European campsites and trains with motorbikes on them!
 

Does anyone know of a good website for finding campsites across europe? I've found a few but they're tending to come up with very large commercial campsites and we thought it would be nice to find somewhere a little more secluded...but still nice! Showers etc...!

We're doing Portsmouth-Bilbao-Barcelona-Switzerland-Basel-Holland.

On the same note, someone told me recently that there was a train that left from somewhere near Basel or the Swiss border and went up to Holland to bring you in somewhere around 100kms from Amsterdam but it allows you to put your motorbike on it. I haven't been able to find it. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Rail Europe - French Motorail, Autotrain, Take car to France

Motorbike campsites

Theres a few things to get you started but I can't understand why anyone would want to put their bike on a train - ride it !!! There's some great roads down through Europe and you'll miss them all if you go on the train.

I'm thinking along the same lines with regards to traveling by train through Europe. In my case, I will be leaving for a cross Africa trip Atlantic route around the 1'st of November. To be honest I am not looking forward to driving through the european high passes at that time of year on a fully loaded bike. And besides, Europe is just a "bump on the road" enroute to my REAL trip, which is Africa.

I leave from Denmark but cannot get on a car-train before Hamburg. And the furthest south that goes is southern France. Also, the last car-train leaves on 28'th of October. Then they close down for the season. Due to my work situation that may be too early for me to get on. So I may be forced to driving some very cold boring hours on danish, german, french and spanish highways. You can check out Deutche Bundesbahn website here :

DB-Konzern - Startseite They have an english option. Maybe there's something you can use for your specific trip.

I'm sure there are some exciting things to see in Europe and also some interesting and fun roads. I'll check those out next year. For now, Europe is just something I need to get through before my real trip starts.

Quite a few Belgians and Dutch people take the northern route along the coast of France, turning south through Saumur. It is less cold in winter although might be wetter :(
We are on a well used shortut to spain used mostly by people who dont like peages or prefer beautiful countryside.

Why drive the boring Autobahn?
From Denmark you can go into Germany and then West along the coast to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands you can travel trough Groningen and Friesland, over the Afsluitdijk, past Amsterdam to the Deltaworks and then trough the tunnel to Terneuzen and from there into Belgium.
Then you can follow the French Atlantic coast to the South.

Last year I have been riding almost every weekend all winter. Only a few days with snow and ice. but not in October. Just make sure you have a good rain-overall.