First trip across Europe
 

Hello my name is Alex and I always wanted to travel a lot on my bike, well it's time to do it :D :scooter:
I'm living from Manchester to Romania on 8 October, I'll be passing through
france (calais till belgium border)
Belgium
Germany
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Hungary
And finally Romania,where i will stay for 5 days before I start the trip back to uk crossing
Hungary
Austria
Germany
France
Being my first long trip on the motorcycle I would appreciate any tips,tricks and suggestions or advise(will be on a buget so me and my misses will stay as much as possible on tent), hope to meet a lot of nice people along the way so if you're on the same route maybe will meet for a cup of coffee :mchappy:

First long trip! October!! & camping!!! Hope you've got plenty of warm and wet weather gear. My advice would be wait for summer 2016, if you don't - Good Luck and ride safely.:rain:

Thank you.I just want to get out of my comfort zone.it's to easy to do it in the summer and I really need a break right now :scooter: .hopefully it won't be to bad:Beach: and I hope I will meet nice people that will make me forget about the could and nasty wheather

You should be OK in October, perfect riding conditions if you ask me, I was in Hungary and Romania a few weeks ago and the temperature was 40 degrees and way too uncomfortable. You may get wet camping though, once you get further east accommodation isn't particularly expensive so cheap hotels may be the best option, depending on your budget of course.

The nights will close in quicker so it would be wise to plan carefully to make sure you reach your destination before dark, riding in the likes of Romania is a challenge in itself during daylight hours and definitely won't be much fun in the dark.

Sounds like a good trip, remember to pack as light as possible.

I recommend to visit Poland :) Especially Warsaw, i was there for 7 days on a business trip and I spent a really nice time there (especialy in New Orleans club, on Zgoda 11. Really good place to visit when traveling with buddys :) Nice striptease :thumbup1: ) People are very friendly, english speaking and it has really low costs of living

First trip across Europe
 

Alex

I did pretty much your trip in June. The ride report is on here somewhere.

My tips would be:

Don't try and do too much - its a lot of miles in 2 weeks
Take it steady in eastern europe - some low grip dodgy roads about
Make sure tour bike is ready for a long stint (tyres, chain and sprockets, etc)
Enjoy - its a great trip :-)



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Hi Alex,

may be by bad weather ... you have to find a campground very fast.
I can highly recommend this one:

Free POIs for campsites in Europe to use on your cellphone or navi:
Archiescampings

@Germany
if you come up from Belgium up to germany:
The "middle rhine valley" might be interesting for you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Rhine

Just take the highway to BONN and go north untill WIESBADEN.
On the left side (of the river rhine) the street nummber is "B42" on the right side "B9". (2-2,5 hours to drive may be more)

You will find a lot of campsites besides the river rhine.
This one is on the way, nice, simple but a great beargarden in the summer:
Campingplatz und Biergarten "Auf dem Salmenfang" in Rheinbreitbach am Rhein und Siebengebirge
But take in mind,
a lot of the campgrounds are closing at the end of september in germany.

Have fun & good trip! :welcome:

Sounds very interesting :).

Have you considered doing a cruise on some of the European rivers? That way you can almost travel across the whole continent in a week or so?

My wife and I are really into these cruises - we take a 7 day cruise in Europe, in March-April next year - and that will be our 5th cruise in 6 years :).
This time it is gonna be Rhine - https://www.riuscruises.com/river-cr...jour-1061.html - through Germany to Holland :).

Best wishes :)

If you're in no real rush, I would stop for a coffee at every fuel stop. It beaks the journey and quite often you can see flyers for a nearby attraction you might otherwise miss :-)

Hi Alex
 

Camping on wet conditions is ok for one or two nights , but you can also consider using HU communitees ,we are hundreds around the world and of course around Europe , check the list . The other problem with camping (i always camp when travelling) out of touristic season is most of them are closed
until april/may so you can have bad surprises ,and some countries dont accept wild camping.Anyway have a nice trip.
Ride safe a cool.
Roger

Hi Alex,

It's a lot to do if you have time constraints, and you'll spend most of your time on the bike, which might not be comfortable for both of you, and adverse weather will significantly slow your progress. Please take into consideration the current political climate and thousands of people on the move across the countries where you are travelling, there will be inevitable delays, and you might not find it easy. You only have to look at the news to understand that border crossings may be more difficult than expected, esp Hungary.

This is your first big trip and you might want to get out of your comfort zone a bit, but think about future travels together. If it's not a good experience it might put you off, and for the inexperienced traveller doing too much too quickly, could put you into difficult and perhaps dangerous situations, like travelling too late into the afternoon and not finding anywhere to camp, getting tired in unfamiliar surroundings, poor road conditions etc.. And don't forget your other half!

If I was considering doing this trip, I'd only plan as far as the next country, and see where it gets me, and as I avoid time constraints and schedules to keep to, it's my way of travelling safe & stress free.

Camping is a fun way to do it, but it does get very tedious after a while. Me and my Dad camped on our last Europe trip, sharing the same tent, and after a week or so we needed our own space so ended up using hotels.
It didn't help that it rained for a couple of days so sleeping next to your wet gear etc just to put it on still wet gets unpleasant.
Maybe best to avoid Alpine roads in case of snow but maybe others can advise on that as I have only ever been in the middle of summer.
Riding over there is easier than you think , just remember to keep on the correct side of the road at junctions/after breaks/in the morning etc.

Youth Hostels
 

Youth Hostels are a great budget option if the camping becomes a chore - having to move on after just one night's camping, escaping wet weather. Good to have access to a kitchen and some space to relax too. Private rooms also available.
Not essential to be a member but membership does entitle you to a discount. Join at YHA UK and the card is valid internationally.

For Hostels try searching on hostelbookers.com if you want to have somewhere prearranged before you get to your destination.

I discovered quite a few really great places to stay from this website.

currently -9 and snowing in Poland!!