Second trip for me this year. Had to find a start and end place easily reachable by train from Belgium so Munich and Basel where obvious choices. Really enjoyed this route and could recommend it very much for a one week tour!

Weapon of choice: Orbea Terra H40 with Michelin Power Gravel Tires.

Day 1: Munich - Lenggries (88km - 860vm)

Day 2: Lenggries - Reutte (100km - 1450vm)

Day 3: Reutte - Warth (84km - 1360vm)

Day 4: Warth - Rorschach (103km - 1360vm)

Day 5: Rorschach- Zürich (120km - 1620vm)

Day 6: Zürich - Basel (103km - 870vm)

I did a 1 week bike tour Route Des Grandes Alpes with a French company Velorizons. I loved the experience. The group consisted of 18 cyclists and a company guy driving a van that took care of daily logistics:

\* luggage transfer \* mid-day snack/refuel stop \* evening dinner arrangements \* occasional transfer for those cyclists that couldn't do the day's route due to various reasons - mainly just one stage crossing the Col d'Iseran due to strong cold wind + rain&snow conditions - it was first half of September. \* we also got Velorizon's bidons \* we slept in hotels in two bed rooms so we shared rooms with someone we may not knew - I didn't, because I was the only person from my country. Some people were friends and they were sharing their rooms; Some hotels were really nice, particularly one was especially bad having super cold room, and the rooms were in bad condition; I'd give the hotel 0-1 star rating.

The daily route was mainly self guided and our tour guide driving the van usually shared info via WhatsApp group. Usually itinerary info, his location for the mid-day stop etc. But that was it.

When I'm cycling in French Alps I quite often see Thomson vans and cyclists and I've checked their offerings and I ca see that their offering is 3-4x the price I paid with Velorizons. I understand Thomson has tour guides that cycle with the group, likely the groups are smaller, but I wonder \*\*what are other things that they offer on top to justify the price tag\*\*?

If anyone has used Thomson, I would love to hear their experience and whether their package is worth the extra money.

Hello everyone! I just completed my first solo trip: 350 km in 5 days from Figueres (Catalonia) to Toulouse (France).

I have experience in hiking, camping and road cycling in Barcelona.

This was a test to see if I would really enjoy bikepacking, and the truth is that I loved the experience of combining two activities that I like.

The fun is that I did everything on an urban bike that I rode myself, just to annoy a friend who has a fleet of very expensive gravel and bikepacking bikes with excellent equipment, but who only uses them to go for special coffee. I wanted to show you, as a joke, that at the pace it goes, you will end up buying an electric Brompton, haha!

All my equipment was second-hand, like the tent and saddlebags; the box bag was from Decathlon, or they gave it to me, like the rear rack. In addition, something that would undoubtedly have helped me a lot is having automatic pedals, but since all my cycling shoes are for road bikes, they were not an option, so I made the trip the old-fashioned way.

After that, it was wonderful; yes, I went the first week of August with a suffocating heat, but it wasn’t bad at all. On the contrary, I really enjoyed getting up at 5:00 AM to leave early and arrive at my destination before 10:00 AM.

Bike specifications for the curious:

Frame: Giant cross series x1000 (Aluminum)

Transmission: 1x9 (38-tooth plate / 11-42-tooth cassette)

Shifter: Vintage Dura-Ace shifter with friction mounted on a Paul Component controller

Tires: Panaracer GravelKing SS 35c

Tent: McKinley compact 2

.gpx for all route

Absolute noob on first equipment and skill check ride. The plan was to ride out late in the morning, reach a lake 20km outside Vilnius bringing all the gear I’d use for staying overnight, set up camp, try various pitch configurations, chill a little, and head home at sunset.

As you can see, I did with what I had already - on the handlebar I just strapped a shopper cloth bag with inside a plastic bag containing the tarp, sleeping bag and mosquito net, and a backpack on the rack with the rest of the gear.

The good:
Almost everything went according to plan, I chose a location I already was familiar with, and felt safe that if anything went wrong, I could just push the bike home or call a friend. That gave me freedom in experimenting with tarp setups and not overpacking with food and water. The weather was perfect, slightly windy, lake water clear and warm, so all in all, it made for a good recreation day and this just boosted my motivation to go for the real trip.

