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

Ecotopia 2021 – Beginning in Praha

Ecotopia Biketour July 11, 2021 July 12, 2021

Hello Ecotopians! After a year of break, the tour is back on the go again! We began a few days ago in Praha, dwelling at K11 guesthouse which is a social center that hosts alternative bands and communities along the year. The first day we visited “Bike Kitchen Praha” where we fixed and prepared our bikes for the tour, met the organizers who explained about the project and had some delicious local lemonade. On our way back we dumpster dived in the local market getting food for dinner. Today we had our first circle and meeting of the group, to…

EBT 2021 Organisation on the Way

Ecotopia Biketour January 30, 2021 January 30, 2021

Yes, we have started planning the 2021 Ecotopia Biketour. At this moment we can’t say how vagabond-friendly this summer will be but let’s hope we can push the pedals together again! At this stage we are planning a winter meeting in March in norther Italy or Switzerland and we want everybody who is eager to organise it to be able to join it either physically or virtually. Since the current pandemic situation is going against the possibility to meet easily all together in one place we are considering also a hybrid kind of a meeting where people could meet locally…

Tour to Magari

Ecotopia Biketour July 19, 2020 July 19, 2020

Hello riders, A few of us are embarking on a decentralized bike tour in France this summer! We will be meeting in Creuse on July 27th and explore some of the nearby regions (Creuse, Auvergne). The main part of the tour will last until the end of August. We are in the process of forming a group to start (or join) an intentional community, so this trip will be a way to look for places and opportunities and also to spend a lot of time together to discuss our common vision. This is not a replacement for Ecotopia but many…

Ecotopia Bike-Quarantine-tour(s)

Ecotopia Biketour June 5, 2020 June 5, 2020

Slowly the humanity is being allowed little by little to sniff around again outside their caves. As if spring was blossoming outside, neighbors are getting awaken from a long nap and sticking out their necks through the door frames for the first time in a while. Whoah! Things we were watching behind windows are actually tangible. Grass is wet, earth is cold, flowers smell. Tiny kids are crazily invading parks, running around trees and thanking their luck to be not any more in front of the screens. Elders can promenade again, sitting on benches to take their precious sunbathing and…