Planning a long-distance
bicycle trip

The EuroVelo 1, also known as the Atlantic Coast Route, is a long-distance cycle route following the Atlantic coast in Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, the UK and Norway. The EV1 one is the EuroVelo route that stretches the furthest from North to South. In total there are more than 11.000km available for biking. I biked only parts of it, namely La Vélodyssée from Nantes to Morlaix and in Scotland. But I plan to extend my coverage in April, with a bike tour around Ireland. I will update my experiences, once I completed that tour.

EuroVelo 5, as well known as Via Romea or Francigena, was the starting point of my 11000km long biking trip. It's a long-distance bike route from Canterbury to Brindisi. It passes 7 countries (UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy) and is 3200km long. I biked it not in its entirety, but the 1700km I did, were beautiful.

When people ask me about my favourite part of my long bike trip, this part always comes to mind! The landscape is absolutely breathtaking. Mountains and sea, nicely entangled. Lots, and I mean lots, of hills and views that sometimes seemed unreal. These 650km on the North Coast 500 were an absolut highlight of my cycling trip!

During my long-distance bike tour in 2023, I stayed at almost 80 different campgrounds. In France, England, Scotland, Italy and Germany. Many of them were great, few not so much. During the trip, I thought a lot about what actually makes a great campground, specifically for cyclists. Here are my main criteria:

The night before I started my bike trip, it dawned on me, that the days of knowing exactly where to sleep were gone. At least for the time of the trip. Every night I listen to True Crime to snooze away. That might not be a good idea on the trip. Looking back on the six months I spent on the road I can say, that I managed to find every single night a safe, though not always dry, place to get a good night's sleep. Here is how I approached one of the most important tasks on my tour.