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Explore beautiful countryside at your own pace, enjoying good food and drink without paying a fortune.
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Self guided bike tours
MyBikeGuide tells you
how to organise your own self guided bike touring holiday in some of the
most delightful parts of Western Europe. They say you never forget how
to ride a bike, and even if you haven't been on one since childhood a
holiday of this type is perfectly feasible. We choose bicycle routes
that anyone can tackle – you decide how much or how little you want to
do each day. This website is not intended for lycra-clad cyclists on
feather-light bikes, nor for mountain bike enthusiasts who love getting
covered in mud, but for the ordinary person (who may not be in the first
flush of youth) who has always fancied the freedom of a touring holiday
on two wheels.
If you are such a person, then read on, or have a look at a typical day in the Mosel Valley, Venice and the Po, a series of articles on the Algarve Ecovia or this series on the Elbe bike path.
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Our tours
Our self guided tours
let you have fun with your friends and family as you ride quiet routes,
taking in the scenery as you go, and at a pace that means you will be a
participant in local events rather than an onlooker.
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You will work up a
good appetite for the regional delicacies and there is no need to feel
guilty if you eat more than you would at home because you will work it
off with a few hours of gentle exercise each day. And there is nothing
better than fresh air to give you a good night's sleep.
By self guiding your
tour you reduce the costs significantly compared with organised cycling
holidays and you get to see and do exactly what you and your companions
want. We reckon that a week's holiday staying in medium to high quality
hotels, drinking and eating well, will cost somewhere around €700 per
person, including bike hire but excluding international travel. You
could do it for quite a lot less if you camp and eat in cheaper places.
We choose areas easily accessible from UK, Ireland and the major
international airports used by North American, Australian and New
Zealand visitors to Europe.
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How we help
In our cycling tips we explain the practicalities such as:
- dealing with luggage
- transport
- what to take
- advice on health and fitness
- choosing accommodation.
In addition, for selected routes (the Mosel Valley, Alsace, Lake Constance, Île de Ré, Verona-Veneto, the Yonne in Burgundy, Bordeaux, the North Sea Route coast of Belgium and Holland, Champagne, Essex reaching into East Anglia, the Algarve and Puglia in the heel of Italy) we cover:
- how to get there
- how to choose and book accommodation
- the recommended route, distances and key sites
- where to find bike hire and bike repair shops
and we give you a menu
translation guide because we think that exploring the local cuisine is
as important a part of the holiday as exploring the area.
So why not organise your own self guided tour?
There is plenty of information in our cycling tips
and elsewhere on this website for you to organise your whole cycling
holiday, but we offer additional advice and information to save you time
and ensure you get the most from your trip in selected areas:
If you want plans and books, look at our pages, we recommend
- The Rough Guides which offer background reading, great sites and restaurants
- The Bikeline Guides which offer detailed maps on the most popular bike routes with lists of B&Bs, bike repair shops etc. We list here those in English and German, for those who cannot read German the maps are still very understandable.
- Map pages for Denmark, France and Germany are in place.
- The Cicerone Guides which offer quirky maps and guides to some lovely long distance and holiday bike routes in Europe.
- Suitable IGN, Michelin, Gault Millau, Lonely Planet, BVA etc are also identified in our various Book pages and in the Bike Path Guides.
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Routes
Information on the Mosel Valley, Alsace, Île de Ré, Lake Constance, Verona-Veneto, Yonne in Burgundy, Bordeaux, the North Sea coast of the Netherlands and Belgium, Champagne-Ardennes, Essex, the Algarve, Puglia, Switzerland and the Midi of France is provided in MyBikeGuide. After these French, German, Benelux, Italian, Portuguese, Swiss and English bike tours other
flat, beginner-friendly, train supporting and knee-friendly routes will follow. If you are keen to see a particular route then
provide your input and we will do our best to get it done.
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