Question for those who have toured in Europe

[PeanutButterShammyCream]

I have a couple of questions for you guys...

Did you use the Eurovelo? If so, are there plenty of signs describing where to go?

Did you use a map??? Michelin???

How did you find camping? Was there a lot of campgrounds?

[AndrewG]

Hi, I cycled from Trondheim in Norway down to Santiago de Compostela last year on Eurovelo 3 Pilgrims Route (5500km by the time I got to Porto in Portugal). Eurovelo signage on this route was patchy to say the least (more like non-existent!). However, in some countries you are following established national cycleways and therefore you can follow the local signs. I pieced together a route by researching national cycleways and stitched them together into a trans-national route.

The Eurovelo project is more a grand vision than a local reality - like many things EU-related! Some of the routes are more established than others - Eurovelo 6 for instance from the Atlantic to the Black Sea has Eurovelo signage most of the way from what I understand together with maps and a route book (Bikeline series by Esterbauer Verlag). Eurovelo 8 has little if no signage. Depends on which one you are thinking about...

Michelin maps 1:250,000 and 200,000 are a good bet for route planning. I certainly used them in Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal. I used Freytag & Berndt maps for Scandinavia and Germany.

For the most part I camped along the way. I travelled through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal and only away from the coast in the latter two countries was it more problematic. I've toured before in Spain and Portugal and found that away from the more popular tourist destinations camping can be a bit tricky. But hotel/hostel accommodation in these countries is a lot more reasonable than in Scandinavia!

Take a look at this guy's website. He's done 3 of the Eurovelo routes and it paints a pretty realistic experience..

http://cyclingeurope.org

Hope this helps. Let me know if I can help further.

Andrew

[preston uk]

I rode from S.E. Portugal to North cape Norway using pages torn from old motoring atlases  and a marco polo map of Scandanavia. Use google earth to pick out back roads , camping spots and mark them on the maps. Amazon has old atlases for a few quid.
As Andrew G  says camping in Spain is a real pain. There are very few inland campsites and those that exist are very badly signposted. I wish I'd marked them on my map more carefully. I managed quite a few wild camps in Spain but sometimes had to ride big days to find them ( carry 4L of water at the end of the day). The Spanish like to fence everything off  so pick out likely spots in advance. Michelin maps show where some of the the campsites are  but I used google .
France is pretty good for wild camping , a lot of municipal campsites don't open until June. You'll need to do some research on French municipal sites , not all villages have them but they are great and cheap too;  commercial sites can be expensive.
Germany was ok for campsites but I only wild camped once and made sure i was well out of sight. Denmark is campsite paradise - campers lounges , kitchens and shower blocks to die for.
Norway  has good campsites , I was there in June and I heard they can be busy in July , August. Finding wild camping spots can be surprisingly hard  in the fjord areas south of Trondheim  because of the really steep land ( alot of the suitable spots had a house on them).  North of trondheim there was no problem.

[Westinghouse]

I did a considerable amount of touring in western Europe, eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. In the UK, a magazine-like atlas of maps worked perfectly. Detailed road maps worked well for all other places. There were times when designated bike paths or bike roads would have been great improvements in conditions. Generally, finding places for stealth camping was easy. In eastern Europe there were usually people along the roads, even at night, making it impossible to find a place to duck into the woods where nobody could see where I had left the road.

[indyfabz]

I was in Andalucía touring 16 years ago today. For maps, I used Michelin's map of the territory. They make some very details maps. I think I got lost maybe once in seven weeks. The nice thing about a detailed map is that if your plans change you can plot a new route.

The map for Andalucia showed some campgrounds. For more thorough information I contacted the Spanish National Tourist Office in New York. They sent me lists of campgrounds by province. But now you can find much of that on line.