How far do you go per day?
- On average 70kms depending on the terrain
How long do you ride on average per day?
- We plan with an average speed of ~20kmh which makes a total of 3.5 hrs riding time
- Including breaks this normally means we need 5 hours for a stage, so we start between 9:30 and 10:30am and expect to arrive between 3 and 4pm which allows us to discover at least a bit of the places we stay at.
How many breaks do you take?
- As many as we need, at least one break longer than 45mins, depending how we feel, how well we make progress sometimes 2 or 3.
How do You Manage bikepacking with the baby
- Anouk defines the riding schedule
- Depending on when we start we either take a break before or after her nap
- We always give her some time to play and roam before we get going
- When she complains we immediately search for a place to take a rest
- In the beginning when Anja still breast fed her we also set the breaks acording to this schedule
- Apart from that
- For breaks we always try to find a place where Anouk can roam easily, preferably a playground (and they can be found basically everywhere so far where we have been in Europe) or a cafe in a pedestrian zone (Anouk loves water fountains)
- We started early and made riding for her to become a habit, she tries to become part of it, helping to pack and unpack things, she’s getting now in the trailer by herself
- We carry a lot of toys, in the trailer allowing her distract herself which works astonishigly well, we can often hear her play and come up with games with her puppets, and other toys.
Do you just go or plan ahead
- Evey stage and route is planned ahead, I create all GPS tracks on alltrails and load them onto my Polar watch. Also most of the campgroudns are slected ahead. This might be sometimes limiting however it gives a clear goal for a stage and ensures we don’t have to spend looking for a place to stay after a 3 hours rigth with a potentially upset kid in the trailer.
Where do you stay
Ordered by preference:
- Campgrounds
These are just great for families, there is a playground, there is a restaurant with relaxed setup, there are always other kids, so whenever we can try to stay at a campground it is the best for all of us
When it is still too cold or we do not want to bring a tent we we look out for campgrounds that offer accmodations
And they normally have washing machines to do the laundry
2. Farms/Agriturismos
Similar to campgrounds and perfect for kids
3. Appartements
We found these on our Italy tour in cities that we want to visit and there is no campground close to the center, (so basically any city) we get an appartment with 2 rooms especially in Italy we found many, we can prepare our own food and Anouk can sleep earlier in a sepeate room, which allows Anja and me some time for ourselves
4. B&Bs
Nice atmosphere we try to book them whenever there is no campground in sight
5. Hotels
Last resort in case no other option is available on the route