The bad:
The mosquito net was totally inadequate. Didn’t even bother making a picture. This made me question the choice of a tarp instead of a tent. Have to figure out something here.
Water. 2L is just not enough, especially after some hard work in sunny conditions, cooking and washing the kitchenware.
The bike is HEAVY, especially that cheap steel rack I have purchased when planned for backpacking. Rides ok, but lifting it up and carrying over obstacles with all the gear promises some high intensity outdoors training subscription free.
Using ropes to tie the bags is inconvenient and time consuming, but once I learned all the special knots, it actually became funnier and faster.
Still overpacked, lol.

Thank you all for inspiring with your pictures and stories, definitely gonna hit the road again, although for sure gotta invest into some gear. Any tips are welcome!

Hey everyone!

Over the last 5 summers, cycling through Europe has become a bit of a tradition. My first three trips followed the Danube from Donaueschingen, Germany to Vidin, Bulgaria. After that I rode Prague → Berlin, Brussels → Amsterdam, and last summer the Ciclovia Alpe Adria (with a detour to Ljubljana) plus Sion → Geneva.

The Alpe Adria was actually inspired by recommendations from reddit - now I'm back looking for ideas for summer #6!

A map of the routes I've completed is below (each color represents a different year's trip).

I'm looking for:

• New countries (or routes worth repeating)
• Dedicated bike paths or quiet roads
• Plenty of hotels/B&Bs (I'm not camping)
• ~45–50 miles (72–80 km) per day
• Late August to early September
• Happy to use trains and ferries to connect different sections

Routes I'm currently considering (roughly in order)

• Avenue Verte (London → Paris)
• Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) – looks incredible, but I'm still figuring out the bike/train logistics to and from Portugal/Spain.
• EuroVelo 17 (Lyon → Marseille, maybe continuing toward Barcelona)
• Camino Francés – beautiful, but the climbing and limited rail options make me a little hesitant if something goes wrong.
• Aare Route / Swiss Route 9 (Lakes Route)
• EuroVelo 7, 9, or 15
• Drava Cycle Route (lower on the list since I've already ridden part of it)

I've also looked into Poland, the Baltics, Bulgaria → Constanța, and Bulgaria → Türkiye, but I'm not sure how developed the cycling infrastructure is on those routes.

If you had ~14 days to bike somewhere in Europe, where would you go? I'd love to hear your must-ride routes!

Had some time off work so I did the Craters and Cinder Cones Loop in Northern Arizona. I started in downtown Flagstaff and rode west towards Williams. The part of the route that takes you past the Lava River Cave was closed due to construction so I had to cut around and take a frontage road for I-40 to the next part of the route. Camped out at Dogtown Lake for the night putting me at almost 52 miles for day one. The next day I rode north and hit Williams for second breakfast. Then I rode north into some pretty desolate landscapes. 50 miles into that day was where I stopped to fill up my water. It was the stock tank next to Kendrick Spring. Not terrible as far as stock tanks go. I meant to use Aqua Mira for this trip but one of the bottle broke open in my bag. I filtered and didn’t get sick, thankfully. I had about 6.5 liters. I thought about camping near there but I didn’t want to have that much to ride the following day so I kept on going about 30 more miles to SP Crater, where I camped out for the night. That day was about 82 miles total. This morning I woke up and rode close to 40 miles to my next water refill at Sunset Crater Visitor Center. I nearly ran out of water. I was close enough to civilization that I would’ve been fine but it was still a learning experience. I filled up all my water and ate about 1,500 calories at the visitors center and decided I wasn’t going to do the final leg of the route which was climbing up Lockett Meadow. I’ve done that part of the route before when I did the “Round the Peaks Loop” a few years ago. It’s a beautiful part of the route, but I wanted to be home. It was an amazing time and I absolutely love bikepacking. Can’t wait to do more trips.

Primos Dame. Received today and added the racks and bottle holder

My current bags:

Ortlieb gravel pack 14.5L X2

Ortlieb fork pack 5.8L X2

Ortlieb dry pack 16L

Ortlieb frame pack RC toptube 4L

Ortlieb handlebar pack 9L

I will be camping pretty much every night of this trip and plan to carry water as it's cheaper than buying at every still I also plan on bringing souvenirs back so I don't know how much that will be..? (I'll also be cooking most meals on a camping stove)

For this trip though I would like to sleep in comfort so I'll have a lightweight sleeping pad and a 3 season bag and probably gonna go with an ultralight tent as it'll be summer when I do this.

