Self Guided Bicycle Tours Through Europe

A unique experience, is seeing Europe through a self guided bicycle tour. It is guaranteed to be one of the best vacations in your lifetime. It’s easy to view the world from the seat of a bicycle. You see so much more from a bike than you do through from the window of a car. Taking a bicycle tour through Europe is as easy as deciding which country you want to start from.

A variety of bicycle tours through Europe start in Germany. The Lake Constance self guided tour through Bavaria starts in the town of Lindau, which calls itself “the happy end of Germany.” This ride is not recommended for beginners, as the elevation through the Allgaeu Mountains of Bavaria and the highlands of the Allgaeu call for strong climbing legs. The scenery is well worth the effort, with views of the spectacular alps, alpine lakes and forests. This is a self guided, seven-night tour.

A much better option for beginner cyclists, is the bicycle path that goes round Lake Constance. This path is the most popular bicycle riding route in all of Europe. Travel through the medieval villages of Meersburg, Lindau, Stain, and Konstanz. This is a self guided, seven-night tour.

The Innsbruck to Munich bicycle tour through Europe is another challenging bit of roadway, with high mountains and deep canyons providing challenges and thrills. You’ll be amazed by the beauty of the Ziller Valley, with its rustic guest houses and turquoise blue water. This is a self guided, six-night tour.

The Four Countries, Three Lakes tour takes cyclists through Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany, along three picturesque lakes. This seven night tour is also self guided.

The Berlin to Copenhagen tour provides 400 miles of scenic cycling on some of the best maintained bike paths in Europe. You’ll see rustic fishing villages and royal palaces as you travel quiet country roads.

It’s been said that Holland is such a low country; one can see the horizon from under the belly of a cow. You can try this for yourself when you take the Dutch Lowlands bicycle tour through Europe. Ride your bike along the sluices, bridges and other waterworks that keep the Netherlands above water, if not above sea level.

For families with children aged between 7 and 11, the cycle and sail holiday takes you on a guided tour for seven nights. Activities of interest for children are included in this tour. Sail across Ijssel Lake to the port town of Hoorn, then cycle to an open air museum and other sight seeing destinations.

Even if you’ve been to Europe before, you haven’t seen it all unless you have taken a bicycle tour through Europe.

Guided and Self Guided Cycling Tours

Cycling tours are made for fun vacation holidays. They are perfect for friends, families, and lovers. Your sense of time slows down and you relax when you take a cycling tour.

Even if the countryside scenery is already familiar to you from auto trips, you’ll see an entirely different view from the seat of a bicycle.

On a cycling tour, you meet your need for daily exercise as you get from one place to another. There’s no need to find a gym, schedule a workout, and take time away from your vacation. Daily cycling burns lots of calories, so you can eat and drink just about anything without guilt or weight gain.

Once you decide where to go, the biggest decision you need to make about your cycling tour is whether you will take a self guided or guided tour.

Self Guided Tours

One of the best ways to take a cycling tour is to take a self guided tour. On a self guided tour, you cycle with your own group of friends or family at your own pace. The self guided tour operator provides you with bicycles, a cycling route and schedule and makes all the necessary provisions for your hotel, luggage transportation, and breakfast buffet.

The bicycle provided will be comfortable and safe, and some tour operators now offer GPS systems on the handlebars. Often helmets are not provided, so be sure to bring your own helmet with you.

The tour operator will also provide maps and written descriptions of points of interest along your route. The tour operator also provides a service hotline you can call if you have an emergency on the road, but in general you are responsible for getting yourself to the next hotel by nightfall.

Cyclists are expected to fix their own flats and do their own repairs on self guided tours, but the tour operator will step in with a replacement bike in the event of a complete breakdown.

Guided Tours

On a guided tour, you will be grouped with other tourists and a guide will ride along with you. A second guide drives a support van. Every event is planned and taken care of, including hotels, routes, meals, luggage transportation, and sightseeing excursions. You may bring your own snacks to eat along the route. On some tours, the group pools funds to purchase a picnic lunch, which the guide prepares. Tours usually begin the day after you arrive at the start city and end the day after your last leg of your route. Thus a seven-day event includes just five days of a cycling tour.

Cycling tours are a great way to have fun and spend your holiday. You also get to stay fit and healthy on your holiday, plus you see the scenery from a bicycle seat and get to enjoy the views at a slower pace.