It’s official! I’ve accomplished step quantity one of many planning course of for my upcoming journey to Europe. I’ve booked my airline tickets and my plans for one more bicycle touring journey have out of the blue develop into a actuality.
Since I’m at present planning an 8+month bicycle touring expedition by means of Europe later this yr, I assumed it could be good to share with you not solely my adventures from the highway, however every thing that goes into planning and getting ready for a protracted journey akin to this.
My objective in sharing this data, after all, is that will help you plan and put together on your personal cycle touring expeditions. Whilst you could not have the will to go to the identical areas that I plan to go to on my upcoming tour, you possibly can take an identical method when planning and getting ready on your personal cycle touring adventures – wherever they might be.
Immediately I assumed I’d share with you the steps I’ve taken up till this cut-off date with the intention to take my concept for a 3rd European bicycle tour and switch it right into a actuality.
Sound good? Nice! Then right here we go…
Step one I took when planning this journey to Europe was determining which areas I wished to go to. I made a decision early on that I wished to return to Switzerland, so I booked a tour with European tour firm, Bike Switzerland, and by doing so, dedicated to being within the Swiss Alps by the tenth of July, 2012.
Having the dates for the Bike Switzerland tour set in stone enabled me to work backwards and work out what I’d be doing within the months previous to arriving in Geneva for the beginning of the tour.
Working backwards, I made a decision that I’d not go away my residence in Park Metropolis, Utah USA till the start of Might, as I’m at present a season cross holder on the Deer Valley ski resort and wish to stay within the space till the top of the ski season.
This meant that I now had a possible begin date for my worldwide travels (the primary of Might – the top of my ski season) and a future date (the tenth of July) through which I’d must be in Geneva, Switzerland for the beginning of the guided bike tour with Bike Switzerland. Between these two dates I noticed I had simply over two months of free time through which I would wish to determine the place I wish to go and what I wish to do.
I made a decision straight away that I wished to go to Iceland. It’s a place that I’ve been wanting to go to for fairly a while, so I knew proper off the bat that this was going to be certainly one of my first locations.The truth that Iceland is on the way in which to Europe additionally made it simple for me to resolve that Iceland can be the beginning location for my European travels.
From Iceland, I nonetheless wanted to get to Switzerland, however I didn’t wish to fly straight from Iceland to Geneva. There’s a variety of stuff in between the 2 areas that I’ve by no means seen earlier than, and since had the time, I wished to schedule a couple of weeks to journey to those areas. Therfore, I made a decision that after leaving Iceland, I’d journey to London, England after which to Amsterdam.
In the beginning of July is the beginning of the Tour de France and since I’d be within the space across the first of July, I figured it could be fairly superior to comply with the Tour for a couple of days and take a look at essentially the most well-known bike race on the planet for myself.
To make a protracted story quick, I created a schedule for my travels that appears just a little one thing like this:
Might 3 – Might 28, 2012: Iceland
Might 29 – June 10, 2012: London, England
June 11 – June 21, 2012: Amsterdam, Netherlands
June 30 – July 9, 2012: Tour de France
July 10 – July 20, 2012: Bike Switzerland Bike Tour
With roughly three months of journey plans laid out, I made a decision it was time to e-book my ticket and make this factor a actuality.
I did a fast search of the online for affordable airline tickets, however resorted to certainly one of my favourite worldwide airfare web sites, Vayama.com, for my cheap one-way ticket to Reykjavik, Iceland and the connecting one-way ticket 25 days later to London, England. It was of little shock that the most cost effective tickets to Iceland have been with the nation’s IcelandAir.
Earlier than shopping for my tickets with the corporate, nevertheless, I checked the IcelandAir web site to see what their coverage and costs have been for flying with a bicycle, as I’ll probably be bringing my very own bicycle with me to Europe.
A fast search of the web site revealed that bicycles may very well be transported with IcelandAir and that they might be handled as certainly one of my two checked baggage for a small extra price of $40 USD per path. Taking my very own recommendation, I printed out the airline’s coverage with reference to bicycles after which bought my two one-way tickets.
In the meanwhile, I do not know the place I’m going to go in Iceland or what precisely I’m going to do there. All I do know is that I’ve scheduled myself roughly 25 days on the island and I’ll work out the main points a bit later.
In reality, the one issues I do know at this level are that I’m going to be in Iceland for 25 days and after that I’ll fly into London. Once more, I don’t know precisely what I’ll do in London or how lengthy I’ll keep there. All I do know at this cut-off date is that by the tenth of July I must be in Geneva, Switzerland for the beginning of my guided bike tour with Bike Switzerland.
That is normally how all of my long-distance bicycle excursions start. I choose a couple of locations that I actually wish to see and expertise, and because the journey goes nearer, I fill in all of the gaps.
The toughest half (deciding to go on a bicycle tour in any respect), nevertheless, has been taken care of. This European bicycle tour is going on! I’ve booked my tickets; I do know once I’m leaving; and I now have a couple of dates to work from as I begin to slowly fill within the gaps.
Picture by Mark Winterbourne Pictures
Save