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

MEET THE ECOTPIA BIKETOUR 2013: “BEYOND BORDERS” Open Event

kate July 11, 2013 July 13, 2013

Open Event The Ecotopia Biketour – an activist community on wheels – will start its 24th yearly ride in Berlin this weekend! If you are interested in our project or theme, come and meet us at: XB – Liebig Liebigstrasse 34 10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain SATURDAY, 13-July 2013, 20:00 We’re going to present our project, this year’s route and theme – and you can meet the participants from all over the world! We’ll get more into detail about our theme of “Borders”: Screening a short film, comment it and discuss about what border issues are expecting to deal with on our route.…

Berlin DIY Bike Workshops / Resources

kate July 8, 2013 July 8, 2013

In preparation for the Berlin Kick off days – we though we would share some resources with you! Here are some of the Berlin D.I.Y (Do It Yourself) bike workshops and collectives we have discovered so far! Rainbow Factory – DIY, community http://www.regenbogenfabrik.de/index.html http://www.regenbogenfabrik.de/kontakt.html HubSchrauber – die Fahrradfakultät – DIY bike workshop, at University but open http://www.refrat.de/hubschrauber/ hubschrauber@refrat.hu-berlin.de 030-2093-4169 Bike Surf Berlin – Free Bike Loans (short term), workshops, not for profit, http://bikesurfberlin.blogspot.de/ 121 Alt jakob strase bikesurfberlin@gmail.com Uni Rad – DIY workshop at the Technical University http://unirad.blogsport.de/ http://unirad.blogsport.de/kontakt/ http://www.adfc-berlin.de/service/selbsthilfewerkstatt.html Bike Aid – DIY Refugee Bike workshop http://bikeaidberlin.blogsport.de/ Schwartz…

Looking forward….

agnessiob July 4, 2013 July 4, 2013

Hey, It’s not long now till the biketour wheels out of Berlin to adventures on and off the road, and I thought it might be nice to write a brief post as I’m getting ready! :) I heard about Ecotopia biketour last year around April, and decided to go later on in the summer that year after seeing all the lovely photos and experiences on the 2012 blog. Here’s one from a border crossing to go with this year’s theme: I hadn’t travelled around much with my bike in Europe before, and had never been touring, so I wasn’t sure…

A short introduction to migration law in Europe

@kino July 4, 2013 July 4, 2013

Since this year’s biketour theme is “borders” I thought it might be interesting to write a short introduction to migration law in Europe. I structured it as a tool for people to get acquainted with the legal side of border issues. I believe it’s very important that legal knowledge is open to all, instead of – as is often the case – the domain of “specialists.” The introduction gives an overview of the relevant legal instruments and where to find them (there are some hyperlinks in the pdf). It’s just an outline where it could easily be a book, but…