Europe - How to find good cycle routes in Europe

I looking for a bike friendly routes in germany, nederl, belgium, aus, tsjekkia, ungarn, slovenia, Croatia.
Anybody have some very good links?

I was also wondering how it is to follow Rhine all the way from the beginning in Nederland out in germany and then jump over and follow Donau down to Ungarn?

I dont like camping sites, because they cost money and are in bad condition. I Norway we for the most have the right to camp where we want on ground that belongs to the state of Norway. We can also camp on private ground if we follow some rules. I know that is very special for Norway..
Is there countries in europe that are directly unfriendly for free camping?, any countries that show them self very friendly?

Just want some tips if you know one of the questions.

Check out www.ecf.com and www.eurovelo.com (the EuroVelo Cycling network across Europe) for a start.
Within Germany, a good place to start is the interactive cycle map at:

http://www.germany-tourism.de/cycling/cycling.htm

I don't have a web site URL, but I remember reading years ago about a list of farms throughout Europe that allowed inexpensive camping, or even sleeping in barns and such. Maybe another reader can provide more info.

Routes are friendly, people are but camping is not friendly, i.e. free in most countries.
Youth hostels an idea? Hardly more expensive than the camping-sites.
The Rhine-Danube itinerary is pretty ok. But be aware of thepretty bad part in the German Ruhrgebiet. From Bonn southward it's marvellous. I can't comment the Ludwigshafen area.

A girlfriend and I cycled in Croatia a few years ago. (Dubrovnik - Montenegro - Albania and back and then the Dalmatian coast.) I would highly recommend Croatia and Montenegro, but don't go to Albania unless you are prepared for a third-world experience. We were prepared to crash-camp, but we never did. We were always able to find accommodations in private homes for 10 euros or less. (It was April -- early season.) I am familiar with your allemansrätten, but the main part of Europe seems much more developed than the Scandinavian countries. In Croatia for example, we would have had a difficult time finding an appropriate place to camp in the areas where we were traveling -- very developed along the coast. But very beautiful and not too much traffic. The situation there may have changed now, but ít is one of the places I would definitely go back to. I am also planning a tour for eastern Europe this May, and I have heard that Rt 11 in Hungary is a good road to ride. I agree that many camping facilities are unpleasant and overpriced (especially in Germany). When are you planning your trip for?

32 great bicycle routes in Belgium (sometimes crossing the borders of France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), all of them using only towpaths along rivers and canals and abandoned railway tracks. Distances between 10 and 275 km.

http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/by/fietslogies

You can combine them the way you want. As an extra, I'm giving information about accomodation and local things to see and to do.

Have fun,
Fietslogies
Belgium

http://www.routeyou.com/home.en

Get a map from Esterbauer at www.bikeline.at They are great maps and take all the work out of planning a route. Go to Radtourenbücher, pick a country, and check out the map. I only use their maps, they are perfect.

Some of them are in English, but the fact that most are in German should deter no one. The maps are self-explanatory, and the text is just "tourism" info. The book includes everything you need, including info on shops, camp grounds and other accommodation, and the main sights.

This is a map of some good routes in Germany:
http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l249/becnal/?action=view&current=deutschlandradwege.gif

I bought a couple of books from Cartovelo.com. The ones I got (France) are good resources.

http://ns31060.ovh.net/~cartovel/index.php?cPath=34&osCsid=d55ee4bcc1faed397e507dc703b65c50

I'm new to the Bike Forums and while looking around I found this thread. This web site, http://www.fietsnet.be/routeplanner/default.aspx , shows major bike paths in Belgium and allows you to plot a route on different paths. Like I said, this site only shows major bike paths in Belgium, there are many, many more paths. Belgium is VERY bike friendly. I love being here.

Ulysses Books have a whole series of editions of cycing about various EU countries.. The French Cycling book has tours in virtually every major region of France..

I'm new to the Bike Forums and while looking around I found this thread. This web site, http://www.fietsnet.be/routeplanner/default.aspx , shows major bike paths in Belgium and allows you to plot a route on different paths. Like I said, this site only shows major bike paths in Belgium, there are many, many more paths. Belgium is VERY bike friendly. I love being here.

