Our Cycling Route Around The World

England & France

Our official start point was Paris, France, but we decided to cycle from our home in Shropshire, England. This gave us a chance to break-in our new, loaded touring bikes in our home country. We wanted to get used to bicycle touring in a familiar setting.

Cycling from home also has the added benefit of leaving your country by bike, opposed to flying out. It’s pretty cool standing on a ferry waving goodbye to your home country – knowing that the adventure really starts now.

As you can see from the homepage banner, in England and France we stayed on the route. It was fairly logical to do so; in England we were eager to get to Dover (maybe a little too eager) and France, being a great place to cycle, had cycle paths to follow.

We deviated from the route within the day to hit up places recommended to us, like Briare Canal, but we always came back to the route.

French roads are such a treat to cycle at times the roads were so quiet, we couldn’t believe it. We were not used to the luxury. A lot of  France is completely flat too, the canals in particular, of course!

We celebrated our one year anniversary in Paris, France.

Highlights of England & France:

• Chipping Campden, England
• Surry Hills – there’s an epic downhill to Dorking!
• And of course, the ferry to Dover.
• French cycle paths – we hopped on and off Eurovelo 3, 6, 17 & 8
• Exploring Arras, Lyon & Paris – we saw so much of Paris on a budget!
• The French canals, which you can follow on the Euro Velo 6
• Briare Canel
• Beausemblant
• Cycling along the River Rhone

Italy

This is the only part of the trip that we would re-route and we would recommend you don’t follow our route through Italy if possible. This route is direct and due to the time of year it gave us the best possible chance of good weather.

We’ve spoken to other cyclists who took this same route and they reported similar feelings to us – there weren’t many friendly faces, the roads were boring and we ended up on the main roads because the cycle paths were useless or “in development”.

Basically our route through Italy was South of Milan and North of anything else. The Alps weren’t an option for us due to the time of year.

In hindsight – and if the weather was better for us – we would consider the following options:

• The Alps (weather permitting)
• Germany
• Including Lake Garda (we thought about re-routing to this, but honestly we were so demoralised we just wanted Italy done.)

Highlights of Italy along our route:

• Views of the Italian coastline, although the cycling wasn’t great
• Rosalina – we cycled by just before sunset and it was gorgeous.
• Venice
• Some parts of the River Po (when we found a cycle path)

Eastern Europe Cycle Around the World Route

We visited: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria

Okay, so this is where everything changed and we threw our cycle around the world route out of the window.

We met Marko, a seasoned cyclist and a fantastic warmshowers host in Slovenia. He questioned what we were doing and why – he told us in no uncertain terms that our route was the boring route.

That evening Marko sat us down and re-routed us. He encouraged us to leave Hungary and Serbia for another day and instead head South-East Europe. We followed Marko’s route as closely as we could, but there was one missed opportunity, Lake Ohrid. It looked so beautiful, but we just didn’t have the time as we were meeting our family in Istanbul.

The map below was our rough plan. We winged it day-to-day, so it’s not exactly what we did, but it’s pretty close! You can take a look Zoe’s Strava for exact routes.

When we got to Bulgaria we joined our original route and we followed it (mostly) in Turkey. There were two noticeable deviations. The first between Edirne and Istanbul – we just needed to get to Istanbul quicker so we took a more direct route and the second was the way out of Istanbul, rather than cycling the busy city we took a ferry from Istanbul to Yalova.

Highlights of Eastern Europe:

• The tour of Slovenia, you can see we did a loop from Sezana, returning to Sezana after about 200 miles (320kms). This included:
  • Skocjan Caves – you can go with your bikes and any luggage. It’s very safe and everything will be locked away
  • Lake Bled
  • The downhill from Podbrdo
  • Skofja Loka
• The coastline of Croatia
• Croatian Islands – especially Cres
• Mostar, Bosnia – there’s an epic downhill into Mostar
• The Ferry from Koman, Albania
• The village Has, Albania (not included in the original map above)
• Skopje, Macedonia (wish we stayed more than 1 night)
• Plovdiv, Bulgaria – we really enjoyed the 40miles/64kms of flat/downhill roads to Plovdiv!

Turkey

Cycling Turkey is fantastic – what really made it for us were the people, the hospitality and the food! I’m fairly confident that whatever you decided to do in Turkey you’ll have a great time.

