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

Garten der Generationen… one two three!

kate August 3, 2013 October 25, 2013

A few images from an evening at Garten der Gernerationen, an emerging community project experimenting with anti-capitalist ideals, self-organisation and self-sufficiency. After an introduction from one of the founders, who also founded a successful community not far from here, we eagerly offered help with their straw bale house construction … . . . . …and we enjoyed a walk through their emerging community garden before dinner.

Military zone by dusk to MoA! Farm

kate August 2, 2013 October 4, 2013

Some how I did not take any photographs of this magical place… but there are many by others and they are BEAUTIFUL! The journey to Mottinger Amt (a.k.a.) MoA in Waldviertel was a mixture of picturesque rolling hills and cycle paths past corn fields, idyllic looking villages and the sun setting on the Czech mountains behind us. It then became much cooler and eerier during dusk as we entered the 10km long military zone, only passable after 4pm each evening when target practice was over. There was reason to feel the comfort in not crossing this barren strip alone, at…

When things go wrong they often turn out as the best stories

sml July 29, 2013 December 3, 2014

After our partly difficult days in Prague, a big city in which we didn’t have a very secure sleeping place and thus some left the group to stay privately with friends, in hostels our outside in the forest, we were looking ahead to some cycling days until our next project in Austria. We were advised to follow the Greenways route until it first reaches the border and then find our way to MoA! where people were eagerly awaiting us. We were a group of about 45 people, as always the scouts going ahead to mark the route for everyone else.…

Resilience and Reconciliation (Prague…)

kate July 28, 2013 October 4, 2013

On entering Prague we were joined by someone from the local Critical Mass network, who after a quick rehearsal in how to create a critical mass, decided that the 50 strong cyclists were enough to take on the highway into the capital city of Czech Republic! This was our first self made Critical Mass so far and for some their first, with 3 people setting the pace at the front … S L OOOOO W L Y!… then 10 blockers who smiled sweetly as they blocked off the side roads to let the mass of cyclists through as though we…