Below, I have tried to distil the most important lessons that I have learnt from the over 25 bike tours that I have taken. I am still learning, still making mistakes and still having to remind myself of them. I hope that you find them helpful. Where appropriate, I have put links to the more detailed pages on my site.
Those tips are:
- It’s a holiday: relax and have fun.
- Don’t take yourself too seriously
- Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone
- Mix it up
- Don’t be ashamed to take public transport
- Consider the weather when planning your trip
- Take days off the bike
- Embrace technology
- Disconnect
- Pack light but pack comfortably
- Indulge yourself
- Linger and be present
One. It’s a holiday: relax and have fun.
It’s a holiday not an endurance test: take it at your pace and try not to get too obsessed with your average speed or how many kilometres you have to do. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone, especially yourself. Anyone strapping a few bags on to their bike and pedalling away to the horizon is automatically amazing, however long or fast they go or how many hills they climb. The test is whether you have a good time and want to do it again. Find out what you enjoy. There is no set rule for how far you have to ride each day or how much to climb or how fast. Everyone is different: start gently and if it goes well, make it a bit longer or harder or faster.
Two. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Yes of course there are times when you need to get yourself and your bike to a particular destination by a specific time. There are difficult moments: riding through wind and rain, dealing with aggressive dogs and drivers, days when your energy levels are low and the hills are high. But your ability to deal with these and your overall experience will be immeasurably better if in the middle of all this, you can keep your perspective and see the funny side. There’s something just a little bit silly and comic about bike touring and the situations you find yourself in: manoeuvring an unwieldy bike box through a crowded airport or an empty bike box through windy streets, putting your bike back together in a crowded hotel lobby, sitting out a storm in a motorway underpass. Try to laugh, and above all, relax: it will all work out somehow.
Three. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.
You could be zapped by a bolt of lightning, bitten repeatedly by rabid dogs, robbed by bandits, blown by a freak wind into a ravine where no one will find you for decades. But you almost certainly won’t be. And if you spend your life worrying about all this, there is a far greater risk that you will miss out on the experiences of a lifetime. Statistically you are at far greater danger closest to home. So chill out and get out there. Even the moments that seem awful at the time can later seem quite amusing and great stories for your friends. If something goes wrong, you will find a way through, usually with the help of other people who will magically appear.
Four. Mix it up
Sure you can spend two weeks cycling along the Rhine with hardly a hill to disturb you and staying at non-descript hotels every night. But where’s the fun? After a few days, you’ll get bored. Mix it up: some days on the flat, some days in the hills, and even better, a mix within each day. And if possible, mix up the distances so that some days you have shorter rides to allow your legs to recover. The same with accommodation: a few super comfortable places especially for the days when you have ridden longer distances, a few apartments or hostels if you want, a few family-run guest houses. In Lithuania, I stayed in an apartment in a block of flats on the edge of nowhere, a converted barn on the edge of a farmhouse where I fell asleep to the sound of falling horse chestnuts, and a super chic hotel among others. See my guide on organising your own bike tour and my guide to booking hotels and apartments.
Five. Don’t be ashamed to take public transport
I was rather slow to learn this. You are touring by bike: you are automatically amazing. Relax about how you get there and don’t be afraid to take a bus or train if the weather is bad, you are feeling bad or the landscape is rather flat and boring. In August 2023, I rode from Oslo to Stavanger in Norway. Looking back, I could easily have skipped the rather boring first three or four days and cut straight to the good stuff: the Telemark Canal, Dalen and the Suleskardveien. The following year further north in Norway, feeling under the weather and mildly feverish, I skipped a day’s riding by taking a ferry and a further day’s riding by taking a bus. It’s your holiday: do the bits that you enjoy.
