycle touring is the quickest, cheapest, and most flexible way to see any town or city, big or small.

Bike Acquisition

Securing bicycles for the duration of your trip can be a challenge. We’ve had success with various methods, including purchasing second-hand bikes, which often turn out to be our favourites, and finding ‘shop-spoiled’ ones that are still in good condition.

Bike Loan

The best all-around bike acquisition option is loaning bikes from family or friends. If possible, you will save yourself a lot of shopping and logistics. We were fortunate enough to have the convenience of this option on two of our trips.

One important consideration for you and those sharing their bikes with you is that the bike racks on motorhomes are very narrow. So, surface damage is possible while driving and during the loading and offloading process.

Bike Rental

Short/Long Term rental

This option is costly and generally covers part of a day to several days. Hourly prices reduce the longer the rental term, but they are still expensive. This might be the most straightforward option if you only want a bike a few times during a trip. An electric bike is also available, but it will be at a premium.

You can expect to pay about 20-40 per day and as low as 10 per day in Amsterdam. Long-term rental can be as low as 20 per day for 15 days, but this still means a total of €300l.

Bike Sharing

This is a trendy option for locals in Central European cities. You can pick up a bike near where you are and drop it off near your destination. Numerous different systems and schemes in various countries include electric scooters.

The average cost for a full day can be as low as €10-12 per day.

In our experience, this option caters for longer-term use and is more for locals than tourists from a cost and accessibility perspective.

New/Used bike

We always looked at the cheapest entry-level bike with a preference for mountain bikes and aimed for about €100-150.

They only had to last about three weeks, which they should do. By then, we will have received more than our money’s worth and could even give them away.

In fact, two of our cheap bikes lasted for three trips, stored in-between with family, and we sold them for 30% of their original price. During their last trip, they showed their age and needed some repairs, but they were still sufficient.

There are 4 options available:

You can purchase new bikes online and have them delivered to someone you know or even arrange for delivery to your first accommodation.
You can also look at the second-hand bike market in your starting city. Then, collect it before you collect your motorhome or collect it first and drive it to the pick-up place.
You can also buy a supermarket special. However, we could not get competitive offers in advance, so we defaulted to the first two options.
Another option is to buy a used bike from a cycle shop and try to sell it back to them at the end of the trip. However, we found limited information online about cheaper options and did not want to take a chance, so again, we defaulted to the first two options.

Our Bike History

As mentioned, we were fortunate enough to loan bikes on two of our trips and needed to purchase bikes for the other trips.

We bought new MTB bikes on Amazon.uk, which were delivered to a friend in Madrid. One of the bikes was stolen in Barcelona, so we purchased a supermarket special as a replacement. We gave them to our friend after the trip.
We bought new MTB bikes on Amazon.de and delivered them to our family in Hamburg. We used them for three trips and then sold them on Ebay.de for 30% of the purchase price.
We bought 1 new shop-spoiled bike from a company on Ebay.de, which had some scratches. Arranged delivery to the Airbnb, we stayed at in Hamburg before collecting our motorhome. We used it for two trips and sold it on Ebay.de for 80% of the purchase price.
We bought 1 second-hand bike privately through an Ebay.de auction. I used public transport to collect it in Hamburg. We used it for two trips and sold it on Ebay.de for 70% of the purchase price.
We rented mountain bikes from a motorhome rental station. They had a maximum charge of 100 Euro, regardless of the trip duration. This was a no-brainer for us with no shopping, delivery/collection logistics, assembly, and a reasonable price.

Conclusion

Over the years, the maximum we spent for one bike was 109, so the daily cost for one trip, in our case, is 21 days, which means a price of 5 per day! Even double the cost would be a bargain considering the many advantages.

It might seem like purchasing bikes overseas from a foreign language country is a bridge too far for you. Be assured that it is a simple and safe process if you work through established online shops that screen sellers and provide guarantees on your purchases. This adds to the scope of the adventure and is a fun part of the process.

Bike Accessories

When doing the bike thing some essentials should be part of every trip. We have experienced different challenges that all would have been solved by our essential list. A minor failure on a bike can save a ton of time if you can do some quick repairs yourself.

Essential Accessories

Bike rack

The motorhomes that we have hired come standard with a 2-bike or 4-bike rack usually at no extra cost. This needs to be confirmed beforehand.

Bike locks

We use multiple heavy-duty combination locks to lock the bicycles to the bike rack and wherever we leave them to sightsee.

Bike lights front and rear

All our bikes, including the rentals, did not come with lights. They are a legal requirement at night but are vital if you do night riding, which tends to happen often. Get lights that are removable so that you attach them only when needed to prevent theft.

Reflectors front and rear

Most of our bikes came with them, but we purchased them just in case and have used them. They are a 24/7 legal requirement and are fixed.

Batteries

Take a supply of batteries for your bike lights.

Phone holder

This is important for navigation and is best if attached to the handlebars. Preferable if your device can be removed easily. We only take one for the designated navigator.

Puncture kit and pump

This is obvious but often overlooked. Get a decent pump with a reversible adaptor to accommodate Schrader and Presta valves so you can use it on either system. Test it before departure. We have always had this equipment with us but have only had one puncture to date.

Tools and spanners

It is always best to be prepared with a small screwdriver and spanner set. Include a pair of pliers, a knife and a medium-sized shifting spanner, particularly if you purchase a new bike that needs to be assembled. A medium-sized multi-tool is a good option. These tools can be a general lifesaver. When flying, remember to always put these items in booked luggage.

MacGyver stuff

The stuff that will help when improvisation is needed. Such as a few long, thin cable ties, some duct tape, a tube of super glue, and contact adhesive. Only take a small amount that will not add too much weight but will give a lot to your options. You can always purchase more during your trip.

Waterproof Raincoat

There is a good chance of encountering rain on any trip to Europe, which is one thing when walking but a whole different thing when riding a bike. We recommend something light that rolls up small and will not interfere with your cycling.

Comfortable day-pack

One that is decently padded on the shoulders and back. Your repair stuff, including snacks, packed lunches, and liquid refreshments, should be taken with you when sightseeing. We generally take two packs to spread the load with four of us.

Optional Accessories

These are some extra things that have helped us.

Pants strap

For those with long baggy pants, so they don’t get caught in the chain which can damage your clothing and cause an accident. You can also use a clothing peg or elastic band.

Padded saddle cover

For those not bike-hardened in the rear end and have to endure an unpadded sitting mechanism, particularly when cycling daily, this can be worth its weight in gold. We have the universal silicon variety.

Bike umbrella

An umbrella that attaches to your handlebars can be a lifesaver in those typical drizzle-filled hours that European areas love to serve you. These umbrellas do make a big difference.

Talk to us

Have any questions?

We are always open to talk about your planning, trip or challenges and how we can help you!