I’ve been wanting to experience Iceland for myself for several years now… and I’ll be getting that chance this coming May!

On May 4th, I land in Iceland with my friend and college roommate, Brandon Roesler, and together we will cycle approximately 800 miles around Iceland over a period of 24 days.

24 days may seem like a lot of time to see such a small country, but bicycle touring is a slow endeavor and we plan to do more than just rack up the miles while in the country.

Above you will see a map of the approximate route we plan to take around Iceland on our bicycles… and a more in-depth breakdown of this route can be found below.

Fly Into Keflavik International Airport

We fly into Iceland on the morning of May 4th. After we land, we’ll assemble our bicycles and take off toward Reykjavik. It is a short 30 mile ride from the airport to Iceland’s capital, so that’s probably all we’ll do on day number one.

Stock Up In Reykjavik – The Capital

We’ll spend a day or two in Reykjavik – both exploring the city and stocking up on food and supplies for our venture into the wilderness. While in Reykjavik, we’ll also be participating in a short one-day bicycle tour with Reykjavik Bike Tours.

Explore Our Surroundings At Thingvellir National Park

We’ll then cycle north toward Thingvellir National Park. Most of the campgrounds in Iceland don’t open until May 15th or later, so we’ll have to fend for ourselves and camp in the wild without access to toilets, showers, or any modern amenities.

Marvel At The Geyser in Geysir

Then we’ll ride a short distance further north-east to Geysir, the location of Iceland’s most famous hot-water geyser.

Off-Road It To Friðland Að Fjalllabaki

After Geysir we begin a long and beautiful off-road ride toward an incredibly scenic and remote area of Iceland known as Friðland Að Fjalllabaki. We plan to spend several nights camping in this isolated region of the country before continuing south and hitting up with the Ring Road.

Roll Onto the Ring Road At Kirkjubaejarklaustur

The Ring Road is the 832 mile (1,339 km) road that runs around the perimeter of Iceland. We had originally thought of cycling all the way around this road while we were in the country, but decided that doing so would prevent us from seeing some of Iceland’s more isolated regions.

Camp On The Edge Of The Vatnajokull Glacier

Traveling north on the Ring Road, we will cycle our way to the base of the Vatnajokull Glacier and camp out for a day or two in the Skaftafell National Park. During our time here we will explore the nearby glacier and take in the beauty of the sea.

Head West On The Ring Road

Then we’ll jump back on the Ring Road once again and head south, back in the direction we previously came from, and continue past the village of Kirkjubaejarklaustur, back towards Vestmannaeyjabær, Pörsmörk, and Selfoss. We’ll then cycle back through Reykjavik and continue cycling north towards the Snaefellnes Peninsula.

Cycle Along The Snaefellnes Peninsula

It will take us about three days of heavy cycling to reach the peninsula, but once we get there we will be able to take in some of Iceland’s most beautiful beach-side landscapes. I’m hoping to see some puffins and other native wildlife as well!

Soak It All In At Snaefellsjoekull National Park

Then we’ll finish the trip with a quick cycle around the Snaefellsjokull Glacier, before turning around and heading back to Reykjavik and the airport at Keflavik. At this point, Brandon will fly home, back to the United States, and I will continue on the United Kingdom and mainland Europe after that.

Note: This route around Iceland isn’t necessarily set in stone, and I’m sure that our travel plans will change a bit once we land in the country. But hopefully this gives you a general sense of where we plan to go during our 24 days in the country, and the type of scenery we expect to encounter along the way.

What do you think of the route we have planned? Do you have any suggestions on what else we should see and do while we are there? Leave a comment below if you have a question or a comment.

Photos by dumbledad, pocius, axelkr, exfordy, Land Rover Our Planet, giam, o palsson, benfff85, gladas_f, benfff85

Dennis Koomen and his partner, Marijcke, spent fourteen days traveling around Southern Iceland on their bicycles. The video above offers a fantastic glimpse at what cycle touring in Iceland is all about.

This video is of special interest to me at this point in time because I am currently planning my own bicycle touring adventure in Iceland, and watching videos like this one enables me to see what the roads, weather, terrain and lodging options might be like once I arrive in Iceland later this year.

To learn more about Dennis and Marijcke’s Iceland cycling trip, head on over to their website at: www.toko-op-fietsvakantie.nl

Have you ever cycled in Iceland? If so, what was it like? What route did you take? And do you have any tips or pieces of advice for people like myself who are planing trips to the island in the near future? Leave a comment below and let me know what you have to say.

It’s official! I’ve completed step number one of the planning process for my upcoming trip to Europe. I’ve booked my airline tickets and my plans for yet another bicycle touring adventure have suddenly become a reality.

