1 week softies cycle tour ideas?

What would be a reasonable distance per day

As it's a "softies" tour, surely this will be dictated by battery life?

I said softies, not those that have given up 🙄

How far do you usually travel on a similar day ride? I would take that, add in regular rest days. No point rushing through places when you can stay and look. I see so many cycle 'tourists' who bang out 100mile days and forget to take in the sights, meet the locals, have a coffee and more....

Looking at a few YouTube channels over my illness of the last week, I think that France, Belgium over to Germany would be a fabulous trip. Look at a few of these folks video's - seems the perfect balance of bikes, pastry and meandering...

Same with this rather inspiring lady - cancer dodger and brompton rider, heading for Denmark:

I have also looked at the Innradweg with mrs_oab, it is on 'the list' for summer 2025 at present...
https://www.innradweg.com/php/portal.php -
do look at the profile of the ride 🙂 - https://www.komoot.com/tour/86672609#previewMap

I should say - we were looking at doing the Romantic Road as well. I think the Innradweg is more 'us' through the mountains....

Easy peasy - Euro Velo 6 -  Loire á Velo.

Easy riding, fantastic scenery, not too hot, brilliant food and mostly on excellent cycle paths. We drove to calais and parked up with a train to Nantes to start then home from Dijon iirc.

We camped and there was a campsite basically every 5km. I / we could not rate the route/tour highly enough - I would repeat it in an instant.

Thanks Matt, I'll have a look. And Scruff

Also, @surroundedbyhills did what sounded a properly lovely tour in autumnal Portugal last year.

Train to Strasbourg, down the French side of the Rhine to Basel, then back up the German side. Beautiful villages, great wine country and really pleasant cycling. Point to point it's not a massive distance each day but there are great options to make the days longer by heading further away from the Rhine - e.g. we spent a couple of nights in Mulhouse and spent that day cycling up into the Vosges and up the Grand Ballon.

Depends what you mean by soft but here's a route we did last summer:

Dunkirk to Ypres 75k
Ypres to Ghent 89k
Ghent to Leuven (via Brussels) 95k
Leuven to Valkenburg (via Maastrict) 103km
Valkenburg to Spa 80km
Spa to Liege 78km
Liege to Dunkirk (train to Ostend then 50k cycle)

You could take out the hilly bits by going Maastrict to Liege.

I wouldn't recommend staying in Dunkirk, bit of a s**thole.

DFDS ferry website and customer service is terrible but a small price to pay for Flanders cycling.

The Loire or Danube Eurovelo Routes are per perfect for this. Flat, plenty to see on the way, the Danube has good train connections if the weather turns bad and they're very easy to navigate.

I'd push on to Bratislava on the Danube rather than spending too much time in Vienna which isn't a very likeable city.

Thanks all. I'll have a look at the Loire and Danube Eurovelo routes. I guess the Danube routes are a bit more complicated to get to without flying? I'll check the train timetables 👍

Do you want to book accommodation in advance or just stop each day when you fancy it? Will you pack a tent or go into b&b's?

About 10 years ago I went From Frankfurt up the rhine to Koblenz and then along the Mossell to Trier, lots of castles and picturesque villages to explore which if you do so will naturally limit your mileage. From Trier you could go into Luxemburg or head along the Saar to Saarbrucken. Or you could catch a train at Trier to somewhere else, the good thing about Germany is the transport actually allows you to stitch together a couple of routes without too much burden.

I caught up with my regular softies tour which was in the Netherlands last year by taking the Harwich-Hook of Holland ferry. The others flew to Amsterdam then ride to Zwolle on the first day while I was on the ferry and train to Zwolle. They flew back from Hamburg where I peeled off and train/rode back to HH over a couple of days. The ferry is really nice FWIW - nothing like old cross channel ferries, super quiet and a very nice ensuite cabin overnight on the way back.

Anyway, TLDR - Harwich - HH ferry and then as far as you like in a circle on pan flat cycle paths and trains for a week.

Do Luxembourg to Koblenz along the Mosel, and back. No, it's not a loop but you'll see a totally different view on the return leg.

https://www.germany.travel/en/nature-outdoor-activities/moselle-cycle-route.html

I've been contemplating doing Amsterdam to Hamburg this year, and that video from Susanna might be the kick up the backside I needed!

Anyone who has ridden that route - did you camp? Do you need to book in advance?

@branes how easy is it to take a bike on the train in Netherlands and Germany? Need to book ahead or just hop on?

easy, and with loads of amazing beers. we did this last summer.

rotterdam - zierikzee - middelburg - bruges - ghent - oudenaarde - brussels - antwerp - breda - delft - rotterdam.

flat apart from round oudenaarde. quiet cycle routes the whole way round.just perfect.

@stickman not as easy as I thought it would be, but fine and I was never stranded or similar.

Main problem was the express train HH->Zwolle where they only allowed a relatively small number of bikes on per carriage and you couldn't book. TBF the guard seemed keen to help but couldn't as it was pretty packed as the first train after rush hour (bike not allowed in rush hour). Not a biggie in the end, I just got the next train 30 mins or so later.

Germany was pretty easy - basically just get on with your bike. Local train across the German-Holland border likewise.

As far as I remember it did cost a relatively small amount in both countries.

My parents did St Malo to Nice and spoke highly of the route. They only booked accommodation for the first night in advance and then relied on tourist information places to book each day. They stayed in some lovely places too.

I'd pick an area of France that appeals and follow some of the Eurovelo routes, taking a few diversions as you go as long canal paths are lovely for a while but can get a bit samey. The Marais et Opales area, Parc du Perche, Loire valley, the Morvan, the Avesnois, Ardennes, Alsace, all beautiful parts of France. France is just cycle touring heaven imo. If you go towards Alsace I'd recommend heading into the Vosges and over the Rhine into the Schwartzwald area of Germany, perhaps my favourite part of this side of Europe outside the Alps.

Book recommendation - Rides of Passage by Matt Lamy, about a ride across France with his father (both Matt and Arthur work with bikes in various ways)

Ton's Belgium loop sounds good too. Lots of cycling culture there and I loved Bruges when we visited years back. I'm hoping to ride to the Eurobike show in Frankfurt this year and might go via Belgium. Beer tasting opportunities might reduce distances but no bad thing..

+1 check out the Eurovelo routes.

We did Venice to Prague in 2022, and joined up with Eurovelo 7 in Austria.

Nothing too tough and plenty of places to stay/eat/cafe.

have a look at slovenia.

bikepacking.com has an article on it. magnificent scenery. quiet, especially the gravel routes.plenty of hotels and bob's  can be hilly but that's what gears are for!  komoot was great for planning a gravel route.

We are looking at the Mosel for something similar . Danube looks good to but the Mosel is closer

Dunkirk to Ypres 75k,Ypres to Ghent 89k,Ghent to Leuven (via Brussels) 95k,Leuven to Valkenburg (via Maastrict) 103km,Valkenburg to Spa 80km,Spa to Liege 78km,Liege to Dunkirk (train to Ostend then 50k cycle)

I was going to say something similar. Northern Belgium is lovely. Quite flat in places, but hills start when going inland, nothing huge but it's variety. A good cycling culture there, usually safe roads, accomodation plentiful, food and drink choice is good too.