Riding France or Germany?

Originally posted by Hot Runner

Anything along the Danube (Donau) would be a good bet. There are dedicated bike paths along almost the entire river in Germany, Austria, and some of the Hungarian section. Most would be suited for a road or tri bike, though I've always ridden a rented cruiser or hybrid there. Passau (near German/Austrian border) is at the hub of several major bike trails. There's also an extensive network of trails along the Elbe River--Dresden is an amazing place for biking if you can be that far east. If Austria is an option, Vienna and Salzburg both have excellent biking. Another nice area is around the Bodensee--a big lake that straddles the borders of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There are dedicated bike trails around much of it but a bit more riding on the road than the other places I mentioned. You could take a look at the Bike Tours Direct website--even if you don't want to do a guided or self-guided tour, it might give you ideas for where to ride.

France--I've only ridden in Provence. Pleasant riding, but route-finding was harder, not many dedicated paths, and I would not want to take a tri bike there. Maybe a road bike. Also not flat. I believe there are long-distance bike paths along the Rhone and other major rivers, though. Bike Tours Direct would probably show them on the route maps.

In all of these places, you can do a day ride in one direction, then take the train back, or vice versa. Easy, cheap, and safe to load your bike on local trains. There's a special bike car or two, you buy a "bike ticket" for a few Euros, the car has straps to secure the bikes, and you can sit with/near it. Particularly along the Danube routes, there is a real biking culture and tons of guesthouses, repair shops,cafes, and "rest stops" for bikers.

Originally posted by WildWill

Yep - Bavaria and the Danube - great location to cycle

 

I raced in Regensburg a few years back an the whole are is stunning & cycle friendly 

Originally posted by Hot Runner One thing to also keep in mind is that August is school vacation throughout much of Europe and lots of people will be on the move. If you are thinking of camping, campgrounds will be packed. France in particular really shuts down and sometimes even tourist facilities are closed (I guess the French vacate elsewhere?) It's harder to be spontaneous about just showing up in a small town and getting a place to stay (which my mom and I sometimes did on DIY bike tours--even earlier in summer it's best to finish riding by 4 PM if doing that.). Booking a self-guided tour with accommodation arranged in advance (or doing the bookings yourself), or basing yourself in one place and doing day rides from there, maybe using the train system, might work better. Germany would also be busy at that time but doesn't seem to shut down to the extent that France does. Another thing if you have never bike toured in Europe---it pays to find out about what days and times businesses tend to be closed. I can recall touring in Germany and finding no grocery stores open during several hours at mid-day (in small towns), so we needed to pack a lunch in the morning. And there was one day of the week (I think Mondays?) when we couldn't find restaurants open in Italy. We tend to ride in rural areas and stay in pretty traditional small towns where most businesses are family run; this may not be an issue with larger towns and cities.

Originally posted by jeng

Yes to both comments above. I biked in Alsace and it was great. Also, yeah, living in North America we are so used to things being open 24/7. Sometimes we'd arrive somewhere and there was absolutely nowhere to get food. We were touring on our bikes, so we carrying a tent and were bike camping. It was during the busy season, but we didn't have any trouble with camping because I think they'll always make room for you if you bike in. Some of the campgrounds we stayed in were full for car camping.