Since I am currently planning an 8+month bicycle touring expedition through Europe later this year, I thought it would be good to share with you not only my adventures from the road, but everything that goes into planning and preparing for a long trip such as this.

My goal in sharing this information, of course, is to help you plan and prepare for your own cycle touring expeditions. While you may not have the desire to go to the same locations that I plan to visit on my upcoming tour, you can take a similar approach when planning and preparing for your own cycle touring adventures – wherever they may be.

Today I thought I would share with you the steps I’ve taken up until this point in time in order to take my idea for a third European bicycle tour and turn it into a reality.

Sound good? Great! Then here we go…

The first step I took when planning this trip to Europe was figuring out which areas I wanted to visit. I decided early on that I wanted to return to Switzerland, so I booked a tour with European tour company, Bike Switzerland, and by doing so, committed to being in the Swiss Alps by the 10th of July, 2012.

Having the dates for the Bike Switzerland tour set in stone enabled me to work backwards and figure out what I would be doing in the months prior to arriving in Geneva for the start of the tour.

Working backwards, I decided that I would not leave my home in Park City, Utah USA until the beginning of May, as I am currently a season pass holder at the Deer Valley ski resort and want to remain in the area until the end of the ski season.

This meant that I now had a potential start date for my international travels (the first of May – the end of my ski season) and a future date (the 10th of July) in which I would need to be in Geneva, Switzerland for the start of the guided bike tour with Bike Switzerland. Between these two dates I realized I had just over two months of free time in which I would need to figure out where I would like to go and what I would like to do.

I decided right away that I wanted to go to Iceland. It is a place that I’ve been wanting to visit for quite some time, so I knew right off the bat that this was going to be one of my first destinations.The fact that Iceland is on the way to Europe also made it easy for me to decide that Iceland would be the starting location for my European travels.

From Iceland, I still needed to get to Switzerland, but I didn’t want to fly straight from Iceland to Geneva. There is a lot of stuff in between the two locations that I have never seen before, and since had the time, I wanted to schedule a few weeks to travel to these areas. Therfore, I decided that after leaving Iceland, I would travel to London, England and then to Amsterdam.

At the beginning of July is the start of the Tour de France and since I would be in the area around the first of July, I figured it would be pretty awesome to follow the Tour for a few days and check out the most famous bike race in the world for myself.

To make a long story short, I created a schedule for my travels that looks a little something like this:

• May 3 – May 28, 2012:   Iceland
  

• May 29 – June 10, 2012:  London, England

• June 11 – June 21, 2012:  Amsterdam, Netherlands
  

• June 30 – July 9, 2012:  Tour de France
  

• July 10 – July 20, 2012:  Bike Switzerland Bike Tour
  

With approximately three months of travel plans laid out, I decided it was time to book my ticket and make this thing a reality.

I did a quick search of the web for cheap airline tickets, but resorted to one of my favorite international airfare websites, Vayama.com, for my inexpensive one-way ticket to Reykjavik, Iceland and the connecting one-way ticket 25 days later to London, England. It was of little surprise that the cheapest tickets to Iceland were with the nation’s IcelandAir.

Before buying my tickets with the company, however, I checked the IcelandAir website to see what their policy and prices were for flying with a bicycle, as I will most likely be bringing my own bicycle with me to Europe.

A quick search of the website revealed that bicycles could be transported with IcelandAir and that they would be treated as one of my two checked bags for a small additional fee of $40 USD per direction. Taking my own advice, I printed out the airline’s policy in regards to bicycles and then purchased my two one-way tickets.

At the moment, I have no idea where I am going to go in Iceland or what exactly I am going to do there. All I know is that I have scheduled myself approximately 25 days on the island and I’ll figure out the details a bit later.

In fact, the only things I know at this point are that I am going to be in Iceland for 25 days and after that I will fly into London. Again, I don’t know exactly what I will do in London or how long I will stay there. All I know at this point in time is that by the 10th of July I need to be in Geneva, Switzerland for the start of my guided bike tour with Bike Switzerland.

This is usually how all of my long-distance bicycle tours begin. I pick a few destinations that I really want to see and experience, and as the trip goes closer, I fill in all the gaps.

The hardest part (deciding to go on a bicycle tour at all), however, has been taken care of. This European bicycle tour is happening! I’ve booked my tickets; I know when I’m leaving; and I now have a few dates to work from as I start to slowly fill in the gaps.

Photo by Mark Winterbourne Photography

I’ve made a lot of great friends through my travels, my bike tours and my website here at BicycleTouringPro.com… but now it’s time that you and I meet up.

Let’s do a bike ride together… in Switzerland!!!

