Ten essential tips for your first bicycle tour
Many years ago now in 2017 and 2018, I spent roughly six months living off the back of a bicycle with my younger brother. During those long days in the saddle, I kept a small travel log to record where we pitched the tent each evening, the route we took, and the everyday mishaps and highlights along the way.
While pedalling across thousands of kilometres, we also started compiling a mental list of hard-earned practical advice. These are things you only really learn through trial and error, things going well and occasions where it goes wrong. I recently decided it was time to brush the dust off those old notebooks and relive the old days.
Here are my Top Ten Bicycle Touring Tips, based on six months of travelling on two wheels.
1. Prepare your bike and equipment (Touring vs. Bikepacking)
It sounds obvious, but the first step is thinking carefully about the type of bicycle tour you want to do, followed by the gear you actually need. I tend to do traditional bicycle touring: loading up a sturdy touring bike with panniers and leisurely exploring a region or route. The popular alternative is bikepacking, which takes a lighter approach using seat packs, frame bags, and minimal kit. Either way is great, but be realistic about your setup and the route, and be very wary of overloading a lightweight carbon road bike with heavy gear!
2. Pack what you think you need, then remove most of it
When you finish packing your panniers, lay everything out on the floor and brutally eliminate half of your luxury items. You can carry more on a bike than your back, but that doesn’t mean you should.
I recently read “One Man and His Bike” by Mike Carter. It’s a travelogue by a man who cycles to work down the Thames in London every day. One day he asks himself “what will happen if I just keep on going?” And that is what he does, embarking on a 5,000-mile, 5-month adventure cycling around the entire coastline of Britain; in one of the early chapters he describes how he posts home his books, documentary boxset, jumpers, jeans and so on. It boils down to only pack what you need, the majority of time is spent in the saddle or sleeping so everyday comforts just aren’t needed.
3. Don’t dangle: Never store gear loose on the outside
Don’t strap equipment loosely to the outside of your panniers or rack unless you absolutely have to. If you must attach something externally, like a foam sleeping mat or wet jacket, always thread a buckle or strap through a fixed loop so it is physically impossible for it to slide off unnoticed on a bumpy descent. Losing a piece of essential gear five miles back down a mountain road is a mistake you only make once. I once met a chap on a ferry who was two days into a tour when he lost his tent from the rack of his bike, so he was turning around and going home.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for and accept offers of help!
People tend to both respect and slightly feel sorry for the bicycle tourer. They see someone who has taken the hard road (quite literally) and you will occasionally have offers of help. Whether it’s a garden to sleep in, a cup of tea or a bit of money to help you on your way (it has happened twice!). We were camping beside a lake in Northern Ireland and a man awkwardly lingered before he apparently summoned the courage and gave us £10 and said he was impressed and wanted to help us on our journey.
Embrace these offers! Touring can occasionally be a lonely endeavour, and these spontaneous encounters offer some of the best social interactions, warm hospitality, and genuine glimpses into local cultures.
5. Master offline maps and custom bookmarks
Navigation apps like Maps.me and Organic Maps are indispensable. Download your region’s map for offline use before you lose phone signal in the hills. You can load the GPS route onto the app and simply follow the line. Crucially, use the bookmarking feature to pin water taps, good potential wild camp spots, bike shops, and cheap supermarkets ahead of time so you aren’t searching blindly at the end of a long day.
6. Don’t let the route rule your tour
It’s easy to get fixated on hitting a daily mileage target or sticking strictly to a GPS line on a screen. But the best moments of bicycle touring almost always happen when you deviate: taking a detour to check out a castle ruin, staying an extra day in a quiet campsite, or stopping for an extra coffee. Be flexible enough to let the journey adapt as you go. To use the famous Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: “It’s not the destination, but the journey that matters.”
7. Churches, graveyards and sports grounds (nearly) always have water
Finding reliable drinking water on hot days, whether passing through remote villages or navigating urban edges, is a constant headache on a long tour.
In rural Europe, when shops are closed or non-existent, churches and graveyards are absolute lifesavers. Almost every village churchyard has an active external tap intended for watering flowers. It is nearly always fresh, potable mains water, easy to access without intruding, and saves you from having to knock on doors or buy endless plastic bottles.
Local sports grounds are another fantastic water source hiding in plain sight. Almost every village or town has a local football pitch or community sports complex, and these frequently have outside taps or a clubhouse. If a match or practice session is underway, it’s easy to pop by, ask politely, and top up your bottles before heading back out on the road.
8. Wild Camping in public places: expect company
If you choose to wild camp in a public or semi public space, like a town park, sports field, or picnic area, you should always expect someone to show up and use it for its intended purpose! Dog walkers, gardeners, council workers, and early morning runners will appear at first light.
I have camped many times thinking it would be fine, only to have someone turn up and start using the space, whether it was the local football club coming for practice, an actual funeral (that was an awkward one), or simply people out for an early exercise session.
The golden rule is simple: pitch late, pack up early, leave no trace, and always be friendly and happy to move on.
9. Cake (and preventing the “bonk”)
The “bonk” (sudden, severe energy depletion) is a bad place to be on a bicycle in the middle of nowhere. When touring, your metabolism becomes a furnace.
Even if you aren’t currently hungry, always stop to buy extra snacks or water when you pass a shop in a remote area. It is far better to carry an extra 500 grams of pastries up a hill than to run out of fuel with 20 miles to the next town to go.
10. Just go
Ultimately, don’t worry about what may or may not happen. Much like Mike Carter, simply pack your bags and hop on your bike, take it slow to begin with, and have fun. Bicycle touring is all about the slow way of life, seeing new places, and escaping from normal routine. Some things may go wrong, but that’s part of the fun and creates fond memories to look back on.