Finding new places for bike journeys is one of the joys of cycle touring and bikepacking. But where to start? Sometimes the best places are the ones we don’t know about or hadn’t thought of – that’s where a little inspiration from others’ travels comes in. So here’s a few websites that might provide some ideas for trips
This site has great bikepacking trip reports matched with equally good photos. As well as listing routes on all continents there’s also a lot of useful stuff about planning, gear, photography and longer features. There’s a range of routes varying in length and difficulty, all off-road, plus lots of practical information route descriptions.
PANNIER | for the Travelling Cyclist | Cycle Touring / Bikepacking / Adventure Cycling Website & Resource
Source: www.pannier.cc/
There’s lots of good, useful information and reports on this site but it’s not the most intuitive website to use. The ‘Routes’ tab lists about 20 routes, mainly in the UK, with GPX files to download. But also go to the ‘Journal’ tab and click on the ‘Filter’ button to access lots more articles with great photography on tours throughout the world plus plenty of other stuff.
Crazy Guy on a Bike https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/
This site should really be called Crazy Guys on Bikes as it is a massive collection of blogs, articles, photos, forums, reviews, classified ads and FAQs all relating to cycle touring. The home page has a stripped down appearance as it is designed to be used on slow connections – hence no preview page loaded here. It has a good search facility to help you work your way through the hundreds of entries. There’s also a nice serendipity section, which I guess is what many of us think bike touring is about.
Sidetracked Magazine – Adventure Travel Journal. Stories of adventure and exploration.
Source: www.sidetracked.com/
Sidetracked is a print magazine and also has a great website with features on all types of adventure travel and exploration. So articles on bike trips sit alongside mountaineering, kayaking trekking and skiing in all parts of the world from deserts the polar ice caps. Quite a few contributers seem to be professional photographers so there are lots of high quality images.
Hopefully these websites will have you getting the maps out and starting planning – and if not, flicking through them is a great way to spend a cold winter’s evening!
