The Black Forest has become a honeypot for British riders – especially the B500. Facing the German mountains from the other side of the Rhine are the Vosges, one of France’s best riding areas. Using the best roads in both regions – and many more – this is an ideal first European trip.

 

What’s included on the route? Each day’s route has recommended places to stop for coffee in the morning and afternoon, a suggested lunch stop and planned fuel stops.

 

How long is each day’s ride? Each leg of the tour is planned to be a full day in the saddle: check-out and get on the road at 9am, getting to the next hotel at 5:30-6pm. That's with coffee stops and lunch - it's not a hardcore slog but a relaxed riding holiday. Saddle-time rating: six out of 10.

 

What are the highlights? For many riders, it’s still the northern stretch of the famous B500, between Freudenstadt and Baden-Baden. This is the Schwartzwaldhochstraße – the Black Forest High Road, created to attract tourists to the mountains. On the French side of the Rhine, the equivalent is the Route des Cretes, running along the spine of the mountains and over Grand Ballon, the highest peak in the Vosges. As well as these two mountainous areas, the tour goes through the Pfalzerwald forest, hugs the Moselle River, crosses the Eifel mountains and finishes in the Ardennes. 

​​

Why six days? The tour fits in easily with one week off work but if you have more than six days, it can be expanded… whether you want to ride more in the Vosges, the Black Forest or the Ardennes, or just have a day off the bike, strolling around and sightseeing.

​

When to go: These are mountains – they ski on them in winter! But they're relatively low mountains so you should be safe to ride them between May and the end of October. Summer is obviously better, though I'd avoid August as they get busy with European holiday season. July and September are probably the best months for this tour.

​​

How is it supplied? Each download consists of an interactive eBook of notes plus a GPX file (suitable for sat navs or phone sat-nav apps). Each route inludes hotel recommendations, suggested lunch and coffee stops and planned fuel stop. The complete-tour downloads have individual GPX files for each day and the Tour Pack option comes with three extra routes to expand the tour plus hardcopy tankbag notes and marked-up maps.