Uk to Furka - Routes wanted from Ypres

[theoneandonly]

put a snow plough on the front of your tractor !

 

[Sly]

Thinking of doing this 30th July to 9th August...

 

[Sly]

Not sure if your week is 7 days, or a week off work with the weekend at each end giving 9 days.

I have gone via Black Forest and via the Vosges in the past, either way you end up with a bit of clutter to work through at some point, to predominantly avoid motorways you need 2 days from Ypres to have a nice ride, assuming to Ypres was your first day, you have now used 3 of your 7/9, you could then take 2 or 3 days to get home, leaving you between 1-4 days in Andermatt, assuming decent weather then 3 days is plenty for some good ride outs from Andermatt;

Here is a route I smashed together in 10 mins, gets you off motorway quite early and takes you through the Ardennes and then into Luxembourg, down to the Black Forest and from there to Andermatt, play with it, drag it about a bit, decide where you might wanna stop;

And a way back taking in a bit of the Vosges and mainly avoiding motorways over an easy enough 2 days to get to Saint Quentin (Hotel Le Florence is great for a 1st / last night)

Again you can piss about, make it faster / slower, possibly tweak it to get home in 2 days, or zig-zag a bit more in the Vosges and make it a 4 day return, the options are endless, personally I take a longer route out and shorter one back, and often, after the Alps places like the Vosges and Black Forest can seem a little bit of an anti-climax, even more so the Ardennes, but heading out having been used to British roads once you get onto that road to Montherme it is bloody heaven, ridden it maybe a dozen times now and it is always great (weather permitting of course)

A lot depend on if you have 7 or 9 days to play with, but for Andermatt you have the figure 8 loop, and a couple of other day out options, 3 full days there should give you a good chance of covering some ground, even if one is a washout, I have been lucky and in the 7-8 days I have spent riding in / around the area on 3-4 trips I have only had a couple of cold / damp days, and mainly great weather.

Some ride outs;

https://www.myrouteapp.com/route/open/6930199

https://www.myrouteapp.com/route/open/837195

Er, sure you cannot make it 2 weeks?

Really like this mate. Do you just go on booking.com for accomodation, trying to plan my trip there for end of July and the accomodation is where I am getting stuck. Would like some places that are "secure" for the bike..

 

[wessie]

Really like this mate. Do you just go on booking.com for accomodation, trying to plan my trip there for end of July and the accomodation is where I am getting stuck. Would like some places that are "secure" for the bike..

don't restrict yourself to one booking app, as I have mentioned several times in recent months

planning my trip for later this year, I have used Google maps to find places. This often lists hotels who only allow booking direct as they are fed up with the commission the big apps charge and the scams we have been hearing about in the last few days on here. All bar 3 nights in 17 are booked direct to the hotel (or it's own group's portal) this year, whereas in the past I have had a mix of Expedia/booking.

As for accommodation in July/Aug. It's school holidays and many places will already be booked up. The whole of Europe will be heading to the mountains and coast.

 

[Sly]

don't restrict yourself to one booking app, as I have mentioned several times in recent months

planning my trip for later this year, I have used Google maps to find places. This often lists hotels who only allow booking direct as they are fed up with the commission the big apps charge and the scams we have been hearing about in the last few days on here. All bar 3 nights in 17 are booked direct to the hotel (or it's own group's portal) this year, whereas in the past I have had a mix of Expedia/booking.

As for accommodation in July/Aug. It's school holidays and many places will already be booked up. The whole of Europe will be heading to the mountains and coast.

Brilliant, thank you pal. I'm taking my tent with in case I need to "rough" it. Just excited for my first continent trip on 2 wheels!

 

[Wapping]

am getting stuck. Would like some places that are "secure" for the bike..

Your journey / route is a long one. Asking for hotel recommendations is not so easy, when you yourself don’t know where you’ll be come mid-to-late afternoon.

Follow Wessie’s very simple suggestion:

1. Work out where you think you’ll be at the end of each day.

2. Get yourself onto Google maps.

3. Find the place in point 1 on the map.

4. Ask Google to show you all the hotels on the map.

5. Tap around on each hotel, until you find one that suits you, your budget and (most importantly) has a vacancy for the date(s) you want.

 

[theoneandonly]

i wonder if he'll show his face again ?

he hasn't been back since that 1 day !

 

[Rasher]

Really like this mate. Do you just go on booking.com for accomodation, trying to plan my trip there for end of July and the accomodation is where I am getting stuck. Would like some places that are "secure" for the bike..

Mainly use booking.com, also worth checking Hotels.com and other sites, I book ahead for stays of more than 1 night, and typically 1st and last night - where secure parking is preferable as you are closer to UK and in more heavily populated areas.

In the Alps bikes are quite safe, especially if you avoid large towns, I used to go with a guy who has been taking 30-40 bikes a year for ~30 years and they have never had a bike stolen, and they never use any security devices. I am happy to pull up outside a Hotel and just leave bike outside, due to the paranoia of everyone else these days I now fit a small alarmed disc lock, and on that basis the thieves will have plenty of other easier to steal machines to choose from.

Not been to the Alps since 2019, but last time we were there it was easy to just pull up and check into a hotel, but when doing that we start looking ~4PM in case we have to move around a bit to find somewhere, but normally the 1st or 2nd Hotel you try will have a room, gets harder if you have a larger group, more than 2-3 rooms needed I would pre-book unless in larger town.

Either plan your end point the night before, during your lunch break (everyone has mobile data now, right?) or just do the ride to you feel like stopping / see a nice looking gaff.

If you are desperate for a garage, security guard, pack of wolves to protect your steed then defo book ahead.