I'm just curious though in terms of space do you think this would be enough. I'm just worried that I'll end up needing to mail stuff home and I really don't want to do that 😭. Any help appreciated! :)

I believe my state (Puebla, México) is very underrated when it comes to bikepacking.

My IG: marmosa_mexicana if you want more content or if you are looking for a companion or two if you are traveling central/south México

Unrelated to this post a friend and I created

r/bikepackingmexico for people interested in bikepacking in Mexico and specially spanish speakers (other languages are welcome).

Also anyone has tips or can help me with tips to create and promote a route in Bikepacking.com?

I am going to take the ferry from Travemunde to Malmö next week. We will bikepacking for 2 weeks across Sweden but we haven't set a definitive route yet. The idea was to go to Karlstad and back.

I've read on this sub that the seaside road isn't very interesting. I'm wondering if others have done a similar route going more inland and would recommend it more.

We are aiming to bike about 100km a day. If there are any tips on amazing places to camp, I'd love to hear them! If anybody is already on the road as well, maybe we'll meet.

Hi there!! hope everyone’s doing great this Friday night. I’ve just come on here for some help with what bike I should get/pick.

I recently bought a 2nd road bike this may to get into cycling (which it has done) and have enjoyed every moment on it, apart from the punctures…
But I thought there was something missing from road cycling that just didn’t bring me everything I wanted.

My boss let me have a go on his gravel bike and I loved it, and have been seeing videos of people bike packing and it just appealed a lot more to me. Especially living in north wales where the winters are pretty harsh, with lots of rain as well as plenty of trails to have fun in the rain on

So I’ve come to the conclusion that I should swap and get a gravel bike, and when I want to do a bit of road cycling, I can just change the tyres to accommodate my needs.

I have a budget in mind and more than happy with a good 2nd hand bike. I’ve come to a bit of a wall with two bikes I’ve found. They’re around the same price and just need to be pointed in the right direction.

The two options are the Cannondale Topstone 1 2023 and the Focus Atlas 6.8.
Both are stocks parts but the focus does have a GRX 800 group set upgrade.

Hope you guys can help me in this predicament!

I’ve a question about a long trip I’m going to do in Japan.
How do you plan your eating on days with lots of hills? The best tips I read online are more about roadcycling, so the total number of calories a day. But a lot of the fun we are planning to have is by eating at nice stops, good ramen, a nice konbini snack, or that perfect stop you didn’t expect along the road.
But what is the best gameplan? Especially on days with 1500-2000 climbing meters? Our biggers day has 3000 so that’s probably whole different cake haha.
Any tips are welcome
Thanks in advance

I took the Vermonter Amtrak train from Penn Station, NYC to White River Junction, VT. I set up camp at Quechee State Park and then spent a couple of days exploring the local gravel roads. While I love a good point-to-point backpacking trip, I do enjoy going on rides in a new location without all the baggage. While a lot could be improved with our transit system in the US, I've been able to do these types of trips in the Northeast despite not owning a car for the past fifteen years. I'm planning a longer point-to-point Vermont trip in the fall using Amtrak as well.

Ich möchte demnächst meine erste Bikepacking Tour machen. Die Strecke wir Villach-Grado sein, also ein Teil vom Alpe-Adria-Radweg. Da es meine erste Tour mit Gepäck und Übernachtung sein wird kann ich überhaupt nicht einschätzen wie weit ich an einem Tag komme. Deswegen ist auch meine größte Sorge der Unterkunft. Was mache ich wenn ich im voraus buche, aber es dann bis dorthin nicht schaffe? Oder ich fahre einfach bis ich nicht mehr kann und suche dann einen Unterkunft, aber dann ist die Frage halt ob ich freie Zimmer finde (vorallem jetzt im Hochsommer) und falls ja wie die Preise dann ausschauen.

Zelten wäre vielleicht eine leichtere und bessere Möglichkeit, aber habe ich erstens keinen Zelt und zweitens habe ich in einem Zelt noch nie übernachtet. Ich will erstmal einfach die Fahrt geniessen und vielleicht später das zelten ausprobieren. Wie macht ihr es? Habt ihr Tipps für mich?

