Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
glucas
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by glucas »

Yes. Just lurking on here and I saw my name mentioned. I think just to caveat it, Flixbus only take fully unassembled bikes on routes where their bus has a bike carrier. This does not apply to all buses. The way to find out is just add your bike when booking a particular route, it will tell you if a scheduled bus takes bikes at all, and if so, if a bike slot is available. On my Venice to Paris route, not all buses took bikes, maybe under 30%. On other routes that I saw no bike carriers were there so only disassembled bikes would be taken.
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MrsHJ
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by MrsHJ »

glucas wrote: 15 May 2022, 3:23pm Yes. Just lurking on here and I saw my name mentioned. I think just to caveat it, Flixbus only take fully unassembled bikes on routes where their bus has a bike carrier. This does not apply to all buses. The way to find out is just add your bike when booking a particular route, it will tell you if a scheduled bus takes bikes at all, and if so, if a bike slot is available. On my Venice to Paris route, not all buses took bikes, maybe under 30%. On other routes that I saw no bike carriers were there so only disassembled bikes would be taken.
Noted, the measurements are very generous though so wouldn’t be much effort to put in a plastic bag (totally get why this isn’t first preference but could be useful for more awkward places to get to). It’s also been mentioned for some of the routes at the end of EV6 and balkans recently on the eurovelo pages and I think some of those could be tricky to get back from by train.
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CJ
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by CJ »

MrsHJ wrote: 15 May 2022, 4:27pm
glucas wrote: 15 May 2022, 3:23pm Flixbus only take [complete] bikes on routes where their bus has a bike carrier. This does not apply to all buses...
Noted, the measurements are very generous though so wouldn’t be much effort to put in a plastic bag...
I don't call Max. length + width + height = 240cm "very generous". My DHB bike bag measures 140 by 90 by 30 = 260cm. Admittedly that is larger than most bike bags, but is accepted by every airline I've ever wanted to use (including BA, EasyJet & RyanAir) and still requires a considerable amount of irksome dismantling, that takes at least one hour. Most importantly however, for most cycle-tourists, that is the absolute smallest size of bag or box that allows the rear wheel, mudguard and luggage carrier to remain in-situ. If those must be removed you end up with a whole lot more potentially loose items knocking around each other and what remains of the bicycle (mainly the frame, which prevoiusly stood on its forkends and rear wheel) now drops onto its chainset, which tends to loose teeth and suffer bent chainrings unless also removed. So that becomes two hours of filthy back-breaking work both ends of every trip!

So Fixbus, like the railways, have even tighter bike packaging dimensions than most airlines. That rules them out for me.

Very generous would be such that an almost complete bike - only pedals removed, handlebars turned and saddle lowered - could simply be popped into something like the CTC plastic bike bag, to make a package measuring up to 1.8m long 1.1m tall and 0.3m wide. And a lot of airlines will still take something as big as that. Lufthansa, so I recently heard, now take whole unbagged bicycles, just as they are.
Chris Juden
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MrsHJ
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by MrsHJ »

Anyone got thoughts on getting to either Luxembourg or to Remich in a France (I’m wrong- it’s in Lux) or Nennig in Germany from Paris either with a bike booked on a high speed train or chugging along unreserved on a TER. I’m backing away from the deux mers for early September, I think I’d like to do something a little cooler and save that one for a spring trip.

La Voie Bleue starts from just east of Luxembourg on the Moselle. I can either fly out from Heathrow on a Sunday morning to Luxembourg and cycle from there or get the ferry to Roscof on a Friday evening and get a TGV with bike spot to Paris arriving about 4pm on Saturday. Costs are broadly comparable if I can get a train from Paris to Luxembourg or Nennig with intact bike. As I live in the South west getting to Heathrow takes a bit of effort and the nearest ferry is at Plymouth.

Coming back I can fly from Geneva to Bristol or get the train from Lyon to Roscof via Paris (well Morlaix actually as they’ve stopped running the trains to Roscoff). I’m well acquainted with the Lyon>Geneva TER train but I think Lyon to Paris Bercy is a TER (will check).

Ok, I think it is Paris > Metz via TGV with bike space from Gare de l’est
Then TER Metz> Luxembourg

So outward is overnight ferry Plymouth > Roscof on Friday evening.
Saturday cycle or bus/taxi to Morlaix for the 12:30 train.
Paris at around 4:30. Cycle across to Gare de L’Est
Leave Gare de l’Est at 7:30 ish arrive in Metz at 9pm.
Hotel for the night 8:30 TER train takes less than an hour to get to Luxembourg.
One ferry (includes cabin for similar price as flight). Three trains and an overnight stay. Quite a lot more time, probably very close for cost. Upside- I can meet a friend in Luxembourg that will be a lot easier from the train for lunch.

Or train to Heathrow- takes about 4 hours inc Heathrow express or similar so leave early afternoon on Saturday say 2pm. Check bike and luggage in and stay overnight at Heathrow. Early morning start and 8am flight gets into Lux around 11:00. Unpack bike add on say half an hour. 2 trains, one flight, one overnight hotel. Say morning time is 5 hours from arrive at airport to out of Lux airport.

