Living Car Free - Vacationing carfree

Going on a carfree vacation would you take a folded or ship your bike ahead of you ?
Anyone every take their folded on a plane and use it to leave the airport ?

Going on a carfree vacation would you take a folded or ship your bike ahead of you ?
Anyone every take their folded on a plane and use it to leave the airport ?

Many would just ride their bike to the destination. ;)

I don't have a folder, so I've always taken the option of popping the bike into the luggage compartment of the plane after carefully packing it. Make sure you take enough tools along to reassemble it and don't forget any parts.

I've also taken it on trains which required no preparation. Never had a problem in the US, but once, the SNCF delivered it to a small station 30 miles off the main line to Calais where I arrived and I never did get the bike back.

And I have flown to my destination and rented a bike for the week, taking public bus to reach the bike rental place from the airport when I arrived and from the bike rental place to the airport at the end of my stay.

Once I even bought a cheap bike at the Salvation Army, rode it while I was there and then dropped it off at the bike coop when I left.

I've got a cf vacation in the works now. I'll be going back to Eugene OR and renting a bike. A bunch of places rent them for the day or hour. But I'm bringing my own saddle and post. Should be fun.

I have done a couple of rounds on Amtrak between Fayetteville, NC and Charleston, SC with a bike in tow. Had to box the bike for the ride on the train (full sized bike). I have a trip planned in the spring between Fayetteville and Boston via Amtrak. I will most likely take my Twenty (boxed or bagged) and another bike that will be going to my son in Boston.

Aaron:)

I'm visiting my son in Toronto area and my mother in Newfoundland soon. I have my-size bikes available in both spots. Although in both cases they are mountain bikes.

I'm visiting my son in Toronto area and my mother in Newfoundland soon. I have my-size bikes available in both spots. Although in both cases they are mountain bikes.


Just had to say have fun in Newfoundland:) we lived there for almost two years and my hubby is from the West Coast of The Rock:)

I've flown, bringing my bicycle with me on the plane, numerous times.

Sometimes, when I arrive at my destination, I have been picked up, or take a train to where I will be staying the first night ... and I've rebuilt my bicycle there. Other times, I've rebuilt it in the airport and have cycled out.

A folder would probably make life easier (lower luggage fees).

My car free vacation in two weeks: train to Toronto, flight (this part's no so eco) to Vancouver, train or bus to Whistler, rent a bike in Whistler and do some hiking too. I'll save some bucks there by staying in the Youth Hostel or camping.

http://www.whistler.com/resources/pdf/maps/Hiking_Biking_Map_Web.pdf

Just had to say have fun in Newfoundland:) we lived there for almost two years and my hubby is from the West Coast of The Rock:)

Actually, I am too.

Actually, I am too.


He's from Corner Brook:) you?

He's from Corner Brook:) you?
Stephenville Crossing, Bay St George. I often dream of its lovely beaches. This kind of thing:

http://newfoundlandtravels.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/beach-newfoundland2.jpg

http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/landscapes/photos/atlantic/newf/st_georg/marine.jpg

Stephenville Crossing, Bay St George. I often dream of its lovely beaches. This kind of thing:

http://newfoundlandtravels.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/beach-newfoundland2.jpg

http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/landscapes/photos/atlantic/newf/st_georg/marine.jpg

Beautiful!! We didn't get that way when we moved to NL from Ontario. We stayed one night in CB and then headed out to St. John's. I wish I could've seen more of the Province though

I did go with son and two bikes by plane, reasembeled the bikes and rode from the airport. Strange feeling but fun. Big flat area of course.

I am into folders now. No doubt would I take the folder. It is not just about transporting the bike to your destination, it is also about being able to keep it safe where you go. Innside the youth hostel, cafè or similar. I can not imagine being car free without at least one folder.

Also being able to lock several folders innside a car came in handy for us this summer when we had to escape from a camping plot to a hotelroom in the middle of the night and leave the car in the street in town.

It is hard to do a car free vacation in many parts of the US. But I can make them car light:thumb: Spent the weekend at the ABCE (http://www.abcetour.com/) in New Brighton, MN. Drove my truck up, parked it at the hotel on Friday night and it did not move again until time to go on Sunday.

