.... or how you and your six mates, leaving tomorrow morning, might do it for yourselves.
The advice is always: “Buy a map, mate” but, unless you know (or can imagine) how to read one, it’s not always the best way to start. Here’s some ideas to maybe set you going.
1. Know how long you have available to make the journey. That might sound obvious but just look at how many requests for help do not ever tell the audience that one very simple piece of information.
2. From that time period deduct however long it will take you to get from home to your chosen departure point and do the same for your return journey. Again, this sounds obvious but lots of people forget. Have a look at how many posts start by saying, “I have a week and want to go from Calais to Nice and back.... I live in Manchester.....” A week sounds like seven full days, but you then discover that it has to include a day getting from Manchester to Calais and a full day back. Seven days is actually five, for the main purpose of the trip, which is getting from Calais to Nice and back again.
3. Start to imagine the distances and direction of travel involved. Better still, cheat. Ask Google to give you Calais to Nice by the most direct route, which it will do in seconds:
761 miles, direct, door-to-door, using motorways. Estimated non-stop journey time 11 hours 16 minutes.
Google also suggested two other routes (greyed out). These might be of interest but they route you through or close to Paris, so you might want to ignore these.
4. You now know the clear direction of travel A to B and the distance. You have also been given the journey time. Take a bit of care with the latter as that is non-stop at a steady but reasonable assumed average driving speed. Again, it sounds obvious but if you stop for a hour for lunch or even 10 minutes to buy fuel, the time period increases.
5. Now comes the adjusting bits. You know it is 761 miles A to B, down the tolled motorways of France. But you want to avoid motorways, taking instead all those nice country roads you have heard so much about. You have still only got five days, there and back. Many people confuse distances abroad, not realising how big countries like France are. The great thing though, is that a mile is still a mile, no matter where you are. Now imagine riding 761 miles in the UK. That is, Manchester to Penzance (or Inverness) and back again. I asked Google to give me the distances, so I could imagine where Manchester was in relation to places. Now ask yourself, if you were riding that journey in the UK, would you go there and back in a day? I might suggest that you’d take two days, perhaps? If so, that is in total four days out of your available five days gone, just getting from Calais to Nice and back again, leaving just the one day in Nice.
6. We have now got some ideas as to how the holiday is shaping up. We know the distances involved and we know the time available. Before we look at the roads to ride, let’s consider the other old favourite: “Things (plural) to see and do along the way”. Now imagine yourself riding from Manchester to Inverness in a day. How many and for how long are you going to factor in for stopping and looking at, mixed in (or not) with a mid-morning coffee stop, a lunch stop, an afternoon tea stop and maybe two fuel stops? I might suggest, not that many; maybe not even one? France between Calais and Nice will be no different. Into this simple hypothesis, we can throw hotels or digs, to use the popular vernacular. Here it gets really tricky, as there are hundreds spread along the 761 miles A to B. Compound this with nobody having any idea as to where you might be come evening meal and bedtime. My simple suggestion, would be to divide the journey into two equal parts, which is easy enough to do and find yourself a hotel around that point. This suggestion does though assume that your two day journey A to B, kicks off reasonably early in the morning. Equidistant between A and B might not work if you set your wheels rolling at 14:30.
7. Now roads to ride. Everyone wants, “Great, twisty roads, no motorways”. Now go back to consider the time and distance thing we’ve looked at already. If you were going from Manchester to Penzance and back in two days, would you take lesser and minor roads all the way? In short, how would you do it for your holiday, here at home? France will be near enough the same consideration. Now, consider what it is you have actually asked someone, who knows nothing about you, your riding habits and preferences or, very probably, nothing about your timetable, for. Yiu have asked them for great roads, no motorways for 761 miles! How much or how little detail do you want to be given? Not least, consider that, just because you are in France, there is no automatic guarantee that there are great twisty roads everywhere and anywhere any more than there are great twisty roads everywhere in the UK.
8. But, you still want to avoid motorways? OK, it’s time to cheat again. Or rather employ the tools that the internet has given you, for free. Ask Google for the same Calais to Nice journey but excluding all motorways and tolls.
