On this page:

Bicycle Maps and guidebooks.
Hotels and Tourist Site Information Sources.
Notes.

On related pages:

Why Bicycle in Europe? How much will it cost?
When to Go, By Commercial Group? Or, by Personal Tour?
Bring Your Own Bike or Rent or Buy? What Kind of Bike? Customizing Your Bike?
Trains and Bicycles.
What Should You Pack? Security, Traffic, and Safety.
How far will you ride?
Best European Cycling Trips: Author's ratings, and when, where, and how to do them

Bicycle Maps and Guidebooks

Maps: For the biking itineraries mentioned as Best European Bike Tours, maps to the scale of 1:200,000 or 1:100,000 are ideal. The 1:200,000 maps have the advantage of being more compact and less expensive. The 1:100,000 maps have the advantage of showing (in general) topography (valuable in hilly or mountainous countryside) and of being less crowded (valuable near big cities).

The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium have complete country coverage by maps especially for bicycling, maintained with the help of local bicycling organizations. The maps for the Netherlands (ANWB, 1:100,000 or 1:50,000) , Germany (ADFC, 1:150,000), Switzerland (Halwag -Kummerly + Frey, 1:60,000) and Belgium (various) are particularly helpful, as they show the extensive networks of bicycle paths.

Many European bicycling maps, including bicycling maps from Germany, and the Netherlandsalso as well as certain maps from France, Finland,the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria are now available in the USA (N. Carolina) online at www.omnimap.com (telephone 336-227-8300). The author compared some prices on this Site, and in 2002 they were only slightly more expensive than obtaining the maps in Europe. The site has indexes showing map coverage, and small sample exerpts of each style of map. They also have most French maps by the IGN and topographic maps for other countries. The author recommends calling Omnimap, to make certain that they can ship your map promptly. Or check the site of Maplink (who may carry a deeper inventory and show stock availability on the web) at http://catalog.maplink.com. and follow up with a phone order to (800) 962-1394.

For cycling in France, the author generally uses Michelin 1:200,000 maps, but prefers IGN 1:100,000 maps for cycling near Paris or for the Saint Jacques of Compostelle Pilgramage Itinerary.

Most cities in Europe have book stores with extensive collections of maps. In Paris, many detailed topographic and hiking maps for France and other countries (but not biking maps) are carried by Le Vieux Campeur bookstore (one of their several shops) (closed all day Sunday and Monday mornings), on the corner of Rue de Latran and Rue Jean de Beauvais, near the Maubert-Mutualité subway stop in the fifth arrondissement.

Bike Route Guide Books: Specific information for obtaining guide books is given, when possible, on the pages of each of the European Best Bike Tours. General sources of information, useful for other tours, are mentioned below:

The Sites: http://usa.myswitzerland.com/en/navpage.cfm?category=Biking, and http://www.cycling-in-switzerland.ch/frameset.html provide information on how to obtain books listing the 9 major long-distance routes in Switzerland, all mainly on well-signed bike paths. If you buy these booklets, when you are billed you may send a check for the equivalent dollar amount.

For German-speaking areas (Germany, Austria and part of Switzerland), there are very complete route-booklets from Verlag Esterbauer in Austria. The URL is http://www.esterbauer.com, and for a complete list of their bicycling tour books, click on "Radtourenbücher". The only booklet in English is the "Danube Bike Trail, from Passau to Vienna", which is one of the Best Bike Tours on this site. The maps and hotel lists in these booklets are most helpful, and with the help of a German-speaking friend or a dictionary, you may pick up some useful tips as well. Esterbauer's telephone number is: (43) 2983 28982 0.

In France there are only a few bike paths and fewer available biking guides. However, France does have a very large network of secondary and tertiary roads, which can be found on Michelin 1:200,000 maps. The author has had fine success plotting out quiet routes using the secondary roads - those not between major towns. Trips take longer than they would along the main highways, but are safer and much more pleasant. For the Paris region, please see my highly detailed bike routes on this Site, in Biking out of Paris.

