Find Your Next Bicycle Tour

Use the maps and information on this site to explore bicycle tours in Europe and bicycle tours in Asia, find the tour route that is right for you.

Our most recent ride was on Jeju Island in South Korea. This is a location we always wanted to return to and an opportunity presented itself when we signed up for a rafting trip in Bhutan (NW Rafting Company). Flights from Seattle stop in Seoul so we booked and inexpensive flight to Jeju for a eight day trip around the Island before continuing on to Bhutan.

Jeju Island is Korea's version of going to Hawaii, it has a semi-tropical climate and an island culture that is different from the mainland. Located off the southern coast of South Korea, Jeju Island is a beautiful island paradise dominated by an extinct volcano in the center. With lush green forests, stunning coastline, and unique culture, Jeju Island has long been a destination for tourists from all over the world and has the busiest airport in Korea. Beyond its beauty, Jeju Island is home to a unique culture that has been shaped by its long history and its unique geography. From its unique cuisine to its vibrant festivals, Jeju culture is a one of a kind destination.

Its easy to rent bicycles on Jeju which we did since we were continuing on for several weeks through Thailand and Bhutan.

If you have a chance to travel through Bhutan its well worth it. Travelers are required to get a visa and work through a local tour guide. If anyone wants a guide recommendation or a contact person in Bhutan let me know by email.

WorldCycleWays is about bicycle routes, trails, and paths around the world that the authors have actually ridden or soon will be riding.

Each of the routes are:

  • Intended for long distance, self supported riders traveling for a week or more.
  • Can be traveled with hybrid bikes, a hybrid meaning a road type bicycle with moderately wide tires (32mm) and straight handle bars.
  • Not particularly strenuous, mostly paved, and have services and accommodations along the way.

Our Bikes
Our bikes and luggage. This is the amount of stuff we actually ride with for a multi-week trip.

Half the reason for doing these bicycle tours is for cultural experiences such as museums, markets, restaurants, historical sites, festivals and small towns. You will find plenty of experiences on each of these rides. The other reason for following these cycleways is because they are fun and not too difficult.

Our Bikes
There are many historical sites on each cycleway such as Matera in Italy.

All of the routes listed are multi-week routes but you can choose your distance and just ride parts of the distance. The route may be on paved roads, unpaved forest roads or agricultural roads, or dedicated cycle paths. Paths may be paved or not but in any case a mountain bike is not needed for these rides. The routes are generally not designed for person using a road bike with narrow tires and drop handlebars.

The information here is for unsupported riders, no sag wagon. Each of the routes has services and accommodations along the way so you can always find a place to stay each night and a bite to eat.

The site contains maps, links to resources and information that riders will find helpful when planning their own rides. All of the routes can be completed by the average bicyclist. There are many possible variations on the routes. Use the links and map information on this site to plan your own ride. In the interest of full disclosure, we have not ridden every kilometer of every route listed here but we have ridden almost all of every route listed.

We almost always take our bikes with us from the U.S. There are many places throughout the world to rent bikes so you don't have to take your own. If you take your own bike, you will be certain of the fit and the type of bike you will be riding.

If you take your bikes with you
We have taken our bikes with us for many years but in the past two to three years our bikes have only arrived with us at our destination airport about 50 percent of the time. This is not just our experience, we have talked with many other travelers who have had the same problem and not just with bicycles. To compensate for delayed bicycles we have been staying near the airport and have allowed extra time for the bicycles to arrive. From our experience we have learned that airlines do a very poor job of tracking the location of baggage. Baggage handling is contracted to the businesses providing baggage handling at the departure and arrival airports. Do not leave the airport without a lost baggage report if your bikes are delayed

If your bikes are delayed, check back often with the airport baggage handling service to see if the bikes have arrived. An in person visit is best, or at least telephone and email the baggage service. Do not rely on WorldTracerWeb, the online baggage tracing system used by many airlines. Our experience is that the system is not up to date. Yes, you may see your claim there, but the system will not tell you if your baggage has arrived at the airport. The same is true for any airline baggage tracing system. The best way to find you bikes is to keep checking for the bikes at the airport. Try to anticipate which flight they might be on.

From the The Points Guy here are is some information and recommendations about airline baggage:
7 steps to take when an airline loses your luggage
Last one standing at the carousel:
And also from Travel Addicts: The Truth About Airline Lost Luggage And What To Do About It.

Travelers United

Travelers United is an organization that represents all travelers with the Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Congress, other travel regulators, and travel stakeholders. They have some good advice on the issue of delayed or lost luggage.

Countries on this site are France, Germany, Spain, Italy Czech Republic, Austria, Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland, and Slovenia.

 

About Us

We are Ray and Maxine, live in Olympia, Washington, U.S.A., and love long distance travel by bike and do many of our errands and activities on bicycles. We started this site to pass on our experiences to others who may want to know more about traveling by bicycle.