This was another country that we totally re-routed through. The route can be found on Strava.

Highlights along our route:

• Basically from Karasu the route was great
• Safranbolu is a beautiful historic town – a good place to spend more than 1 night
• Kastamonu – a great town and Behic, our warmshowers host was amazing
• Cycling inland from Ergli – we loved this part of Turkey! The alternative is the coast which I hear is also very beautiful and hilly. We decided to go inland because we joined the coast again at Samsun, so we felt we got the best if both worlds. We’re still happy with this decision.
• From Gerze you join the Black Sea again- and the roads are flllaaaat! This route does get a little tiresome towards the end as you will cycle along a dual carriageway for a lot of the way. On the other hand, you can enjoy big mile days! Our record was 107 miles (172 kms)

Georgia

We woke up to a message on Instagram suggesting that our chosen route missed a real highlight – Goderdzi Pass. We were promised a difficult road (gravel), a huge challenge, some sizeable climbs, but beautiful views and no regrets. Our new route delivered just that.

Highlights included:

• Batumi
• Goderdzi Pass
• The route passing Paravani Lake – very beautiful – we wish we’d camped here

Cycling Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan you have 2 logical routes from Balaken – the north hillier route or the south flatter route. We opted, as per our original route to take the north hillier route and we have no regrets.

This route goes via Balaken, Sheki, Gabele, Ismayilli, Sabir & Baku.

Highlights included:

• Beautiful mountains
• A nice mix of uphill climbs and smooth, sweeping downhills
• A challenging 3 mile climb that you will not forget
• Mountainous views turning to dry desert land – you’ll get a fantastic mix of all

Lowlights included:

Waiting days for the ferry then holding it up for 4 hours due to our (self inflicted) migration problem! Read this blog and don’t make the mistake as us – we can’t go back without paying £200 each.

Kazakhstan

Cycling Central Asia is fantastic! The moment we stepped off the ferry from Alat to Aktau we were blown away – quite literally, by the wind, and mentally by the changing landscapes. At this point in the trip you can pretty much guarnatee you’ll be sticking to you cycle around the world route – there aren’t many roads!

We were daunted by the mass of flat land and long straight roads – one of the first roads we took was 8 miles long.

Once you get to Central Asia you’ll find road options drop off, so cycling has never been easier! You cycle a flat road for miles and miles, peaceful miles all day long. You set up a camp anywhere you like, whenever you like and then do the same the next day! We loved that part of Central Asia.

We actually popped in and out of Kazakhstan three times, exploring Uzbekistan and a couple days in Kyrgyzstan.

Highlights included:

• The first sighting of a camel!
• The initial surprise of stepping off the ferry
• Almaty is a fabulous city – and there’s an AMAZING warmshowers host there, Matt
• Charyn Canyon

Uzbekistan

The ‘stans we cycled through have a couple things in common – vast, open landscapes, barren deserts and very few roads! You’ll likely find that you will stick like glue to your cycle around the world route. There’s a bit of wriggle room, of course! You can almost guarentee if you meet someone in the ‘Stans – you’ll meet them again later, as you’re all heading in roughly the same direction. Most will go to the Pamir, although we didn’t – we were aiming to get across Chin before winter.

Highlights included:

• The architecture
• Khiva
• The hospitality is incredible
• Flat days and speedy miles!

Cycling China – Cycle Around the World Route

China is incredible. What a place.

It was by far the most unique experience of the entire trip. Our route took us through four provinces: Xinjiang, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan.

We were supposed to skip winter for two years as our route was chasing the sun, but Xinjiang was a little snowy and by the time we got to Gansu it was the midst of winter. Some of our coldest cycling days were -1! It was unbearable! We even camped in temperatures at -8! We went over the highest mountain of the trip, reaching 9,000ft elevation and then went over the other side. Unbeknown to us at the time – we would never seen the cold and snow again! Yunnan was gorgeous, we stripped off our layers and soaked up the sun once again.

Xinjiang is by far the most radical place with police at literally every corner. The crossing is a bit of a frustration, but it’s really not too bad, so don’t worry about that.

Highlights included:

• The general culture – it’s so different
• The Great Wall
• The food in sichuan
• The mountains in Yunnan

Post written by: Stewart