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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

Preparing a Biketour

Candid June 27, 2015 September 2, 2015

Sorry this entry is not available in this language For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language. The 25th Ecotopia Biketour has started rolling a couple of days ago. We will cycle for three months from Copenhagen to Helsinki, via Malmö, Göteborg, Oslo, Stockholm and Turku and visiting lots of ecological projects and political groups on the way. The route has been fixed day-by-day for several months already, and we have a huge list of possible projects and groups to visit in case…

Μπορείς να καταφέρεις ό,τι βάλεις στο μυαλό σου.

verabgr December 13, 2014 December 21, 2014

Είχα να κάνω ποδήλατο 10 χρόνια και αν μου έλεγες πριν 6 μήνες ό,τι θα έπαιρνα μέρος στο Ecotopia Biketour αυτό το καλοκαίρι, θα γελούσα. Αλλά το έκανα, και τα έφερα εις πέρας από την αρχή του Ecotopia Biketour 2014 μέχρι το τέλος. Όλα ξεκίνησαν τον Μάρτιο όταν γνώρισα τους διοργανωτές αυτής της χρονιάς στην Θεσσαλονίκη. Ήρθαν στη συνέλευση του Σχολείου, του ελεύθερου κοινωνικού χώρου, και ζήτησαν να χρησιμοποιήσουν το χώρο για την ανοιξιάτικη συνάντηση του Biketour. Ήταν η πρώτη φορά που άκουσα για ένα ποδηλατικό ταξίδι και παρότι μου φάνηκε υπέροχη ιδέα, αμέσως σκέφτηκα ότι δεν είναι για εμένα.…

Obituary: Strudel Apollo Sanchez Buchanan

Bike Bel September 24, 2014 October 21, 2014

Strudel Apollo joined the Ecotopia Bike Tour on August 18th. This 2 week old orphan kitten stole our hearts immediately. We decided to help this cat-like fellow, descendent of Alexander the Great, and find for him a new family. With a surprisingly uncanny resemblance to his adoptive mother: big, beautiful, eyeliner eyes and bowed back legs that made him waddle in a cute way, it was hard not to like him. Since the beginning he proved to be a very curious and courageous cat. He got along with everybody very easily and he even won the cat-haters around. This 2.5…

An old mill gives inspiration to someone getting older

sml September 14, 2014 October 21, 2014

Sorry this entry is not available in this language For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language. Three years in a row I celebrated my birthday among the Biketour crowd. It started in 2012 when I had just joined for the first time a week before my birthday and was surprised with a polenta cake on a wildcamping day (thank you Emma!). This year it was even more special. Being involved in the coordination I could influence where we were going to be…