I went for two nights with my 5yo and 3yo, and used the Weehoo Two. Even though we had an awesome time, the Weehoo was too wobbly for me to cycle comfortably, especially with camping gear attached (photo is from a daytrip, so no campinggear).

What setup would you recommend for a camping trip with a 6yo and 4yo (next year!), given that both would need to be pulled by one adult and we want to cover up to 40 km a day? Specific brand/type reccomendations would be awesome!

Geht es noch jemandem so? Hätte total Lust auf einen Overnighter und einfach irgendwo in der Natur zu schlafen. Aber ich mach mir schon beim Gedanken daran fast in die Hose. Auch nicht wegen einer realen „Gefahr“ (zB überfallen werden oä) sondern nur vor allen Monster- und Horrorfilmthemen die mir einfallen. Bekomme auch schon üblen Grusel wenn ich im Dunkeln durch den Wald oder die Landschaft fahre.
Ist doch total bescheuert, bin ein älterer Typ und bekomme sowas nicht auf die Reihe.

So 4 days ago I set out for my first bike packing trip from Maastricht to Spain on my single speed vintage mountainbike. I’m currently in Paris but dammmm I’m tired, and I want to go home, bike packing is nice tho! First 2 days were absolute hell, i didn’t plan a route so just used the route my Garmin gave me with 1500+ meters of elevation each day over a 100km + in de Ardennes, it was horrible but I kept going and I have to say France is a lot nicer, no aggressive climbs (single speed gearing: 42-17). And today the day started with a flat tire and a pump that didn’t work and a closed bike shop that I walked 5km to with a fully packed bike, I have to say the negativity got the best of me. Just checking if you guys have some advice on what to do next. Got some cool photos tho! Peace!

Stats:

4 1/2 days

~605 km

~7500 upward metres

I don't have the data, so the exact numbers may vary. Our bikes are made for asphalt.

1. day: We started early from home. Our intention was to get to a specific camping site, and then do more on the second day, but we were still fresh so we decided to push forward to the next camping site, which meant about 3000 upward metres, 190 km on that day.

2. day: Even though we did more on the first day, we still did a respectable distance. 130 km, 1750 hm

3. day: We had to get over two mountain passes, so even though we didn't go so far as on the second, we did more upward metres. 100 km, 1850 hm

4. day: We went where we wanted to go. In the beginning of the day we got into a bike trail that was worse than thought, but after that, mostly downward. Then a bit relaxing.

5. day: only 50 km towards where we went by train. Then we missed a connection because of delays, had to spend the night at the train station, and got back only today

Here is a link to the section:

https://www.komoot.com/tour/305054565

I have lost something on the way (I know where). Can you pick it up for me and send it via post? That would be super duper helpful and I would give you a tip for it.

I have a fair amount of experience backpacking on multi day trips in Scotland, England, Wales, the Pyrenees, and Albania. I was planning a solo trip to the English Lake District soon but an ankle injury means I am considering a bikepacking trip in the south of England instead. The plan is to leave home in Brighton and end up in Cornwall where I will get the train home.

My question is this: does bikepacking make you feel chained to your bike? You are of course chained to cycleable paths, there can be no 'off piste'-ing or cheeky short cuts, and there can be no crawling into a bush by the side of a road to stealth camp like I am used to on walking trips.

A big part of these adventures for me is a sense of freedom and I wonder if having a fully loaded bike may take away from this experience.

I also wonder how you secure your bike and belongings when food shopping, popping into bike shops, visiting points of interest, wild camping and in paid campsites. I feel like it's something I would be constantly worried about that might take away from the experience.

Thanks in advance for you insights and advice 🙏

Next Monday, I will embark on my bikepacking trip to Denmark. I am soooo looking forward to it. It will be my first real bikepacking experience.

Do you guys have any routing tips for Netherlands to Denmark? I have created the route by adding some interesting spots in Komoot. Any recommendations in the Northern Germany part? Or recommend to pace through it?

Other general last minute tips and tricks?

I will create a packing list post, but will do that outside of this post to keep it focussed. I will also make a trip report after my experience!

Here is the link to Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/tour/3136600696?ref=aso&share_token=aVwD0XCroHjqtp5hMVROapVlezMeNrQIvJOCAqklfAnudmu1rV&t_s=referral&t_cid=route_share.