Excellent link! The Dutch also have a network, called Knooppunt network, which allows you to plot a course between numbered intersections. The routes, although scenic, creative, and smartly designed, are rarely the most direct way to get from A to B. You might travel 25km to reach a town 10km away.
The network is incomplete in Holland. The area from Den Haag a little ways north along the coast has not yet been done.
In the areas where it does exist, one can ride sans-map, as most intersections have a map that shows the region. I made the mistake of assuming this to be also be true in Belgium, as I tried to ride from Holland to Brussels one afternoon. Ended up riding half the journey on a shoulder lane of a busy highway.
Now that I've got SSSTANG's link, I can write down the numbers for the intersections on my route before I next stray across the border. I'm such a cheap *******!

Oh, I almost forgot.
http://www.fietsen123.eu/content/view/30/86/
Lots of links here.

In most of the countries you wrote there are very good long distance cycle paths (for example, we haven't them in Italy, except for Trentino Alto Adige :( ), so I'd suggest to follow them.

For my tour across Europe I found the cycle paths using two of the links which has been told in previous posts: Germany Tourism, and Esterbauer. Both are great resources. Esterbauer guides are wonderful!!

---

About free camping I know nothing actually, but the campings we found in the last summer tour were not so bad.

We can also camp on private ground if we follow some rules. I know that is very special for Norway..
Is there countries in europe that are directly unfriendly for free camping?, any countries that show them self very friendly?
About free camping I know nothing actually, but the campings we found in the last summer tour were not so bad.Free camping, or "everyman's rights" is not a purely Norwegian treat. Sweden and Finland have the same legal concept, where you're allowed to basically camp everywhere, provided it's not someone's front yard, and provided you leave no trace. There's a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_public_access_to_the_wilderness) on the subject and it seems accurate as far as Finnish practice is concerned.

I remember seeing Forum members advocate stealth camping elsewhere in Europe as well. Including Netherlands, where one might think it's difficult to find suitable spots. But it can be done.

--J

Free camping, or "everyman's rights" is not a purely Norwegian treat. Sweden and Finland have the same legal concept, where you're allowed to basically camp everywhere, provided it's not someone's front yard, and provided you leave no trace. There's a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_public_access_to_the_wilderness) on the subject and it seems accurate as far as Finnish practice is concerned.


This is very interesting, thank you. Our country should learn many things from Northern Europe.

About Italian rules, I read something and think (but am not sure at 100%) that each region has its own rules about free camping. Anyway it seems it's always permitted if you are far from "civilization", as for example in mountains, forests, etc.; in those situations, free camping is called by the rules "bivacco".
And as often around here, it's tolerated in several other situations even if written rules say other things; so if you see a place with some free tents, that is a probably a good place to stay :)

Unfortunately I have to add that we had one aggression against two free campers near Rome in one of the last years; metropolis is probably a wrong place for free camping. But it's the only case I heard.

Yes, the word "countryside" is mentioned often in the Finnish code for free camping too. I guess free camping in city park for example would be considered being in someone's front yard. Our cities are obviously far less densely populated than places like Rome, but still.

--J

OSM has some pretty good info, and is certainly the best one-stop site for routes all around the world.

http://www.opencyclemap.org/

However, it's only as complete as we cyclists choose to make it. So if you know of a cycle routes that aren't yet here, feel free to add them! (Note, these are official cycle routes, not just nice places to bike where you're not too harassed by cars, etc...)

For the find routes of europe with sports bikes..

You can find using through sports bike company, racing club and maps of cities and google earth internet..

:thumb:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=ljubljana&daddr=Route+8%2FE65+to:Route+8%2FE65+to:44.439663,15.221558+to:Route+8%2FE65+to:dubrovnik&geocode=FWKwvgId7VfdACnRhpiW9TFlRzEg7D-CHPgABA%3BFTbFsQIdMrHfAA%3BFchRrAIdcH7jAA%3B%3BFeJbkgIdxHQHAQ%3BFampigIdU0gUASl96DUIootLEzEA1SuGUK0A BA&hl=en&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=3&sz=10&via=1,2,3,4&sll=44.548399,15.559387&sspn=0.548065,1.448822&ie=UTF8&ll=44.566991,14.534912&spn=4.383084,11.590576&t=h&z=7

I am planning a solo cycle tour over 6 days in May 2010 and have devised a provisional route (above).
I will be staying with new friends along the route, through www.couchsurfing.org and therefore will carry very little other than a spare pair of shorts and cash.
I would be very grateful for any advice at all, especially on the following:
1. Which parts of this route would NOT be good by bicycle?
2. Can I avoid the ferry trip between Trpanj and Ploce and instead just keep going along the Bosnian coast?

where did you go in Croatia?