Join Me For A Bicycle Tour In Switzerland

In July of 2012, I am going to be cycling across the country of Switzerland (from Geneva to Rorschach) with European tour company, Bike Switzerland… and I’d like for you to join me!

This is an 11-day bicycle tour, during which we will be cycling approximately 560 kilometers (350 miles) through some of Switzerland’s most beautiful mountain, lake and flatland regions.  Along the way, we will be staying in high-class accommodations, partaking in some of the best food and drink that Switzerland has to offer, and seeing some of the most beautiful sights in all of Europe.

If you think this sounds like fun, then I would like to take this moment and personally invite you to join me on Bike Switzerland’s 2012 Challenge Tour.

Why Switzerland?

As you may or may not know, I traveled to Switzerland in early 2009 and spent two whole months traveling around the country with my bicycle.

I fell in love with Switzerland right away. Not only is the scenery fantastic, the people incredibly nice, and the food and drinks superb, but Switzerland is home to some of the best cycling I have ever experienced.

When I left Switzerland in 2009, I promised myself that I would come back and see more of the country just as soon as I possibly could… and now I’m sticking to that promise by returning for an epic bike ride across the country.

Cycling In Switzerland: A Bicycle Tour And A Movie

That said, I’m not just returning to Switzerland in order to ride my bike across the country. I’m also traveling to Switzerland in order to document this particular cross-country bike ride for my upcoming feature-length film about cycling around the world.

That’s right! In 2012, I am going to be traveling to more than 15 different locations all around the globe and shooting footage for a feature-length film about how people from all walks of life use bicycles for entertainment, exercise, travel, competition, work and more.

During this cross-country bicycle tour in Switzerland, I am going to be shooting a ton of video footage that will ultimately play a major role in my round-the-world cycling film.

The footage that I shoot while on the Bike Switzerland bike tour will be used to show viewers what “Guided Bicycle Touring” is all about. And if you decide to join me in Switzerland and participate in the Challenge Tour, you will get to play a part in the film!

The Benefits Of Bicycle Touring With Me In Switzerland

When you sign up for the Bike Switzerland Challenge Tour you will not only get to see Switzerland (one of my favorite countries in all of Europe) and ride bikes with me (Darren Alff – the Bicycle Touring Pro), but you will also be featured in my upcoming documentary about cycling around the world.

Plus, Bike Switzerland is making it super easy for you to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime adventure. If you want, you can bring your own bicycle to ride for the tour. Or (better yet) you can leave your bike at home and use one of the 2012 BMC bikes that Bike Switzerland will be providing for each of its tour participants.

How To Join Me On The Bike Switzerland Challenge Tour

The Bike Switzerland Challenge Tour starts on July 10, 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland and finishes 11 days later on the 20th of July.

As I said before, I will personally be partaking in this awesome bicycle touring experience… and if you are interested in joining me, I’d love to meet you there!

To get all the details on the tour, see the route we will be taking across Switzerland, and sign up for the Challenge Tour, please visit the official Bike Switzerland website at www.bikeswitzerland.com.

I am so excited to be cycling across Switzerland next July… and I look forward to riding with you!

My friend Caroline Gleich (whom you might recognize from the cover of my book, “Stretching For Cyclists“) is a professional skier… and this year she was featured in the new Warren Miller ski film, “Like There’s No Tomorrow”.

Caroline got me into the Park City screening of the film just a couple months ago and about half-way through the movie I started thinking to myself, “I should make a movie like this… but with bicycles!”

What I realized while watching “Like There’s No Tomorrow” is that the film consisted of 10 different segments – each segment taking place in a different location somewhere around the world.

For example, the 10 segments included in “Like There’s No Tomorrow” are: India, Squaw Valley, Tuckerman Ravine, Portillo, Norway, British Columbia, New Zealand, the Rahlves Banzai Tour, Utah and Alaska.

Each segment of the film was approximately 6-12 minutes in length… and with 10 of these segments edited together, you had the makings of a feature-length film.

With this model I realized I could do something very similar with a film about cycling. I realized that I could travel to various parts of the world and shoot short 6-12 minutes segments in each area that would later be edited together into a feature-length film that would literally span the globe.

You can’t really get a feel for the 10 different film segments inside “Like There’s No Tomorrow” by watching the trailer above, but the thing you can pull from watching this short 4-minute video is that the film as a whole actually inspires you (as the viewer) to get off your butt and go skiing.

That is the main thing I want to create with this film about cycling around the world. I want the movie to not only be educational and beautifully shot and edited, but I want the film to actually inspire people to get off their butts and go for a bike ride – whether that be a bike ride around the block or a bicycle tour around the word.

So there you have it! Inspiration sometimes strikes in the strangest of places… and in this case, inspiration came from a film about skiing.