Family trip to the romantic strasse

[Dr s]

Planning for the summer!

The 3 of us want to ride the romantic road in Germany to help with laddos gcse German.

Trying to be my head round logistics, we are in Cumbria UK. We have an SUV that can take all the bikes on the roof. But we could train down and ride onto the ferry? Then train across?

What about booking hotels / camp grounds? We’ve got touring bikes and panniers so that bit us easy.

All advice very welcome as we try and make an idea a reality!

[plancashire]

Start here: https://www.romantischestrasse.de/en/ou ... ps-tracks/

B&B here: https://www.bettundbike.de/

[mdskids]

Not quite the same as your plans, but we did cycle around Bodensee/Lake Constance several years ago with the family. They were younger than yours (4 kids, aged 10 to 16) so the flat largely traffic free route was ideal. It's a lovely route with plenty to see, with the added attraction of passing through 3 (German speaking) countries. Rather than drive (like you, I'm in Cumbria, so it's long long way) we actually flew to Basel, then took a train to Friedrichshafen (I see that Easyjet now have direct flights to Friedrichshafen). Rather than take our own bikes, we hired bikes once we got to Friedrichshafen (pre-booked online). This turned out to be great idea - the hire bikes were perfectly fine for the route we were doing - comfortable, bog-standard German 'trekking' bikes, and were no more expensive to hire for a week than the cost of bringing our bikes on the plane. We brought our own panniers and a Burley bike cargo trailer for all the camping gear. Also worked well because it was a circular route, so we finished back at the bike hire shop.

We did also drive to Southern Germany a few years ago, not to cycle tour, but we did take 4 bikes with us. It was a long drive, which we did over 3 or 4 days, with stop-offs. I did look at taking the train, but it just looked a bit complicated with all the different rules in different countries for bringing bikes on train.

Since you're Cumbria, I suggest you check out trains from Amsterdam. Then you could get a train to Newcastle, then the overnight ferry to Ijmuiden, then train to Germany, or you could even spend the day in Amsterdam and get the Nightjet sleeper train, which has routes going in the right direction. Not sure if they take bikes though.

[mjr]

Since you're Cumbria, I suggest you check out trains from Amsterdam. Then you could get a train to Newcastle, then the overnight ferry to Ijmuiden, then train to Germany, or you could even spend the day in Amsterdam and get the Nightjet sleeper train, which has routes going in the right direction. Not sure if they take bikes though.

The new Nightjets do, 6 bikes per luggage area, but www.seat61.com/bike-by-train.htm reckons you have to book the Nightjet sleeper or couchette on www.oebb.at and then the bike on https://int.bahn.de - so possible but fiddly.

For the day trains, Amsterdam-Düsseldorf-Cologne-Frankfurt are now ICE3neo with 8 bike spaces which makes life easier than it used to be. So if you could get to Centraal for 0830, one change to a regional train in Augsburg would get you to Füssen (where I think the route starts) at 17:42. Next simplest (fewest changes) is 10:38 changing Düsseldorf and Munich, arriving 21:44. It should be possible to use a 19:00 sleeper to Munich arriving 07:06 and then a regional train, once they confirm the new carriages are ready (expected in April).

If you prefer to start in Würzburg, it can be done with one change in Frankfurt but it's often cheaper and sometimes quicker to change in Düsseldorf, or cheaper but slower to change in Hannover. See what the planner can find fares and bike spaces for!

Edit to add: it seems the ferry arrives at Ijmuiden at 09:45 so the above simple change day trains aren't possible. The bahn planner will show options.

[scragend]

The new Nightjets do, 6 bikes per luggage area, but www.seat61.com/bike-by-train.htm reckons you have to book the Nightjet sleeper or couchette on www.oebb.at and then the bike on https://int.bahn.de - so possible but fiddly.

That's the case currently on the Amsterdam-Zurich route, which still has the old-style Nightjet sleeper & couchette cars. The train also has Swiss seating cars (but operated by DB for some reason), and it's these Swiss cars that have the bike spaces. That's why the bike space needs to be booked with DB. The train composition is here:

https://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.php ... =&rok=2025

From 7th April 2025 the Amsterdam-Innsbruck train (which currently has no bike provision*) becomes a "new generation" Nightjet so this should have the bike spaces in the luggage area of the seating carriage and therefore presumably will be bookable through ÖBB. The site isn't allowing a bike booking after that date yet, but the composition isn't showing on Vagonweb after 6th April either so maybe the systems just haven't been updated yet.

* = Not from Amsterdam at any rate - it does after Nuremberg once it joins up with the new generation Nightjet that comes from Hamburg:

https://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.php ... =&rok=2025

[plancashire]

Since 15 December 2024 Deutsche Bahn has made it possible to book bike spaces on long distance trains (EC, IC and ICE) one year in advance. The ADFC (German bike club) is advising its members to book early. You too! More (in German) here: Jetzt schon für den Sommer buchen: ADFC-Tipps zur Fahrradmitnahme mit der Bahn.