Maps
I buy an ordinary road map as soon as I get into a country as that gives me a good overview of the place.
For general planning I use Google Maps and on the road I use Here Maps app in my iPhone.
Here Maps is excellent, the maps can be downloaded and used offline. It doesn’t have a cycling option but it gives you options to go by car or on foot. It shows even the smallest roads so you need to be careful as a few times I went down a road only to find out that it was just a sandy track.
I have a handlebar holder for my phone and the app has been really useful, in particular when finding my way to a specific address, navigating my way through towns and getting in and out of them.
Someone mentioned Maps Me as being very useful but I haven’t tried it.
I also use Google maps, good to find hostels and places of interest.
Country Specific Info
Turkey
I couldn’t find any good detailed maps of the country. Local cyclists buy them from abroad, do if you are planning to use small roads you’d be better off bringing a good map with you.
Georgia
Pretty much like in Turkey. You may be able to finda fairly decent one in Tbilisi that covers both Georgia and Armenia. I was give one there printed in Canada by International Travel Maps
It would have been very useful to have it earlier as I would have avoided some pretty busy roads.
Weather
I do check the forecast every now and again to help me plan. There are lots of sites out there but my favourite in AccuWeather
The site has a comprehensive choice of short and long term forecast and maps with cloud, rain, wind. I can’t change the weather but I can prepare mentally for it and I do!
Accommodation
It would have been useful to have good maps with the location of campsites in Europe and I recommend taking one if you are planning on using organised campsites.
Warmshowers is an absolute joy. Staying with other cyclists not only has given me glimpse of the life in that country but also has helped me plan my route through that particular country.
I also use Couchsurfing . Warmshowers is great, but in the big scheme of things it doesn’t have that many members worldwide whilst Couchsurfing does.
One tip – when I started to use both sites I would only write to one person and wait for their response. I soon find out that not everyone responds to requests for accommodation. Now I write to 4 or 5 people with the hope that at least one of them will get back to me.
Country Specific Info
Bulgaria and Romania
It may be possible to stay for free in Monasteries in these two countries. I didn’t in Bulgaria but stay in several of the Romanian ones.
Accomodation varies enormously from one to another, some of them are pretty basic and in others you get a lovely individual room. Sometimes the monks/nuns offer you food. You sit at a big communal table and a simple fare is served.
In the evening you are free to attend the night service. I did a couple of times for the experience. Services are extremely long but it’s OK to leave when you want.
A list of the Bulgarian Monasteries can be found here and the Romanian here
What I did was just turn up at the Monastery and in sign language ask whether I could stay the night. I never had a refusal and they always were very good about finding a safe place for the bike. Once I was shown to the room I was pretty much left to my own devices. I was there in November and the nights were cold. The monks/nuns always lit a fire in the room to make the room warm.
Turkey
I crossed Turkey in January/February. It was very very cold so I used Öğretmenevi quite a lot. They are a network of Teachers Houses that can be found all over the country. Whilst they’re primary function is to offer accommodation for teachers, they are also opened to the public. They are clean, safe and have good Internet connection. Prices vary, I paid between 20 and 50 Turksh Lira. If you are travelling with someone else some hotels may be as cheap
Transport
I have used public transport a few times and have found the rome2rio site really helpful.
For ferries I use the portal ferrylines which gives worldwide routes and timetables.
Bike shops
I’ve had my bike services a couple of times
Turkey
Bisiklet Gezgini is a fantastic place run by Seçil and Alex, cycle tourers themselves. Foxtrot had a full service here. I can’t recommend them highly enough. They are in the Asian side and a must visit if you are stopping in Istanbul.
Georgia
Veo + in Tblisi were great. A quick service and change of chain. Great service, they speak English and the mellow jazz background music in the shop is a real plus
There will be more I promise!
ANIMO!!!. APROVECHA A ESTAR CON L@S AMIG@S.
This is VERY useful – thanks Bianca! Hope Spring is in the air, by the seaside in Turkey…
Blanca,
I’ve been inspired by your cycling adventure and will be starting my own in June 2017. Because this is my first cycling trip and there’s a lot I need to learn, I’m going to follow your route. The river route path eurovelo v6 seems flat enough and pretty enough to start out and then continue similarly like you did. I have a question- u only use your iPhone and map apps on it for getting around your entire trip (plus paper maps)? No garmin gps sat nav?