Six. Consider the weather when planning your trip
The Danube in Hungary can be beautiful – for a few days – but in mid-August, with temperatures in the upper thirties Celsius and the humidity index going through the roof? I could hardly see for the sweat. If you need to travel in August and you prefer cycling in non-sauna conditions: go north to Scandinavia, Scotland or the Baltics. If you want to go in April or May, go south to the Med. Weather will always be unpredictable – I have been very cold in Crete and Montenegro in late April and soaked in Austria in early May – but you should maximise your chances of great days of riding. Conversely if you have a region in mind and have some flexibility in the timing of your holiday, adjust the timing to the weather. [See my guide on where to go when]
Seven. Take days off the bike
Tip 1 applies: it’s a holiday. I once met an American cycling from Crete right along the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona. He had to make big distances every day to be there in time for his return flight. And I thought “What a shame.” To pass through great towns and not have the time to appreciate them fully. To feel that you have to be on the go every day. Every 3-5 days, have a day off the bike to sleep, relax, wash and dry your clothes, and really appreciate a place: be it a beautiful town or great landscape. I have done wonderful day hikes in the Alpujarras hills of Andalusia and in the hills of Norway. When you get back on the bike the next day, you will be all the happier.
Eight. Embrace technology
You don’t need a bike GPS, e-reader, or action camera, but each of them can make your holiday more fun. The GPS will mean that you don’t need to spend hours poring over maps in the rain and allow you to keep your phone for the many other things that you need it for. The e-reader will save you weight, allowing you to take hundreds of books with you. The action camera will allow you to capture great memories.
Nine. Disconnect
The world can survive without you for a few weeks and you can survive without the world. Bring your iPhone but don’t be hooked to it. Take a few weeks off Facebook, Instagram, your work and the news: you will feel much better and they will all miraculously survive without you. Live in the moment, not off the screen. If your boss or your family need to contact you, they will. If World War 3 starts, you will find out pretty quickly.
Ten. Pack light but pack comfortably
Yes, you don’t want to be lugging needless weight up hills. But Tip 1 also applies: it’s a holiday so cut yourself a bit of slack especially in the clothes department so that you don’t need to be wearing dirty clothes or washing them every evening. Pack something classy to wear off the bike. See my guide on what to pack.
Eleven. Indulge yourself
Your body is a temple. The gods of that temple demand copious offerings of sausages, bacon, chips, ham, cheese, cheeseburgers, roast chicken, roast lamb, prawns, squid, more chips, crisps, roasted peanuts, chocolate, Haribo – the fuel of champions – toffee, cake, croissants, currant buns, Danish pastries, cinnamon buns, apfel strudel, ice cream, possibly some more chips, why not? mayonnaise, ketchup, pickled gherkins, chips chips chips all washed down with beer, wine, cider, raki, vodka, tsipouro or whatever the local firewater is. You must obey or the gods will be full of wrath. You have been warned: respect the temple. And eat some more chips. The gods of your temple will be pleased at your sacrifice.
Seriously? Why do you think I shove myself slowly up mountain passes? So that I can stuff my face with good food and fill my belly with wine and beer without feeling guilty or putting on weight…
Twelve. Linger and be present
This is the most important and a lesson from mindfulness. You can be tempted to simply cycle from place to place without stopping, or to be lost in your thoughts as you ride. Yes, the journey is the point, but don’t miss the moment. As you ride along, catch yourself if your thoughts drift off and remember to look at the world around you: the plants, the trees, the rocks, the rivers and lakes, the buildings, the people. Remember to stop regularly and take a look and simply appreciate the scenery or watch the world go by from a cafe table. Those will end up being the moments that you will remember the most afterwards. And then eat some chips to celebrate.
And remember that you should always, always, obey Tip 1. The point is to have fun.
What do you think? Are there lessons that you have learnt?
These are my rules, but these from Joanna at Wobbly Ride are also great.
Interested in reading more about bike touring? Check out these other pages:
- Your first bike tour: a general guide
- The main types of bike touring
- Planning your first self-organised tour
- Where should you tour in Europe? Some tips
- What to pack for your tour
- Ten tips for staying in hotels and apartments while bike touring
- Transporting your bike to and from a bike tour
- How to pack and unpack your bike for a flight
- Frequently Asked Questions
Response
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great! love it! can’t wait to try!
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