Aaron:)

Never done a bike+plane vacation.

Did a bike+public-transit vacation in Haiti which was mostly car free, although I got a ride to and from the Philadelphia airport by car.

I've done a couple trips to New York City by folding bike + chinatown bus.

I like folding bikes.

I've done car-free vacations via Amtrak.

Rode the the station, and put my bike in their special Amtrak bike box. ($15 for the box, $5 baggage fee, requires no disassembly other than turning the bars sideways and removing the pedals.)

Two time zones and 1,500 miles later, I unpacked my bike, put the pedals back on, straightened the bars, had the station save my box the the return trip, and rode off.

Coming home was just as easy.

The whole thing was much more civilized than flying. No strip search, no TSA hassles with the bike, no special bike box. Then there's actual room in the seats on the train, you can walk around freely, there are at least four bathrooms in every car, and the dining car served me the best steak dinner I've had in years, including fresh-from-the-oven, baked-right-on-the-train dinner rolls. Haagen-Daz for dessert.

Try that on a plane.

I wanted to go down to Brownsville, TX and rent a bike to ride into Mexico. Bagdad beach in Matamoros is really nice during the festival. This was before the recent drug wars, I don't know if I'd want to go there any time soon, though.

I just finished a bike tour from Paris to Amsterdam and back. I borrowed a box from a local shop and took the bike with me on the plane as checked luggage. Air Canada charges $50 per flight leg for the bike in place of one piece of luggage.

I did take a taxi from the airport to central Paris. I could have taken the train, but I would have had to lug the bike box about 15 blocks from the station to my hotel.

I rode to Amsterdam and back to Roosendaal, and then took the train back to Paris, with stops in Antwerp and Lille. I didn't box the bike for the train because they have special compartments for it.

Overall, it was an excellent trip that I wouldn't hesitate to do something like that again if time and funds permit it.

You all know we've got a Touring Forum here, full of people taking car-free, or car-light, vacations ... right?

http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=47


If you're entertaining the idea of heading out your door and cycling somewhere for a week or two for vacation, go check that forum out. You can get tips on what to bring, how to prepare, and chances are, someone there has done a tour in your area.

I've got a cf vacation in the works now. I'll be going back to Eugene OR and renting a bike. A bunch of places rent them for the day or hour. But I'm bringing my own saddle and post. Should be fun.

Bring your light and blinkey as well, if you are planning on doing any night time riding. :thumb:

You know carfree vacationing is going mainstream when the Frugal Traveller takes a day off.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/going-with-the-glow-a-fall-foliage-bike-ride/?hpw



...
Whatever you call it, we were doing it cheaply and efficiently. We had conceived this as a single-day call-in-sick journey into as rural an area as we could reach by Metro-North, the train lines that extend from New York City north into the Hudson River and Harlem River Valleys, and east into Connecticut. Pawling, we saw, was near the end of the Harlem line (about an hour and 50 minutes from New York), close to the border with Connecticut and in a zone that YankeeFoliage.com, which maintains an excellent leaf-peeping map, had shaded yellow for “turning” colors. Round-trip tickets cost $26 each, and would have been slightly less if we’d ordered online early enough to receive them by snail mail.

More important, Pawling had Pawling Cycle & Sport (12 West Main Street; 845-855-9866; www.pawlingcycle.com). The shop, right in the center of the picture-perfect small town, was where we rented our bikes and planned our route, advised all the while by the owner, Rob Kelley, who was helpful, knowledgeable — and jealous of our plans.

“I’d kill for a day off just to go off in whatever direction,” he said.

One unemployed friend, Tater Read, had brought his own fixed-gear bike (which necessitated a $5 pass for Metro-North), and the others, a former New York Times Web producer named Matt Klein and a guy who didn’t want to be named because he’d called in sick at work, rented mountain bikes — not necessarily ideal for road riding, but only $20 a day and great for the numerous trails in the region. Meanwhile, remembering the difficulty of my cycling trip last spring in Oregon and Washington [link], I sprang for the shop’s only road bike, a lightweight Raleigh that rented for $30.