Do you need a compass to work with your paper maps?
Were most roads/cycle routes well marked or were you truly off road at any pint for great times where you would’ve needed gps sat nav guidance from point a to point b?
How were you able to use your iPhone in each country? Unlock it? Did u have to buy a SIM card for each country you traveled thru so your iPhone would work in each country and then your iPhone map apps would then work?
While spending so much time cycling and in remote areas – did you have internet on your iPhone? Tablet? How were you able to research the cool things sites places activities and hikes that were in each of the areas you were passing through so as to not miss them ?
Did u pack iPhone ? iPad tablet? Laptop computer?
Sorry for all the questions !
Thanks for inspiring me!
Be well.
Charlie
Hi Charlie
How exciting to be planning a big adventure. You re going to have an amazing time. I’m sure of it. I will take your questions one by one and try to answer
u only use your iPhone and map apps on it for getting around your entire trip (plus paper maps)?
The app I use now is maps.me. It is fabulous. It is based on OpenStreetMaps and has all I need including walking routes. Up until Iran I also used paper maps but they were more for giving me the context as their scale isn’t small enough to give me detail I need to take the smaller roads I wanted to cycle on whilst the maps in the app have that level of detail. I download the maps when I have internet connection and then use them off line when I am on the road. For some countries, like Vietnam, google maps has better info than maps me so I use a combination of both, I have been told I can use google maps offline but I haven’t discovered how to do that yet.I don’t keep the map on all the time as it eats the battery of the phone, just check regularly. The only time I keep it on is if the road is confusing or in towns. I have a dynamo with a USB plug to keep my phone charged.
No garmin gps sat nav?
No, I hcnw’t got a sat nav and I don’t miss it at all – maybe the only time it could have come handy is when I got lost in a woodland in Romania – the road marked in google maps didn’t exist and I found myself off road in the woods – not fun
Do you need a compass to work with your paper maps?
I have a compass with me but more out of habit than anything. It did come useful when I got lost but only once in 20 months. Also the magnets of my ortlieb handlebar bag are quite powerful and send the compass bearing off – just something to keep in mind if you are thining about using one.
Were most roads/cycle routes well marked or were you truly off road at any pint for great times where you would’ve needed gps sat nav guidance from point a to point b?
Yep, most of the roads are in the app . I sometimes ask locals too if I am not sure
How were you able to use your iPhone in each country? Unlock it? Did u have to buy a SIM card for each country you traveled thru so your iPhone would work in each country and then your iPhone map apps would then work?
As I said above I use the app offline so I don’t need to have a SIM for each country. Having said that I did get SIMs in several countries but it was mostly to be able to whatsap my family and friends and organise warmshowers/couchsurfing from my tent and then be able to contact the hosts to arrange how to meet
While spending so much time cycling and in remote areas – did you have internet on your iPhone? Tablet?
In some of the remote areas even if you have a SIM connectivity is dodgy, non existent or very slow so I just made do without it but you’d be surprise how widel available, generally the Internet is. I had more issues not being able to access some sites in Iran, Uzbekistan and China but a good VPN sorted that one out. I used express VPN – it proved to be the best one in China in particular
How were you able to research the cool things sites places activities and hikes that were in each of the areas you were passing through so as to not miss them ?
I look at sites like Wikitravel in those places where WIFI is available. It means a bit of foreplanning but it is fun to do. Most of the most useful information though is from other travellers/cyclists and from the warmshowers hosts. For example Iwould have never found the caravansarai in Iran and the route to it if it wasn’t for Ali, my lovely warmshores host in Isfahan. Nothing like real local knowledge. Other times to find nice routes I look at other cyclints bloggs – crazy guyon a bike is particularly useful as people plots their routes on a map that can be exported into maps me. Ifound the route between Xining and Chengdu in China that way and it was fabulous.
Did u pack iPhone ? iPad tablet? Laptop computer?
I actually carry two phoes with me. One with my English SIM and the other for local SIMS. Next time I would have a doble SIM phone. I haven’t got a computer but I have a tablet that I use for everything. It is my cinema, my music system, I write my blog, my spreadsheets. It is a bit of a pain not having a keyboard and it makes it difficult to backup the photos but the size and weight are a real advantage.
Hi! Yup I tried recently “Here Maps” and they saved me totally in Bologna, Lisbon and Houston.