Travel tips for touring around Europe

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  • Angus, would be cool if you could find that list, I found a one online on travellingtwo.com, which in itself is a great site for travelling tips btw.... its the tent I bought from you that I'm taking with me so nice one for that!

    Ohhhhhhhhh thought I remembered the avatar.

    I'll find that llist now then.

  • SO jealous man. Just looking back on old photos.

    Here's the list that Bombadil kindly made.

    http://www.lfgss.com/post568543-37.html

    Really miss the alps. Camping and waking up in the morning to snow capped mountains, miss it sooo much.

  • Cheers for the list man, gonna check that bad boy out now and see what else i need to get sorted, cannot bloody wait to get on the road, its pictures like that one that makes me so damn excited!
    well if you fancy coming out for a few weeks of riding the alps in a few months give us a shout!!

  • Oh, and someone recently pointed me in the direction of this if you are looking to save weight. It's pretty crazy stuff, but the core ideas are good.

    http://ultralightcycling.blogspot.com/

  • for a stove you can look into penny stoves for a cheap low weight option or backup if your actual stove craps out. If anything it's good fun to make and costs next to nowt!

    http://www.jureystudio.com/pennystove/index.html

  • Im also planning a euro trip this summer. Good suggestion I was given was to pack a lightweight hammock, perfect for those nights when its warm enough to sleep under the stars and you can't be bothered with setting up (or sweating out in) a tent. Also that ultralight cycling website is great, thanks chinnny!

  • this is also worth checking out

    http://www.warmshowers.org/

  • Massive HTFU. ^^^^^

  • Sfw?

  • also.. and this was a top tip i got when i did my first alpine tour in 2007. make sure you take bonjela for mouth ulcers.. you will end up eating alot of crap/sugary stuff or drinking loads of coke.. you will be grateful when you have it to hand, trust me..

    al

  • trip looks fantastic! 6 to 8 months means you'll be doing eastern europe in winter, that's pretty hard-core especially if you intend sleeping under canvas..

    detour to corsica and sardinia, two of the most lovely islands in the med

    if you ferried to roscoff you'd have the wild and wonderful brittany and atlantic coast to savour

  • Warmshowers looks great, the title conjures up some weird images but maybe thats because I've got a filthy mind! already signed up and searching for new people to meet/possibly stay with on my trip, Cheers Gustav.
    @Bernhard, wicked idea, randomly googled penny stove and theres a good few sites showing how to make one from 2 drinks cans, very cool idea as an emergency backup...
    @almac68, cheers for the bonjela tip, hadn't even thought about stuff like that, got my diarolyte sorted but those kind of pains hadn't registered!
    Ultralightcycling blog is pretty mental, total HTFU, not sure I'm up for following it all for the whole time as its a long time for 1 pair of boxers! but the principles are good foundations I reckon, I'm at the stage now when I've pretty much got everything and just need to figure if theres anything I definitely don't need or can do without. A few dry runs in the woods around Norfolk next month I reckon.
    Not sure if anyone else is into wild swimming? got into it last year with a few mates, great to do a big mtb ride and stop off at a river or a nicely situated pond for a dip. Anyone know any great swimming places/ beaches around Europe? Also I'm going to be taking my climbing shoes for a bit of bouldering so if anybody has any links or info about that it'd be great to see.....
    @rivegauche, cheers, yep its going to be an interesting one when the seasons change, being a northern lad I'm used to the cold! but thats partly why I thought doing the route this way round as I'm hoping finding more sheltered accom in Eastern Europe will be cheaper than Western Europe so when it gets pretty chilly theres more options. I am determined to camp as much as possible though so better htfu a bit, plus you never know, when I get to the Balkans I might do what I've always wanted and keep going East and round!! cheers for the suggestions for Corsica and Sardinia too, in the notebook they go!

  • Make sure you check out the incredible limestone caves in Slovenia (Ć kocjan), and the picturesque mountain lakes - Lake Bled and Bohinj.

    I'm doing a trip in April/May from London to Ljubljana - Where are you crossing the alps?

  • Hey Simon, it might be an idea to test out your kit on some short touring breaks before you go just so you have a feel for what works and what doesn't, what your missing and what is surplus, good luck by the way, looks awesome!

  • This ^. I'll definitely be doing a lot of dry runs, as it were.

    So, locks. What to take. On my tour there are 2 of us and obviously weight is a large factor (we're even just taking razor heads without the stems), so what locks would people suggest?

  • A long halfords (or similarly cheap) d lock.
    The bikes were never out of our sight during the day time so we only used the locks during the night when we're sleeping. Just locked all the bikes to each other. Be bloody hard to nick them and nearly impossible to do it without waking anyone up.

  • Yeah, plan. We have an Abus D lock which is fairly sturdy and not too heavy. We're camping so will obviously keep them near, but we'll be doing a bit of sight seeing so they will be out of sight during the day.

  • Hmmm Thinking back we actually had one of those wire kryptonite cable jobbies as well so locked up the rears with the D and wound the cable through the font tyres.

  • Ha, sweet, just bought one of those.
    Good plan. Cheers mate.

  • Locking technique in low crime areas:

    http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1931/dsc00835bg.jpg

  • These touring threads make me so jealous. #sadface

  • http://kidderminstertothecaspianbybike.blogspot.com/

    one of my favourite cycling blogs ever. All the way to Thailand on a cheap mountain bike.

  • Cheers everyone for all the tips and ideas of places to go, I've been making a ridiculous amount of lists about places and things to see, people to visit. In a couple of days I'm going to be setting off from Norfolk, back through London and on my merry way around Europe. I'll keep checking back as all the tips have been great so if anyone has any more please add away!
    Otherwise i'm going to be doing a blog as I go which can be found here....
    www.exploringforever.wordpress.com
    Cheers ears...

  • ^
    if you cut slots in the end of your rack bolts, you can unscrew them if they snap!! Probably too late for this sort of tip, but really useful if you are traveling fully loaded.
    Have fun! I will be setting off on some sort of european cycling jaunt in July. Can't wait.

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Travel tips for touring around Europe

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