The broad direct of travel hasn’t altered much. That is not surprising as Calais and Nice don’t move that often. The distance is still over 700 miles but the estimated time taken to drive the distance has leapt, not surprisingly, whilst your time available of two days has not changed at all.
9. You now have a non-motorway, un-tolled, route A to B. By zooming in, you can see the roads, their road numbers and all the names of towns and villages. In short, you have an A to B route, with all but no effort. But you don’t trust Google....
10. OK, now it’s time to exploit the internet again. In short, cheat again. Ask a free app, like viaMichelin, for the same thing: Calais to Nice, on a motorbike, avoiding motorways and tolls, ‘discovery’ mode or some other mode. It will give you something like this:
750 miles. There really is no getting away from the fact that it’s always over 700 miles, is there?
Now zoom in a bit, as Michelin give you free detailed maps in the app.
Bingo! One route, created in seconds.
11. Still not sure? OK, turn to another free app, Kurviger. This will give you several routing choices. Start by selecting non-motorways, reasonably twisty, which will give you this, for Calais to Nice:
Bingo, again! But wait a minute, it’s done something else. In giving you reasonably twisty, no motorways and tolls, it has bumped the A to B distance up to nearly 1,100 miles. That is getting on for a 50% increase (half as far again) on the Google and ViaMichelin suggestions and you still have only two days. Are you sure you want to go that way? If so, great. You can zoom in and see all the detail. What’s more you can send the route straight to your GPS device or phone. One route created, with as little effort as that.
But, just take a little bit of care. Kurviger is good but its algorithms are still a compromise. It can throw-up some silly little (or not so little) detours just to take you off what is otherwise a perfectly good, sensible to take, road. Here’s a simple example, picked at random from the 1,100 mile route:
The algorithm has taken you off the perfectly good (but a bit further) D87 and routed you along an unclassified minor road. That could be fine or it might not. In short, use some imagination as to what it might mean. Not least, when that bit of the journey pops up on your GPS device, make a decision then and there as to whether to follow your Garmin’s magenta line blindly or whether you are cleverer than it is and ignore it this time.
The advice is always: “Buy a map, mate” but, unless you know (or can imagine) how to read one, it’s not always the best way to start. Here’s some ideas to maybe set you going.
1. Know how long you have available to make the journey. That might sound obvious but just look at how many requests for help do not ever tell the audience that one very simple piece of information.
2. From that time period deduct however long it will take you to get from home to your chosen departure point and do the same for your return journey. Again, this sounds obvious but lots of people forget. Have a look at how many posts start by saying, “I have a week and want to go from Calais to Nice and back.... I live in Manchester.....” A week sounds like seven full days, but you then discover that it has to include a day getting from Manchester to Calais and a full day back. Seven days is actually five, for the main purpose of the trip, which is getting from Calais to Nice and back again.
3. Start to imagine the distances and direction of travel involved. Better still, cheat. Ask Google to give you Calais to Nice by the most direct route, which it will do in seconds:
761 miles, direct, door-to-door, using motorways. Estimated non-stop journey time 11 hours 16 minutes.
Google also suggested two other routes (greyed out). These might be of interest but they route you through or close to Paris, so you might want to ignore these.
4. You now know the clear direction of travel A to B and the distance. You have also been given the journey time. Take a bit of care with the latter as that is non-stop at a steady but reasonable assumed average driving speed. Again, it sounds obvious but if you stop for a hour for lunch or even 10 minutes to buy fuel, the time period increases.
5. Now comes the adjusting bits. You know it is 761 miles A to B, down the tolled motorways of France. But you want to avoid motorways, taking instead all those nice country roads you have heard so much about. You have still only got five days, there and back. Many people confuse distances abroad, not realising how big countries like France are. The great thing though, is that a mile is still a mile, no matter where you are. Now imagine riding 761 miles in the UK. That is, Manchester to Penzance (or Inverness) and back again. I asked Google to give me the distances, so I could imagine where Manchester was in relation to places. Now ask yourself, if you were riding that journey in the UK, would you go there and back in a day? I might suggest that you’d take two days, perhaps? If so, that is in total four days out of your available five days gone, just getting from Calais to Nice and back again, leaving just the one day in Nice.