For Britain, a series of biking guides have been published by the Cicerone Press. Contact: http://www.cicerone.co.uk. They are available in the USA from Omnimap (see under maps above).

See individual itineraries on this site for more map and guide information appropos to the itinerary.

Hotels and Tourist Sight Information Sources

Hotels: The following methods have proved useful to find lodging in Europe: 

     1)  The Michelin Red Guides, available in domestic and foreign bookstores, lists a selection of hotels, usually one-third to one-half of all the hotels in each city. The hotel selections in the Red Guide seem unbiased and reasonably accurate. An Internet compilation of the Red Guide is now available: http://www.viamichelin.com. Enter the European country and city. After selecting a hotel, if you click on the map icon, the location of your hotel will be shown. For Charming hotels and inns — moderate to expensive — in several European countries, the author has had good luck with the Karen Brown Series.

     2) If all these hotels are full or too expensive, the author calls the town Tourist Office .  The Michelin Red Guide lists their phone numbers for each larger town, or you can find them on the Internet. The tourist offices will usually give a list of phone numbers, or they can mail a complete listing of hotels.

     3) More and more towns, and their hotels, are listed on the web. Search under the name of the town and the word "hôtel". The pictures on the Web may not be representative of what you find on location; but generally the author has had good luck.

Throughout Europe there are also rooms available for rent. In the French countryside, they are called Chambres d’Hôtes (some will prepare dinner or breakfast).  As with hotels, they are ranked by amenities.  You can find listings of these through local Tourist Offices, or in a catalogue found at most big French bookstores, put out by their association— and also now listed on the web at: http://www.hotes-en-france.com. Also available are several English- and French-language books, containing selections of "charming" Chambre d'Hôtes. In Germany and Austria you will find ubiquitous "Zimmer Frei" signs, and tourist offices can help.

Camping and Hosteling: Camping and Youth Hosteling are beyond the author's personal experience. There are many inexpensive campgrounds, with various levels of amenities, as well as the possibility of camping, with permission, in the yards or fields of farms. The "bible" for French camping is the Guide Officiel Camping Caravaning, which describes and ranks 9000 campgrounds and 1900 farms that welcome campers. This book is too heavy to carry on a bike trip. A map of campgrounds, from "Motorpresse", is also available .

There is now an "official" French camping Internet site, http://www.campingfrance.com. (Be careful not to go to the copycat site, www.camping-france.com.) On the "official" site, using the maps provided, first select the region of France, and within the region, the department. With some trial and error you will find your area of interest. You will need to key the many locations to a good map. If you are already on the road in France, and are not carrying information, the best method may be to ask locally, or call a local tourist office.

For Germany and Switzerland, for an internet search, click on, respectively www.camping-channel.com or www.camping.ch. In each case, click on the category "campingplätze".

For youth hosteling in all countries, for general information contact the IYHF (International Youth Hostel Federation) or for lodging specifically, www.hostelbooking.com.

Tourist sights Information Sources: As the description of tourist sights on this Site is cursory, you should carry a guide book along with you. Over the years the author has been mainly very satisfied with the Michelin Green Guides as his basic source of information on which sights to see, in all European countries. For France, the Hachette Blue Guides are excellent (but suffer the advantage and disadvantage of being in French, thicker, heavier, and much more complete). Many other good choices may be found in a bookstore or on the Net.

Notes:

All "stars" (*,**,***) mentioned in the itineraries refer to the ratings of the Michelin green tourist guide books or the Michelin red hotel and restaurant guide books. The author uses, recommends to his friends, and usually agreees with, these guide book (but has no connection of any sort with Michelin).

An early start on all itineraries can avoid most tourist cars, tour busses, and crowds at key attractions. Since you usually will stay in towns or small cities, you will be biking opposite the morning and evening commuter traffic, which is going to these towns in the morning and leaving in the evening. In many areas of Europe, there are also periods of busy traffic before and after the lunch hour, for example, from 12:30 to 1:00 p.m. in one direction, and from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. in the other direction.

<Continue to Part VI: How Fast Will You Ride? What Should You Pack? Security, Traffic, and Safety.>

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