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

Links #7: Futuristic bus, Pool noodle, TVs on bike packages, Lorries in London, Critical Mass arrests in Minsk

Candid October 20, 2016 April 28, 2017

Futuristic Chinese Bus Concept Cyclist says his pool noodle makes Toronto streets safer for him Bike manufacturer sees huge reduction in delivery damage by printing TV on the box Thousands of lorries to be banned from London for cyclist safety Minsk: Court sentences Critical Mass cycling event arrestee to 2 years in jail

Hippiefestival with strange views

luhukasu September 8, 2016 April 28, 2017

Hello dear reader! Lukas is reporting from Latvia: A festival was recommended to us, a gathering of different eco-communities in Mazirbe at the seaside. Sounds not bad, we thought at spontaneaosly rearranged our schedule. This detour fitted very well, because we anyways wanted to cycle more. We were on a biketour after all! We arrived thursday evening. All of us were very happy to meet again Stas from Radi Vidi Pats. He helped out to organize this festival. Then 2 men arrived, of whose one of us welcomed us effusivly with “Hello brothers and sisters!” and intimate hugs without being…

Tartu-City of apples -> How to do apple-recycling and more dumpsterdive

Ecotopia Biketour 2016 September 5, 2016 September 6, 2016

As we really enjoyed our time visiting lots of interesting places around Tartu, we decided to leave a new post to share some stuff we really considered to be worth mentioned here. We came to visit an selforganized garden-project, called “Vaksali kogukonna aed”. They are located at a nice spot next to the mainrailwaystation. The place is surrounded by an old building which was once used as police station and now works like kind of temporary use. Basicly they started growing and constructing the garden just at the beginning of this year but there´s already quite a lot to discover.…

Mud, rain and some bins full of food

luhukasu August 29, 2016 August 29, 2016

After Kurava, we had a really crazy cycling day. As it was already raining for the last several days, we were quiet happy that only little drops are falling from the sky. It almost felt like good wheather! (Actually our last host told us something that it would be the most rainy summer in latvia since 15 years…) But it was not cold, so who cares. At some point there where some contruction-works on the road. Only one lane was free and cars where stopped by a traffic light. The one lane didn’t have concrete anymore and it was super…