6. We have now got some ideas as to how the holiday is shaping up. We know the distances involved and we know the time available. Before we look at the roads to ride, let’s consider the other old favourite: “Things (plural) to see and do along the way”. Now imagine yourself riding from Manchester to Inverness in a day. How many and for how long are you going to factor in for stopping and looking at, mixed in (or not) with a mid-morning coffee stop, a lunch stop, an afternoon tea stop and maybe two fuel stops? I might suggest, not that many; maybe not even one? France between Calais and Nice will be no different. Into this simple hypothesis, we can throw hotels or digs, to use the popular vernacular. Here it gets really tricky, as there are hundreds spread along the 761 miles A to B. Compound this with nobody having any idea as to where you might be come evening meal and bedtime. My simple suggestion, would be to divide the journey into two equal parts, which is easy enough to do and find yourself a hotel around that point. This suggestion does though assume that your two day journey A to B, kicks off reasonably early in the morning. Equidistant between A and B might not work if you set your wheels rolling at 14:30.
7. Now roads to ride. Everyone wants, “Great, twisty roads, no motorways”. Now go back to consider the time and distance thing we’ve looked at already. If you were going from Manchester to Penzance and back in two days, would you take lesser and minor roads all the way? In short, how would you do it for your holiday, here at home? France will be near enough the same consideration. Now, consider what it is you have actually asked someone, who knows nothing about you, your riding habits and preferences or, very probably, nothing about your timetable, for. Yiu have asked them for great roads, no motorways for 761 miles! How much or how little detail do you want to be given? Not least, consider that, just because you are in France, there is no automatic guarantee that there are great twisty roads everywhere and anywhere any more than there are great twisty roads everywhere in the UK.
8. But, you still want to avoid motorways? OK, it’s time to cheat again. Or rather employ the tools that the internet has given you, for free. Ask Google for the same Calais to Nice journey but excluding all motorways and tolls.
The broad direct of travel hasn’t altered much. That is not surprising as Calais and Nice don’t move that often. The distance is still over 700 miles but the estimated time taken to drive the distance has leapt, not surprisingly, whilst your time available of two days has not changed at all.
9. You now have a non-motorway, un-tolled, route A to B. By zooming in, you can see the roads, their road numbers and all the names of towns and villages. In short, you have an A to B route, with all but no effort. But you don’t trust Google....
10. OK, now it’s time to exploit the internet again. In short, cheat again. Ask a free app, like viaMichelin, for the same thing: Calais to Nice, on a motorbike, avoiding motorways and tolls, ‘discovery’ mode or some other mode. It will give you something like this:
750 miles. There really is no getting away from the fact that it’s always over 700 miles, is there?
Now zoom in a bit, as Michelin give you free detailed maps in the app.
Bingo! One route, created in seconds.
11. Still not sure? OK, turn to another free app, Kurviger. This will give you several routing choices. Start by selecting non-motorways, reasonably twisty, which will give you this, for Calais to Nice:
Bingo, again! But wait a minute, it’s done something else. In giving you reasonably twisty, no motorways and tolls, it has bumped the A to B distance up to nearly 1,100 miles. That is getting on for a 50% increase (half as far again) on the Google and ViaMichelin suggestions and you still have only two days. Are you sure you want to go that way? If so, great. You can zoom in and see all the detail. What’s more you can send the route straight to your GPS device or phone. One route created, with as little effort as that.
But, just take a little bit of care. Kurviger is good but its algorithms are still a compromise. It can throw-up some silly little (or not so little) detours just to take you off what is otherwise a perfectly good, sensible to take, road. Here’s a simple example, picked at random from the 1,100 mile route:
The algorithm has taken you off the perfectly good (but a bit further) D87 and routed you along an unclassified minor road. That could be fine or it might not. In short, use some imagination as to what it might mean. Not least, when that bit of the journey pops up on your GPS device, make a decision then and there as to whether to follow your Garmin’s magenta line blindly or whether you are cleverer than it is and ignore it this time.