Tips for touring the Alps

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khain
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Tips for touring the Alps

Post by khain »

I'm going to be touring the Alps this summer, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, sleeping at campsites. I have a few questions I was wondering if anyone could answer:

How cold are campsites likely to get? I presume some will be at fairly high altitude so is it worth taking a 3 or 4 season sleeping bag? Also, what are typical campsite costs? Is wild camping possible?

How easy is it to find charging points for a laptop or tablet? When I toured northern Europe a few years ago there were no charging points (except for caravans) at campsites in France or Germany. Scandinavian campsites, however, nearly always had kitchens with charging points.

Any other tips or things I should watch out for would be greatly appreciated.
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foxyrider
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by foxyrider »

Whilst there are some campsites at high altitude, there are plenty much lower down. It can certainly get quite cool higher up, my highest campsite last year was just shy of 1500m and that was okay with my 3 season bag with silk liner but the nights I stayed at 1450m a week later it was several degrees cooler! - glad i stayed in a hotel. My advice - camp below 1000m if you can.

My experience in the Swiss/German/Austrian alps is that a good percentage of campsites now have communal lounges with power availability - check the facilities out on a site like ACSI eurocampings. Cost will vary with location/facilities - i've spent as little as euro 7 and as much as euro 28. Something about euro 17/18 is pretty typical.

Remember that if you want to - and i presume you do, cross some of the high passes give yourself plenty of time, you could be climbing for hours so try to get the climbs earlier in the days ride - nothing worse than knowing your campsite is at the top of a 20km climb after riding for eight hours! :?
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gbnz
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by gbnz »

khain wrote:I'm going to be touring the Alps this summer, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, sleeping at campsites. I have a few questions I was wondering if anyone could answer:

How cold are campsites likely to get? I presume some will be at fairly high altitude so is it worth taking a 3 or 4 season sleeping bag? Also, what are typical campsite costs? Is wild camping possible?

How easy is it to find charging points for a laptop or tablet? When I toured northern Europe a few years ago there were no charging points (except for caravans) at campsites in France or Germany. Scandinavian campsites, however, nearly always had kitchens with charging points.

Any other tips or things I should watch out for would be greatly appreciated.


I've only been once, though in July didn't have any issues with cold. Campsites were expensive, wild camping was possible on occasion (I.e. Campsite owner gave me a dirty look, quoted a fortune, so I camped on the pleasant meadow outside the campsite gates :D ). Though it can be quite visible and I believe in places it'd cause problems.

As above, a major point is to view it as a different type of cycling. 20-30 miles uphill (Or at least it feels like it), is much easier with a half speed approach (I can't actually remember bothering to track distances covered, rather than thinking "I've done 50, 80, 120 today).

And if I head back (16 days this summer probably won't give me sufficient time), I'd check the location of the aldis/lidls and the like, rather than being obliged to pay a fortune for corner shop type food
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foxyrider
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by foxyrider »

Yes forgeot to mention - food is quite pricey in Switzerland but find a CO-OP for a fantastic range of dairy and prepared meat/veg. :D
Convention? what's that then?
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TrevA
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by TrevA »

foxyrider wrote:Remember that if you want to - and i presume you do, cross some of the high passes give yourself plenty of time, you could be climbing for hours so try to get the climbs earlier in the days ride - nothing worse than knowing your campsite is at the top of a 20km climb after riding for eight hours! :?


+1. On our last moving on tour in the Alps, we used to ride to the bottom of a Col and then stop overnight and climb the Col first thing in the morning whilst it was stil cool. Sometimes you have to climb more than one, but try to avoid climbing in the heat of the middle of the day.

We climbed the Col d'Iseran, starting at 9.00 from Bourg St Maurice, had 11's at Val d'Isere and lunch at the top. It was 50km uphill and took over 3 hours (only gentle climbing for the first 2 hours but steep near the top).
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whoof
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by whoof »

This does depend on when you class as summer. We rode through the Alps last year during mid-June and some of the high passes where still officially closed. However the French class June as mid to low season in term of charges for camping. In July and August the prices go up and the roads get busier.
I have always toured the last two weeks in June and used a 1 season sleeping bag. However, I have always camped in the valley.
A couple of years ago we climbed the Col dTelegraph and stayed in Valloire which I think is over 1000m) ready to climb the Galibier the next day. It was 5 degrees. As much as I like camping we stayed in a hotel, at the top of the Galibier it was zero and snowing.

Municiple campsites in France are very good value.
nmnm
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by nmnm »

I used a sleeping bag w 250g of down in Sept in the French Alps and woke with the cold every night. It was always at 3 or 4 a.m. that I woke, when turning over. Those wags at Vango put less down in the underside of the bag because it's underneath, at first. My tent is quite big and airy so I need more down in the bag.

Using a bag with 400g of down the next year, I only woke on some nights. Would've been fine in July and Aug. You can get really cold if the rain gets started while you're pedalling over a pass, so it's nice to have plenty of feathers in your sleeping bag. 500g of down would not be crazy. Or 250g and three throwaway jumpers.
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Sweep
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by Sweep »

gbnz wrote:And if I head back (16 days this summer probably won't give me sufficient time), I'd check the location of the aldis/lidls and the like, rather than being obliged to pay a fortune for corner shop type food


If you have a Garmin (also other GPSs I think) you can download a POI file giving you the location of all the Lidl's in Europe. Very handy.

Apart from prices, Lidl also good of course as they are smallish so you can often do a quick in and out - no need to trawl past endless varieties of similar products.

Love your response to the over-priced campsite gb :) I too marvel at the prices you can be charged for a bit of grass with no hook-up or anything.
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cotswolds
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by cotswolds »

My tip for touring Austria is that they have very strict rules on Sunday opening - supermarkets WILL be closed. There are other odd rules - bakeries often have a few tables and sell coffee, but when we tried to use this facility we were told that we could only have a take-away coffee, because you could only 'drink-in' in the morning.

The exception to this is petrol stations which seem to be able to sell anything at any time, and often have coffee bars and an extensive grocery selection. A completely unexpected use of OSMAND on a cycling tour was searching for petrol stations, which you'll tend to bypass following cycle routes.

I'd also check to see if there are any bank holidays during your trip, when the same rules apply. We were rather pleased with ourselves for having stocked up for a Sunday, only to find the Monday was a bank holiday, and I bonked badly through lack of available suitable food. Restaurants and cafes are open, so you won't starve, but they may be expensive and inconvenient.
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foxyrider
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by foxyrider »

On the subject of Bank Holidays watch out for Swiss Day, 1st August! I thought i had it covered last year (it was Thursday) but in many places the holiday was extended into the weekend so shops/restaurants etc were not neccesarily open as expected - the firework celebrations however put 5th November to shame as every town and village tries to outdo all its neighbours! :D
Convention? what's that then?
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khain
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by khain »

Thanks for all the responses to this, a lot of useful info.

I've now finished the tour. You can see photos at my blog: http://www.khain.net

I took a four season bag but a 1 season bag would have done fine. It was very warm everywhere I camped, except on a 2km+ pass but even that wasn't too cold. Most of the campsites had charge points for shaving so I had no problems keeping my phone charged.

Although the scenery is spectacular I wouldn't really recommend the Alps for cycle touring. It was very busy, motorbikes were a real nuisance on the passes, campsites were very large and of poor quality, and there were thunderstorms every other day. I enjoyed Slovenia and Bavaria the most as they were quieter and less commercialised.
theDaveB
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Re: Tips for touring the Alps

Post by theDaveB »

Pictures look fantastic, looks like a brilliant tour to me.

Dave
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