Touring - Best European touring books

I'm planning an extended multi-country cycling tour throughout Western Europe for next Spring and am looking for some good books (guide books or anything else) on cycle touring Europe to assist in my route planning and preparation. Does anyone have recommendations for the best books out there on this topic?

Thanks for the advice!

Cheers,

Dave Daversa
Berkeley, CA

When I've travelled in Europe I've just ... gone.

Most of the books I've read (skimmed) about Europe, have been aimed at those who fly over, stay in hotels, and rent cars. I haven't actually found any books aimed at cycletourists.

However, for some France, England, and Belgium information, you can have a look over my website. I just came back from a month over there at the beginning of September. Along with my story, I've included a few tips for other cycletourists. :)

http://www.machka.net/pbp2007/2007_PBP.htm


You might also check out the Crazy Guy on A Bike site: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/ ... that site has lots of stories, and a resources link.

There are lots of interesting websites about touring in Europe. This one has lots of local information for Western Europe (http://www.biketouringtips.com/showTipComments?tipID=207). Another site you might try is the European Cycling Federation (http://www.biketouringtips.com/showTipComments?tipID=162). There are lots of other links at at www.biketouringtips.com, depending on which countries you are planning on visiting.

If you find some particularly good resource, either let me know or please enter it into the biketouringtips archive directly.

Ray

When I've travelled in Europe I've just ... gone.

Most of the books I've read (skimmed) about Europe, have been aimed at those who fly over, stay in hotels, and rent cars. I haven't actually found any books aimed at cycletourists.

However, for some France, England, and Belgium information, you can have a look over my website. I just came back from a month over there at the beginning of September. Along with my story, I've included a few tips for other cycletourists. :)

http://www.machka.net/pbp2007/2007_PBP.htm


You might also check out the Crazy Guy on A Bike site: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/ ... that site has lots of stories, and a resources link.

Agreed. Most of the tour books cover the large cities. And large European cities and bicycles usually don't mix well. Plus the book isn't going to tell you if the hotel is bike friendly or not.


Lonely Planet has several books aimed at cycling. I bought the one for Italy and was not very impressed. The problem is that it is set up for various rides. If you want to travel to each area and do the recommended ride then it will work just fine. But if you want to really tour through the country all by bike then it is not nearly as valuable. The only time it comes in handy if one of the roads in the book happen to correspond to your tour.

A tip is to get the list of tourist offices for the country you are visiting. They will be able to give you locations of bike friendly hotels, B&B, campsites, hostels etc. Here is one for Italy (http://www.enit.it).

I'm looking for some good books on cycle touring Europe to assist in my route planning and preparation.

Hey Dave,

The Bikeline series of Bike route tours by Esterbauer is awesome. They are simply the best bike route maps in existence and win the awards every year to prove it. Along with great maps, they contain all the info the bike tourist needs, such as campground, hotel, and shopping center locations and phone numbers. The text in the books is German, but I used these guidebooks for years before I could understand any German.

Where in Europe would you like to go? Which countries?

www.bikeline.at is their website.

I've used a couple of Lonely Planet cycling guides to plan tours over the years (France, Italy, UK), the ones I used helped me put together some excellent tours but they seem to be out of print.

On my last trip to Italy I found the various Rough Guide books (Tuscany & Umbria, Florence & Siena) to be excellent although they are not cycling specific. They are very thorough, though, they give a good idea of which regions are worth visiting and where to find low budget accommodation. Local maps in a 1:100,000 or 1:200,000 scale are also a good for finding quiet, scenic roads. Goldeneye maps in the UK are good, as are TCI (Touring Club Italiano) maps for Italy. I used the yellow regional Michelin maps in France, but apparently IGN maps are also very good.

It depends on where you want to go, "Europe" is a big place! However I would second the comments about the bikeline maps

Wow. Great advice. Sharleene and Ray, your websites are great. Ray, you link to Tim Harnes' website on adventure cycling was particularly appreciated. However, I think you may have some type of bug with your query system, as sometimes when I submitted a query it sent me to another query containing only fields with your name in it.

I do not have a route pinned down yet, so any insider advice regarding the countries most conducive to a fruitful tour you have I would love to hear. Is it a mistake to fly to London and start from there (considering the craziness of such a big city)? I'm thinking of maybe doing some type of big loop from Europe through France, into Germany and then head down toward italy, and who knows...maybe try to work my way down through spain and into Morrocco. I'm just not quite sure yet.

Keep the great advice and links coming!

Cheers,

-D

I do not have a route pinned down yet, so any insider advice regarding the countries most conducive to a fruitful tour you have I would love to hear. Is it a mistake to fly to London and start from there (considering the craziness of such a big city)?

You can cycle into and out of both Heathrow and Gatwick airports (I've cycled out of both airports), although finding an enjoyable cycle route might be a challenge, depending on where you want to go. You can also cycle from either airport to a train station and take your bike with you on a train to a more cycle friendly environment.
Sustrans (www.sustrans.org.uk) publishes maps of various long distance cycle routes throughout the UK, including a few that start in or near London. These routes go to great lengths to route cyclists away from auto traffic. Some people think they go too far in avoiding auto traffic, but they're a good way to get through the most crowded parts of the UK (like London) without riding on really unpleasant, busy roads.