Cycling training camps/holidays in Sweden?

[GrahamJ]

In 2011 and 2012, I made about ten trips to Sweden from North Scotland, for work. I flew from Edinburgh to Gothenburg. I looked into the possibility of trains to reduce CO2 emissions, but the train journey is about double the distance of flying, and the CO2 per passenger for a cabin in a sleeper train (of which I'd want two each way) is a lot more than for a seat.

I have been unable to find any routes from Scotland to Sweden at Ecopassenger.

I like Sweden, and Gothenburg is the only city I've enjoyed cycling around. On a couple of visits, I hired a city bike (3 speed, pedal backwards to brake, shopping basket up front). I even went on some gentle gravel in the nature reserve to the east of Gothenburg. 2010-11 was a cold winter (in much of northern Europe) and the lakes were still partly frozen in April. I did not swim.

[AndyK]

For what it's worth, the estimable Man in Seat 61 has a list of suggested ways to travel from the UK to Sweden by train, three of which involve an overnight stay in Hamburg instead of a sleeper train. Of course it does take two whole days: worth it if you treat the journey itself as part of the holiday, perhaps less practical if you're doing it for work or if you just want to get on with the cycling bit. I see the route includes the Øresund Bridge ("The Bridge" from the Scandi-noir TV series) which sells the idea to me straight away.

[Jdsk]

For what it's worth, the estimable Man in Seat 61 has a list of suggested ways to travel from the UK to Sweden by train, three of which involve an overnight stay in Hamburg instead of a sleeper train. Of course it does take two whole days: worth it if you treat the journey itself as part of the holiday, perhaps less practical if you're doing it for work or if you just want to get on with the cycling bit.
...

Excellent site. And he responds to correspondence. And he depends on people telling him things as well as on his own searching.

Jonathan

[mattheus]

I see the route includes the Øresund Bridge ("The Bridge" from the Scandi-noir TV series) which sells the idea to me straight away.

That's definitely a big plus for me too!

I will be very sad if I reach my death-bed without visiting proper Scandinavia (the closest I've been is Lubeck and Travemunde where the ferries go from. It was quite exciting picturing Sweden+Denmark somewhere across the water!)
My all-time fantasy Scandi destination is the Lofoten Islands, but we'll pursue that on another thread some time. Might require more than a week's riding ...

[Jon in Sweden]

An update:

So we're moving forward on the swimming and cycling focused holidays here in Sweden. We've rented a nice, comfortable little cottage in the village from May to September inclusive, that can sleep 4-5 people. We have a lot of availability in May and September at the moment (the two best months for cycling, I'd say - June-August can be rather hot).

Check out the Facebook page for updates. Based on four sharing, the price per night is about £14.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085383722965

Flights from Stansted to Växjö are really cheap and there is a branch of an American franchise called Rent-a-wreck for affordable car hire. A VW Caravelle is just over £300 for a week (easy to put 4-5 bikes into the back of it).

We're starting to work with the local council to promote the cycling here, in particular the gravel. I'm in the UK for Easter and when we're back, I've a meeting with them to push this forwards.

I've got a couple of Youtube channels interested in coming here over summer to do some content too, so hoping to have plenty of videos showcasing the cycling possibilities here too.

And finally, we do have some bikes we can hire out cheaply, but maybe only 4-5, and we don't have a complete size range. We would need to look at improving the hire possibilities, but that's quite expensive.

If anyone is interested in coming, I will offer a 20% discount during May for forum members on the accommodation. Based on four sharing, that's little more than £10 per night and cycling here will be something you won't forget.

There is also a large organised gravel event in May that I'm participating in:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085383722965

[Jdsk]

...
Flights from Stansted to Växjö are really cheap and there is a branch of an American franchise called Rent-a-wreck for affordable car hire. A VW Caravelle is just over £300 for a week (easy to put 4-5 bikes into the back of it).
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: - )

For our walking holidays I always appreciate it when the organisers tell me as much as possible about how to get there, even if they aren't arranging that.

Are you offering collection from airports, train stations etc?

Jonathan

[mattheus]

You might get better traffic by hosting a non-Facebook ("proper") website.

Good luck!

[Jon in Sweden]

...
Flights from Stansted to Växjö are really cheap and there is a branch of an American franchise called Rent-a-wreck for affordable car hire. A VW Caravelle is just over £300 for a week (easy to put 4-5 bikes into the back of it).
...

: - )

For our walking holidays I always appreciate it when the organisers tell me as much as possible about how to get there, even if they aren't arranging that.

Are you offering collection from airports, train stations etc?

Jonathan

If I can work it into my schedule, I'm happy to do pick ups from Växjö. It's only an hour from here.

Any questions at all, please fire them over. I'm really keen to get as many people over here cycling as possible. The best bike to come with is a fast gravel/road/touring bike. If you want to experience to best of what is to offer on one bike, you need the ability to be able to do the gravel.

90% of the gravel roads are super smooth (in many cases, smoother than what passes for roads in the UK) but you wouldn't want to do them on slicks.

