Planning your travelling from your place of departure to the starting point of the most frequent Camino routes
1. Following one of the European walking routes.
These routes mostly lead through regional hiking roads. Since the routes are intended more for walking than biking, they are unpaved and the terrain might be rough. If you are up for a real pilgrim's challeng, you are fit, have enough time and patience, you can try them, but otherwise it is not recommended for bikers. A good mountain bike and solid cycling skills are a must.
2. Following European cycling routes.
On the webpage OpenCycleMap.org you can find the complete infrastructure of almost all cycling routes around the world. The map is regularly updated and charts a vast amount of international, national and regional cycloroutes. Quality of the road may vary from region to region (road width, terrain, marking, for cyclists only/shared with hikers, cars etc). If you want to know how to harness modern technology and plan your trip thoroughly with GPS and offline OpenCycleMap on your phone or tablet, please read this separate article on the topic.
3. Conventional method: by car/bus/train/plane, renting a bike for the Camino
Transporting your bike on the bus might be difficult because most of the bus companies do not accept bikes as luggage. You had better inquire about this option by several companies well in advance.
Transporting the bike on the train is usually possible, but you still have to inquire about the optional bike transport in the railway company. The biggest disadvantage is that travelling by train is the most expensive option, usually it is cheaper to transport your bike by plane. Also keep in mind that you might have to buy a special bike transport bag.
The optional transport of your bike on the plane also varies from company to company. If you are to travel from a long distance, it is the cheapiest way, even though you must count on a flat rate for the bike transport of about 80-100 €.
There is also a possibility of renting a bike for Camino. As I have heard, it costs about 200 € and this is a good option if you do not have a good bike yourself. The lent bike might be hand in and lent on different places on the Camino. I do not want to do advertisement for any commercial company on this blog, therefore, I encourage you to do your own google research on this topic.
Doing Camino on bike
1. Following the walking route for pilgrims
This is a true challenge for bikers as the walking routes are sometimes extremely difficult for biking. You must be innerly ready that you might not be able to do every uphill or downhill and might have to push your bike as a cross on wheels instead.
Advantages:
+ The sense of accomplishment for taking "the hard way" - no pain, no glory :)
+ Many other walking pilgrims on the way make biking on walking route more social
+ Excellent marking, you virtually cannot get lost.
Disadvantages:
- Very difficult, requires good fitness and biking skills
- A mountain bike with a good suspension is a must.
- Biking the walking route takes you more time and effort than biking on normal roads
- Many a tourist on the Camino (especially Camino Francais, the most popular Camino) might slow you down and spoil you excitement from fast downhills. For this reason, the best time for riding is early in the morning, during the noon and later in the evening when they are not so many pilgrims on the way.
2. Taking the biking route
There are severals alternatives for road bikers, the most convenient one is buying a cycling guide for your Camino. I used the Jakobs-Radweg by BikeLine and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It is worth of investig few Euros for a decent cycling guide in which you do not only find the best route, but also can read interesting background information about places you are about to visit. Useful information on accommodation is also provided.
The biking route leads mostly through classical roads. Sometimes you must count on heavy traffic on main roads, but mostly you will ride through almost empty village roads. The terrain is mostly paved, therefore, is is better to have a road or a cyclocross bike. In few cases and certain areas, you will also share the road with walking pilgrims. It is also possible to alternate between the biking and the walking route, and it is up to you for which you decide after the inicial assessment of the terrain, elevation gain and your own strengths.
Bike transport from Camino back home
1. By car/bus/train/plane
Basically the same as written few above. I only have a piece of advice about transporting your bike within Spain for you:
Transporting your bike from Fisterra to Santiago:
On the optional trip to Fisterra (around 100 km), there is an option to transport your bike by bus back to Santiago. The decision lies solely within the driver, and depends on the passenger load factor: travellers with a backpack will be prioritised. I had personally no problems and did not even have to dismount the front wheel. The price is also very affordable: around 14 €.
Transporting your bike from Santiago to other Spanish cities
The Spanish bus company Alsa (information also in English, German and French) offers the optional bike transport for a flat fee of 10 €. However, the bus ticket must be bought together with the bike transport option (either online through the reservation system or personally) and you might have troubles with the driver (as I had) if you do not pack bike properly. The best you can do is either to buy a bike transport bag, or wrap your bike in cardboard. I only wrapped the pedals and the driver firstly did not want to take me because my bike could scratch and damage other passengers' luggage. I came up with a provisional solution and wrapped my bike with my sleeping bag, but I do not recommend calling for such troubles. It is better to have enough cardboard and tape with you.
By the way. you do not need to print out your online ticket, for the bus driver checks only your ID with his information sheet about passengers.
If you have any useful information or advice that could help other bikers, please e-mail me and I will gladly post it here.
2. Bike shipping
There are several companies specializing in bike shippments. It costs around 200 € one way, for more information, look through different option on Google.
3. Ride share
I used this option and must say that it was the best thing I could do. I was lucky though that I found a driver willing to take my bike. It might take you some time to find a suitable car, but it is worth of it. Ride share is generally much cheaper than travellin by bus or train and sometimes even cheaper than travelling by plane. However, if there are 2 or more bikers who want to share the same car and route, it might be extremely difficult to find a suitable car, therefore, I would recommend buying a bike holder that you simply mount on any car. That should fix all problmes with crampled space.
few ride share webpages for inspiration:
http://www.carpooling.co.uk/
http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/
http://www.stopar.sk/
http://www.covoiturage.fr/
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