River Rhine.

[philhaskettsmith]

Next year my wife and I are planning to cycle-camp the rhine from the Hook and going south east. Has anybody out there got any info on any of this route?

[Ron]

Bikeline guides will give you all the information you need and include a map of the route.
http://www.esterbauer.com/db_rtb_allg_i ... eihe_id=RB
Unfortunately there is not an English language version of the Rhine route, but you would be able to get sufficient information from the book to get by.
Rhein Radweg Teil 3 covers the section from Rotterdam to Mainz, and the route between the Hook and Rotterdam is well signed.
Campsites are listed in the Bikeline guide, although I found them a bit limited around Duisburg and used hostels/hotels in that area. The route is mostly on segregated paths and is well signposted.

[sbesley]

I rode this route a few years ago, bought the Bikeline guides but also

Cycling the Rhine Route: Bicycle Touring Along the Historic Rhine River by John Powell.

On the plus side this book is in English and covers the route in the 'right' direction for you. However I found the directions rather fussy and obviously the mapping is poor compared to the Bikeline guides. Still secondhand copies less than £10 on Amazon so worth a look.

Stephen.

[foxyrider]

How far upstream are you going?

[Slowroad]

I'm thinking of doing the same and have been looking into campsites - I liked the Dutch 'Nature Camping;' ones so much this year I'm hoping to find a similar chain in Germany. This website is the nearest I've found so far:
http://www.kleincamp.de/deutsh.htm
If you find any useful websites do let us know! Cheers!

[philhaskettsmith]

Thanks every-one. The book list grows! And, yes, I will certainly put any info that I find out on this post.

[T]

We did the Rhine last year, although we did it the other way round (Oberalppass to Katwijk/Hook).

We also got a copy of "Cycling the Rhine Route: Bicycle Touring Along the Historic Rhine River" by John Powell, although I don't remember actually using it much. I would have to agree with Stephen's review of the book. We tend to choose our exact route on the day, rather than referring to exact directions every 10 minutes, so detailed directions weren't really useful (Some parts of the book are a little odd, I think partly because the publisher wanted the book to be suitable for the American market. FOr example, there are sections telling you how to dress when visiting casinos and so on).

If you stay close to the Rhine, there are well maintained cycle paths for most of the way. Even with our 'turn up and see if it's there/open' approach to campsites, we had no real problems finding somewhere to camp each night.

[tucker]

I find it is expensive buying the Bikeline books as I cant read German so i find the Radweg maps from www.publicpress.de everybit as good, still in German but much cheaper, after all a map is a map in any language.

[CyclingTerrier]

I would like to mention that Bikeline books have no references to Dutch campsites AND when I was near Speyer and looking for a campsite, I headed to nearest one on the map only to find out it was a permanent trailer-park which had never seen campers in their life! They were very welcoming and we stayed the night but I would advise researching campsites before you go an not solely to rely on the books for this.

[geoffb001]

I'm planning to cycle the Rhine this coming summer, south to north, pretty much inspired, first by the Bikeline books, and also 'The Rhine Cycle Route', Source to Sea , by Mike Wells, which looks to be an almost turn by turn guide of the whole route packed into 250 odd pages.
I tour on a LHT so can never be accused of being a gram counter, but the three volumes of of Bikeline weigh in just shy of a kilo, so beautiful though they are, they will be staying at home.

However the advice I am looking for is the best way to get to the start line!
This will be my first overseas foray, ( I take it CalMac don't count) so I need all the help I can get.
I rather fancy ferry/train, in my case hailing from the north, DFDS, Newcastle to Amsterdam, and 'Nightline' Train from Amsterdam to Zurich. Has anyone used this route, and is it actually cycle friendly? I have been surprised that the Continental trains don't necessarily follow this ethos.
The other alternative is by air, ... again has any one used Leeds/Brad., Manchester or Newcastle to get there, Basel seems quite a common destination, Zurich, which I assume is the best bet, less so.
Apologies in advance, probably all these questions could be sorted by a trawl of the internet, however I suspect there is a huge breadth of knowledge on this subject on this forum.

[xcalibur]

I cycled along the Rhine for two weeks a couple of years ago. I took a sidetour up the Mozel Valley when we arrived at Koblenz. From Koblenz to Tirer was a very nice bit of the whole tour. You could take it easy following a road along the river, no trafic and no hills. You arrive at historic towns / dorf along the way, Zimmer mit Frühstück is very easy to find and low priced if you can spend the night more remote outside the small towns. There are hills along the route with small castles and some are genuine medieval, up the hills is a bit more strenuous but nothing you can't handle. I loved it, and hope to do something similar again.

[Peter Molog]

I rather fancy ferry/train, in my case hailing from the north, DFDS, Newcastle to Amsterdam, and 'Nightline' Train from Amsterdam to Zurich. Has anyone used this route, and is it actually cycle friendly?

I took DFDS several times. There is no specific place for bike. but you have to place them in a leftover corner. And bring your own lashings.
The CityNightLine from Amsterdam has mostly a space for 12 bikes. The entrance to the car is a high step and a small door. So you have to take your lugagge off the bike.

Booking early can save a lot of money.
You can try booking at the Treinreiswinkel. But there website is only in Dutch, and I don't know if they do bookings for English cyclists.

[legsonabike]

I'm planning to cycle the Rhine this coming summer, south to north, pretty much inspired, first by the Bikeline books, and also 'The Rhine Cycle Route', Source to Sea , by Mike Wells, which looks to be an almost turn by turn guide of the whole route packed into 250 odd pages.
I tour on a LHT so can never be accused of being a gram counter, but the three volumes of of Bikeline weigh in just shy of a kilo, so beautiful though they are, they will be staying at home.

However the advice I am looking for is the best way to get to the start line!
This will be my first overseas foray, ( I take it CalMac don't count) so I need all the help I can get.
I rather fancy ferry/train, in my case hailing from the north, DFDS, Newcastle to Amsterdam, and 'Nightline' Train from Amsterdam to Zurich. Has anyone used this route, and is it actually cycle friendly? I have been surprised that the Continental trains don't necessarily follow this ethos.
The other alternative is by air, ... again has any one used Leeds/Brad., Manchester or Newcastle to get there, Basel seems quite a common destination, Zurich, which I assume is the best bet, less so.
Apologies in advance, probably all these questions could be sorted by a trawl of the internet, however I suspect there is a huge breadth of knowledge on this subject on this forum.

I'm thinking of doing the same as you next May, to finish of last years tour, I cycled from home to Geneva then easyjet'd home,I'm thinking of the Bike-Bus to Macon then cycling to the start.

[foxyrider]

I wouldn't even consider the ferry / train option to get down Switzerland at the moment.

There are pretty much daily flights in the summer to both Basel and Zurich from Manchester - i've used both airports with the bike very easily. Zurich airport has direct rail links to the rest of Switzerland from below the main concourse!

If you are only flying one way you might be looking at @ £80.

[neilob]

To save weight you can either copy the relevant pages from the Bikeline books or the more modern approach is to photograph them using a smartphone. All of it would fit on an SD card. You can borrow my copies of this idea appeals.