About

Ecotopia Biketour is a self-organized, international community that has been organizing a yearly bicycle tour in different regions of Europe since 1990. During the tour we visit environmental and social projects and practice forms of activism and sustainable living. We cook communal vegan food, practice consensus decision making, and share skills by doing workshops. One of our core values is to create a non-discriminatory environment. Participants are asked to give a voluntary contribution of 3–5 € per day to cover food costs, but if you cannot afford this you are welcome to join for free! Ecotopia Biketour is for anyone interested in travelling by bike, community life, DIY, an ecological lifestyle, and/or learning by experience. If this sounds good to you, feel welcome to join us!

We try to make the tour as inclusive as possible for any level of fitness or experience with bike touring. We cycle a maximum of 30–70 km per day (depending on the hills), and on average half of the days we stay in a place without cycling. Our experience is that almost everyone can manage this, but there is the possibility to shorten the distances if we discover that it is too much. People cycle in small groups or alone, at whatever speed suits them, and many people like to take it slow and take lots of breaks. A detailed route plan for the day is shared in the morning, arrows are drawn with chalk on the road at every turn, and if you get lost you can always call the Biketour phone. If you have a shitty bike, you will not be the only one, and we enjoy supporting each other if something breaks. We make sure that the last people to leave carry a toolbox, a phone and a first-aid kit in order to assist if anything goes wrong on the road.

Read more about what the Ecotopia Biketour is. If you would like to get an insight into the organisation or just ask a question, contact us.

Biketour concepts

Participation Guidelines

Because we all have different visions of life and diverse personalities, Ecotopia Biketour has developed a set of basic values which helps all of us to create similar expectations from this project.
> participation guidelines
> awareness

Self-Organisation

As we oppose any leadership or hierachical structures, the Biketour is organised in an open way where everyone can be a part of.
> how it’s prepared
> consensus
> circles

Online Tools

We try to use free and open-source software as much as possible in the preparation process. The same goes for sharing photos and videos in the group.
> online-tools
> photo-sharing

On the road

Everyone should be able to cycle with the Biketour. Therefore we keep distances low and have scouts going ahead who mark the route. Everyone can follow the signs on their own level of speed. Any tasks like scouting, cooking or pulling a trailer are shared.
> on the road
> tasks & rota
> trailers
> wildcamping

Food

All communal food on Biketour is vegan and cooked with wood on our mobile rocket stove.
Whenever it’s possible we go dumpster-diving and buy food from local farmers and small shops.
> veganism
> rocket stove
> dumpster-diving

Activities

We plan and make many activities on the tour: skill-sharing, helping at projects, joining actions and protests, bike-fixing and other events.
> skill-sharing

Latest blog posts

Borders Boundaries and Beyond!: Biketour 2013 get organised…

kate Abril 4, 2013 May 6, 2013

disculpe este não está disponível em português Por uma questão de conveniência para o utilizador, o conteúdo é mostrado abaixo no idioma por omissão para este site. Pode clicar numa das ligações para mudar o site para outro idioma disponível. The Ecotopia Biketour Collective united from all corners of Europe for the annual ‘Winter Meeting’ – aptly named due to the location this year in snowy Berlin! We set up camp for the weekend at the Kubiz social centre in true Biketour style, where 12 of us began planning and debating the practical and more theoretical elements of organising this years tour……

Melon melon! Sweet memories from the summer…

alice Janeiro 18, 2013 April 25, 2013

disculpe este não está disponível em português Por uma questão de conveniência para o utilizador, o conteúdo é mostrado abaixo no idioma por omissão para este site. Pode clicar numa das ligações para mudar o site para outro idioma disponível. Here is the result of a few sessions joyfully reminiscing and picking my favourite few hundred photos (out of thousands) which were taken over our two and a half month journey. From my room here in Edinburgh the tales of adventure we had last summer seem a lot further away than I would like them to be, but seeing these has made…

Susannes – The Ecotopia Biketour song

taborda Outubro 22, 2012 October 22, 2012

disculpe este não está disponível em português Por uma questão de conveniência para o utilizador, o conteúdo é mostrado abaixo no idioma alternativo. Pode clicar na ligação para alterar o idioma activo. Susannes – Bike Tour from Susannes on Vimeo. Sexy legs on tiny tires fight the wind conquire the mountains get your freedom trhough degrowth fun and fight we enjoy them both. Lost in time in the oldest world we won’t cry the end of oil homeless, dirty, skipping food little price for feeling good From transgenics to organic fight together never give up from nuclear to solar panels…

Party: Ecotopia Biketour

taborda Outubro 13, 2012 October 15, 2012

disculpe este não está disponível em português Por uma questão de conveniência para o utilizador, o conteúdo é mostrado abaixo no idioma por omissão para este site. Pode clicar numa das ligações para mudar o site para outro idioma disponível. Summer 2012: two and half month on the road, 120 people joined to peddle more than 3000 kilometer between Barcelona and Venezia and visited more than 40 different projects and campaigns related to Degrowth. Want to find out about what happened on the Biketour this summer? Want to meet with fellow bike-crazy people? Want to be reunited with people that…