The route back is:
Train Lyon to Paris 5hours by regular TER service. Should be able to do after a days cycling.
Stay Paris overnight. TGV am to Morlaix. Cycle or taxi 27km to port.
Catch afternoon or evening ferry or next morning depending on schedule.

Or Train Lyon to Geneva (2 hours ish). Overnight stay either Lyon or Geneva.
Pack bike, hang around at airport for at least 3 hours, 2 hours flight, hour to get properly through airport with packed bike.
Fly to Bristol, unpack bike, train home (3 hours for Bristol airport to nearest station)
bohrsatom
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by bohrsatom »

MrsHJ wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 7:41pm
The route back is:
Train Lyon to Paris 5hours by regular TER service. Should be able to do after a days cycling.
Stay Paris overnight. TGV am to Morlaix. Cycle or taxi 27km to port.
Catch afternoon or evening ferry or next morning depending on schedule.
FYI Some Lyon-Paris TGVs now permit fully assembled bikes, which will save three hours on your journey. Checking a random weekday there are around 8 TGV services where bike reservations are available
Jdsk
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by Jdsk »

MrsHJ wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 7:41pm Anyone got thoughts on getting to either Luxembourg or to Remich in a France (I’m wrong- it’s in Lux) or Nennig in Germany from Paris either with a bike booked on a high speed train or chugging along unreserved on a TER. I’m backing away from the deux mers for early September, I think I’d like to do something a little cooler and save that one for a spring trip.

La Voie Bleue starts from just east of Luxembourg on the Moselle. I can either fly out from Heathrow on a Sunday morning to Luxembourg and cycle from there or get the ferry to Roscof on a Friday evening and get a TGV with bike spot to Paris arriving about 4pm on Saturday. Costs are broadly comparable if I can get a train from Paris to Luxembourg or Nennig with intact bike. As I live in the South west getting to Heathrow takes a bit of effort and the nearest ferry is at Plymouth.
Is Paris only in there as a way of getting to where you actually want to go?

Thanks

Jonathan
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MrsHJ
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by MrsHJ »

bohrsatom wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 10:07pm
MrsHJ wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 7:41pm
The route back is:
Train Lyon to Paris 5hours by regular TER service. Should be able to do after a days cycling.
Stay Paris overnight. TGV am to Morlaix. Cycle or taxi 27km to port.
Catch afternoon or evening ferry or next morning depending on schedule.
FYI Some Lyon-Paris TGVs now permit fully assembled bikes, which will save three hours on your journey. Checking a random weekday there are around 8 TGV services where bike reservations are available
Good, noted. :) better than Morlaix which seems to have 1 service some days and about 5 on others.
Last edited by MrsHJ on 13 Jun 2022, 10:40pm, edited 1 time in total.
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MrsHJ
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by MrsHJ »

Jdsk wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 10:09pm Is Paris only in there as a way of getting to where you actually want to go?

Thanks

Jonathan
I’ve looked at this before and it’s a bit like London in that there aren’t that many cross country services that don’t go through Paris. If you draw a line from the end of Brittany to Luxembourg you can see why. It’s more annoying when I want to go to the south west which is possible down the west coast and even then many routes are via Paris.
bohrsatom
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by bohrsatom »

Some useful route planning tools I’ve discovered recently:

https://en.francevelotourisme.com/tips- ... th-bicycle Has a good map with TGV and main TER lines which are of interest to bike tourists

https://direkt.bahn.guru/ for visualising direct train services from any European station. Not cycle specific but help for minimising changes or finding routes not suggested by online journey planners (I think this one’s really cool!)
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MrsHJ
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by MrsHJ »

Thanks. Have booked ferry and Morlaix-Paris-Morlaix TGV legs. Will sort rest out later.

Edit I did miscount my days but I guess that gives me a day in Paris to visit some art or a bit of slack if there are any issues.
Last edited by MrsHJ on 14 Jun 2022, 7:25pm, edited 1 time in total.
pal
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by pal »

That bahnguru site is really cool -- thanks!
rotavator
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by rotavator »

bohrsatom wrote: 13 Jun 2022, 11:09pm Some useful route planning tools I’ve discovered recently:

https://direkt.bahn.guru/ for visualising direct train services from any European station. Not cycle specific but help for minimising changes or finding routes not suggested by online journey planners (I think this one’s really cool!)
That is interesting, but I have just checked a few routes on that website. It does not show Crewe to Fort William as a direct service nor Paris Nord to London St Pancras. "Must try harder" is my verdict or am I well out of date?
pal
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Re: Max time/expense/difficulty to get to the start of a European tour?

Post by pal »

I think there must be some wrinkles in the data: it seems to have all the other Eurostar routes, but the closest one to Paris is 'Marne la Vallée' (which, googling reveals, is the stop for Disneyland Paris...)
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