Had to think long and hard about this. So thank you, for making me remember the good and bad, but mostly fantastic experiences :-).

My favourite tour used the RomantischStrasse in Germany as a base route - a "manufactured" historical tourist route - from Wurzburg to Bavaria, not because it was particularly spectacular, but because it helped me figure out what I enjoyed about cycle touring.
.
It was my first self-supported tour (the previous year I'd cycled along the Danube from hotel to hotel while my bags were carried in a van . I had spent weeks plotting my route, making my own maps, printing them, laminating them, compiling vast lists of information on accommodation & places to eat, because, you know, a tourist route in Germany is very badly served with food places and places to sleep .

I seriously over-packed - my rear right pannier was full of books! I even packed my precious, hard-backed, non-sanitised Grimm's Fairy Tales!

Anyway, day 2 into a 2 week trip, I'm cycling along through the German countryside on a nice quiet road, singing away to myself in a state of near bliss. I know where I'm going, I know how long it will take to get there, I have a good idea where I'll stay. All is good in the world. Then, over there, I see a big wood, stretching off in the distance, a distance that was stretching off in the wrong direction.

Now, I love forests, especially German ones. There is something almost spiritual about them and they are full of history and mystery. "It's a pity it's in the wrong place", I thought to myself and continued on. But the darn forest was bugging me, calling out to me. "I can't go in there", my conversation with myself continued. It's the wrong way! I spent hours and hours planning this route. Look! I even laminated the maps! They're organised day by day with all kinds of useful info on them!"

I cycled on.

"How can a forest be in the wrong place?"

Then I stopped and turned around.

I rode through that forest. For about 3 hours, just me, the bike and Hobbes, the tiger. When I finally came out of it, I had no idea where I was, or how to get to where I needed to be. But then, where did I need to be? Nowhere!

So I pointed the bike in the general direction I wanted to go and headed off.

(This helped me redefine the concept of being lost - I'm only lost when I need to be somewhere and I have no idea how to get there! As a result, I'm hardly ever lost now on a tour )

And that's when I figured out what I enjoy about bike touring - the freedom and the independence.

So that's my favourite tour because without it, all my other trips would have been very, very different.

Oh! It also taught me to get a kindle - something else I'm very grateful for!

Frank