My singular goal is to offer really affordable, really enjoyable holidays with a minimum of fuss. I'm in the process of doing the website, and I'll have a heap of gpx files for anyone to upload for route guidance. Having cycled them all myself too, I can offer comment on every route. There are even one or two terrible roads to avoid!

[Jon in Sweden]

You might get better traffic by hosting a non-Facebook ("proper") website.

Good luck!

It's the next thing on our to-do list and is in the works

[Jon in Sweden]

I am presently in the UK with my family (and my bike!) and have been cycling a bit. A couple hundred km around Northamptonshire so far, and Exmoor tomorrow and somewhere around Wincanton on Friday.

A few reflections and comparisons between Sweden and here.

Firstly, in 8 short months I'd forgotten just how rough the roads are here in the UK. It's not just the inner tube/tyre/fork/staying-on-the-bike ending potholes every 200m or so, but everything in between is incredibly rough. I'm riding on 28mm tyres (which actually measure 32mm) at a fairly modest pressure (I'm 104kg, I can't have them too soft) and it's bone shaking for much of the time. It takes an awful lot of the enjoyment out of riding.

Secondly, the traffic is extraordinary. I had a nice ride at 07:15 on Sunday morning, skirting around the top of Market Harborough. Sticking the backlanes, I managed to avoid a fair bit of the traffic, but yesterday, going out at the same time meant just a succession of cars passing me, even on previously quiet roads. The drivers were all actually pretty courteous but the sheer volume of them makes for challenging riding when you're trying to avoid all the pothole that are trying to kill you.

Thirdly - road design. The roads here are designed in such a dangerous fashion, by which I mean endless blind corners, high banks, steep hills ending in t-junctions or 90 degree corners, roads far too narrow etc etc.

It's just so unfortunate as there are so many avid cyclists here. I saw more cyclists in the 6km to the meeting point for the club ride on Saturday than I've seen in the last 5 months on the road in Sweden. And then probably saw another 100 riders over the next 3hrs.

On an 80km ride at home in Sweden, I maybe see an average of 25 cars, use my brakes 2 or 3 times and dodge 1 or 2 potholes, whilst very comfortably riding on 110psi on 25mm tyres.

The point of this post is just to say that I've enjoyed my cycling here in the UK this week (Countisbury and Porlock Hill tomorrow!) but if you want to experience truly excellent and relaxing cycling, you could do a lot worse than coming to Sweden

[nirakaro]

I'd forgotten just how rough the roads are here in the UK.

Once upon a time, i used to snigger at the state of the roads when I went to Italy, or India. Not any more.

[Jon in Sweden]

I'd forgotten just how rough the roads are here in the UK.

Once upon a time, i used to snigger at the state of the roads when I went to Italy, or India. Not any more.

Indeed. I'm just back from my first 72km back in Sweden and the difference in the roads couldn't be more stark. I did a quick 31km in N. Germany on the way back and their roads are much the same as Sweden. It's just the UK that has dreadful roads.

On the topic of cycling holidays here, if anyone has time in May, we're trying to fill our holiday let for that month and are doing the weeks very cheaply. £295 per week (sleeps 4-5), including bills, final cleaning and linen. I have a selection of bikes that can be cheaply hired, though if you're riding the latest Di2 equipped carbon aero bike, you may want to bring it with you.

Direct, cheap flights from Stansted to Växjö (1hr from us) and cheap car hire too.

If you want a cheap week away on perfect roads/gravel with no traffic and great scenery, please get in touch through our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085383722965

[AndyK]

That reminds me of something I meant to mention a while back. Jon, if you are offering a combination of two or more types of travel service (e.g. accommodation and bike hire) you may have responsibilities under the EU Package Travel Directive. Worth checking, if you haven't already.
https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-to ... -directive
Swedish law links at https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-to ... rective_en

[Jon in Sweden]

That reminds me of something I meant to mention a while back. Jon, if you are offering a combination of two or more types of travel service (e.g. accommodation and bike hire) you may have responsibilities under the EU Package Travel Directive. Worth checking, if you haven't already.
https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-to ... -directive
Swedish law links at https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-to ... rective_en

Thanks for that. We're aware of the responsibilities and I think for the most part we are compliant. Or at least we will be very shortly!

[Vorpal]

With the dearth of ferries from the UK to Scandinavia it's hard to see a non-flying option of getting there, unless you or anyone else knows good non-fly options.

The easiest non-flying alternative is probably driving and using the Channel Tunnel train. You can also ferry from Kiel or Copenhagen.

It's not terrible by train. I guess you need to allow 24 - 32 hours to do it, but there are various options. The least changes (but likely a somewhat longer journey) is Eurostar to Brussels, change for Hamburg, change for Copenhagen, change for Växjö (or wherever the nearest station is). The quickest, most direct route will have around 6 changes, some which may have shorter layovers than recommended for regional / intercountry trains. There's also a Hamburg - Stockholm sleeper, but you have to change stations in Hamburg for that one.

The difficulty, of course, is taking bikes across multiple changes. That's not too bad with some rail services, but it is unfortunately, not consistent & will probably mean boxing them & taking them as luggage.