Introduction

Budapest to Amsterdam 18 Jun - 12 Sep 2025

With what is going on in the world currently, especially in Europe, we sometimes wonder why we chose that part of the world for a three-month cycle tour. Let’s hope that the powers that be don’t get any ideas about extending the conflict in the East to include other parts of Europe. Because we love cycling there so much, we are prepared to take the risk, which we think is very minimal.

Although Greg has been to most of the places we are going to cover this time, Wendy hasn’t done this section of the Danube, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, or Northern Germany. Neither of us have been to Czechia, which of course includes Prague. We start in Hungary, dip our toes into Slovakia briefly, then onto Austria, Czechia, Germany and finish in Netherlands.   

After many self-supported tours where we packed our bikes in boxes and took them with us, we’ve decided to buy a couple of e-bikes upon arrival in Budapest, use them on the tour and then sell them before we fly out of Amsterdam. Although we have a couple of e-bikes which would be great for this trip, the logistics of getting them to Europe, with batteries, just became too complicated. Until we can send our batteries overseas easily, our options are limited. We could have taken our bikes and bought batteries in Budapest; however, the bikes are heavier than non-e-bikes, even without the batteries in, making it more difficult to box up and man-handle. This tour is the first self-supported tour we will do with e-bikes, and we are hoping that it will make the many hills, headwinds and the long days in the saddle that we’ll encounter, a little easier to deal with. We certainly know from riding at home on e-bikes that it is so much more relaxing (especially when you have a dickie heart) and we are looking forward to giving them a go in Europe.

The route we have planned is a real mixed bag of big cities, World Heritage sites, slow moving rivers, ancient countryside, farmlands, cute villages and small country towns. We’ve had to book some accommodation in advance because of the school holidays, but we want to keep that to a minimum so that we can change our plans if we want/need to. Other cyclists you meet on the way are a good source of information about what’s up ahead and often make great suggestions.

Please wish us safe cycling, follow our travels if you wish, and live it, vicariously.

2,200 - 2,300km 

Our rough itinerary