Hello fellow tourers. I’m kind of indecisive to which route to take.
I preselected a route for myself for now, which is Eurovelo 15 from Rotterdam-Strasbourg and then a detour on EuroVelo 5 to Andermatt / Chur in Switzerland. I now also consider starting from Brussels (or somewhere in Belgium) and just doing Eurovelo 5 – this is added bonus of visiting Belgium and Luxembourg that I have never been to (avoiding Germany a little bit for the sake of “ticking off” the countries).
Nevertheless, I know the routes may be considered boring, and I don’t mind, as I travel just for the sake of doing so. But I do see more value in nicer nature and beautiful sights. Cities are cool but I think there isn’t much time to sightsee on a bike tour anyway and I don’t care about wine / beer tourism (probably big in this region).
What are your opinions on both routes? Maybe you have other nice suggestions? I wrote my main preferences below:
– Route starting and ending ~1000km from Wroclaw, Poland, best if accessible by FlixBus (probably a simplest way to get to the start / finish with a bike). I’m happy to sacrifice a part of the route to get to some starting point easily.
– Perhaps nature focused but still with nice bike infrastructure – I will do Balkans and similar stuff some other time 😉
– Preferably northern Europe as I will be travelling late August / early September and I don’t want to deal with the heat that much.
– ~1300-1400km route – I have 15 days and will probably travel 100-120kms a day, so that gives me a nice margin.
– Travelling alone (30yo male, not much to worry about), aiming to camp on “normal” campings.
– I already did Polish coast (Eurovelo 10) and Wroclaw – Vienna (Eurovelo 9).
ushham on
I would recommend doing the stretch of river from Luxembourg City to Koblenz. The Moselle area is beautiful, and then the stretch of the Rhine for about 100km south of Koblenz is also worth doing, so a mix of the two routes you have above. Then head south along the Rhine and then to the east a little into the Black Forest. Much more beautiful than the eurovelo route along the southern section of the Rhine IMO.
I think the stretch to the north of Cologne will be boring so I suggest starting in Belgium. The south of Belgium, in the Ardennes is very pretty, but the hills can be tough. You could hit up Dinant, follow the Meuse south into France and the national park just across the boarder, and then head east to Luxembourg. Another way through Belgium would be to go via Liege and do the section along the Ourthe. The eurovelo routes can bit a bit dull in places so maybe check out these cycling routes for the south of Belgium: [https://ravel.wallonie.be/en/home.html](https://ravel.wallonie.be/en/home.html)
LeBr0wn on
Skip all the cities ok the yellow line. Big cities like that are no fun when bikepacking.
boformer on
Eurovelo 5 in Belgium through the Ardennes is beautiful.
I would say the only beautiful stretch of the Rhine is between Koblenz and Bingen, or maybe from Bonn to Mainz.
South from there it’s very industrial, and the river is very unnatural.
From Strasbourg, follow Eurovelo 5 through Alsace. It’s much more beautiful than the Rhine. Vineyards, small villages..
Constant-Wonder-438 on
Thanks for all the tips! I think I’ve decided to take EV5 from Brussels to go through the Ardennes. I will go along the Mosel river to Koblenz if I have enough time and then EV15 to Strasbourg. Otherwise I will go directly to Strasbourg. I will go through the Alsace after Strasbourg (EV5). From Basel I will climb to Andermatt and finish in Chur.
5 Comments
Hello fellow tourers. I’m kind of indecisive to which route to take.
I preselected a route for myself for now, which is Eurovelo 15 from Rotterdam-Strasbourg and then a detour on EuroVelo 5 to Andermatt / Chur in Switzerland. I now also consider starting from Brussels (or somewhere in Belgium) and just doing Eurovelo 5 – this is added bonus of visiting Belgium and Luxembourg that I have never been to (avoiding Germany a little bit for the sake of “ticking off” the countries).
Nevertheless, I know the routes may be considered boring, and I don’t mind, as I travel just for the sake of doing so. But I do see more value in nicer nature and beautiful sights. Cities are cool but I think there isn’t much time to sightsee on a bike tour anyway and I don’t care about wine / beer tourism (probably big in this region).
What are your opinions on both routes? Maybe you have other nice suggestions? I wrote my main preferences below:
– Route starting and ending ~1000km from Wroclaw, Poland, best if accessible by FlixBus (probably a simplest way to get to the start / finish with a bike). I’m happy to sacrifice a part of the route to get to some starting point easily.
– Perhaps nature focused but still with nice bike infrastructure – I will do Balkans and similar stuff some other time 😉
– Preferably northern Europe as I will be travelling late August / early September and I don’t want to deal with the heat that much.
– ~1300-1400km route – I have 15 days and will probably travel 100-120kms a day, so that gives me a nice margin.
– Travelling alone (30yo male, not much to worry about), aiming to camp on “normal” campings.
– I already did Polish coast (Eurovelo 10) and Wroclaw – Vienna (Eurovelo 9).
I would recommend doing the stretch of river from Luxembourg City to Koblenz. The Moselle area is beautiful, and then the stretch of the Rhine for about 100km south of Koblenz is also worth doing, so a mix of the two routes you have above. Then head south along the Rhine and then to the east a little into the Black Forest. Much more beautiful than the eurovelo route along the southern section of the Rhine IMO.
I think the stretch to the north of Cologne will be boring so I suggest starting in Belgium. The south of Belgium, in the Ardennes is very pretty, but the hills can be tough. You could hit up Dinant, follow the Meuse south into France and the national park just across the boarder, and then head east to Luxembourg. Another way through Belgium would be to go via Liege and do the section along the Ourthe. The eurovelo routes can bit a bit dull in places so maybe check out these cycling routes for the south of Belgium: [https://ravel.wallonie.be/en/home.html](https://ravel.wallonie.be/en/home.html)
Skip all the cities ok the yellow line. Big cities like that are no fun when bikepacking.
Eurovelo 5 in Belgium through the Ardennes is beautiful.
I would say the only beautiful stretch of the Rhine is between Koblenz and Bingen, or maybe from Bonn to Mainz.
South from there it’s very industrial, and the river is very unnatural.
From Strasbourg, follow Eurovelo 5 through Alsace. It’s much more beautiful than the Rhine. Vineyards, small villages..
Thanks for all the tips! I think I’ve decided to take EV5 from Brussels to go through the Ardennes. I will go along the Mosel river to Koblenz if I have enough time and then EV15 to Strasbourg. Otherwise I will go directly to Strasbourg. I will go through the Alsace after Strasbourg (EV5). From Basel I will climb to Andermatt and finish in Chur.