About
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
> participation guidelines
> awareness
Self-Organisation
> how it’s prepared
> consensus
> circles
Online Tools
> online-tools
> photo-sharing
On the road
> on the road
> tasks & rota
> trailers
> wildcamping
Food
Whenever it’s possible we go dumpster-diving and buy food from local farmers and small shops.
> veganism
> rocket stove
> dumpster-diving
Activities
> skill-sharing
Latest blog posts
Ecotopia Biketour Beyond Borders Video
(Vimeo link) Check out this beautiful video made during our kick off days in Berlin by the wonderful Claudia! … Subtitles available in German / Untertitel jetzt auch auf Deutsch: Download here/hier! (Video von vimeo runterladen und auf Computer speichern. Dasselbe mit der Untertitel-Datei. Video mit VLC-Player öffnen. Untertiteldatei auswählen. Abspielen!)
Vukovar’s alphabet wars are all in the signs
En route to Novi Sad we heard about the protests in Vukovar, (or Вуковар as the Serbian population would want it to be referred to) that had recently erupted over a longstanding dispute about minority language, that led to the newly erected Cyrillic signs being torn down from public buildings and three days of rallies and protests.*Protest image from this BBC News article. Since the 2011 census in Vukovar, it was recorded that the population of Serbians in the Croatian town had exceeded one third, which was the ‘legal’ requirement to have bilingual signs in both the Latin (Croatian), and…
Brčko, the Balkans’ ‘Free City’?
We left the common pastures of Croatia and again skirted the border between Croatia and Bosnia, finally crossing for a lunch spot at the border control point. Here an Italian man stopped to wish us well on our journey, only to then return 10 minutes later with a huge watermelon and bottles of fizzy pop; it was a warm welcome back to Bosnia. After the border crossing, the traces of the war became more and more apparent. Only too aware of the landmines that still contaminate the land, we were careful to find our camping spots either on recently made…
Brücken über Grenzen? Grenzen unter Brücken.
“Brücken bauen” – nichts könnte eigentlich sinnbildlicher dafür stehen, Grenzen zu überwinden. Doch was uns auf unserer Reise immer wieder auffällt, ist die Funktion von Brücken als Grenzen. Besonders entlang der Sava wird uns klar, was das heißt: Ganze Städte, die früher mal eine Einheit waren und sich in einem Staat befanden, sind heute durch nur noch eine Brücke verbunden. Streng bewacht und abgezäunt natürlich – jeweils vor und hinter der Brücke befindet sich eine Grenzübergangs-Station am jeweiligen Ufer. Brücken sind hier nicht das symbolisch verbindende Element, das sie andernorts sind. Sie sind das Nadelöhr, das alle Menschen- und Fahrzeugmassen…