Cycling & GPS tracks

There definitely isn’t a more intense way to experience Germany’s most famous and best loved holiday route! No other form of travel offers a greater experience for the senses. The gradually changing ambience of a slowly altering landscape is hidden from the motorist, who stops only to view the highlights. But to the cyclist it is revealed on literally every one of the 500 kilometres along its leisurely route from the River Main to the Alps or from the Alps to the River Main. And all this on quiet roads, dedicated cycle trails and rarely used byways, away from the traffic hubbub of the modern era.

We will be happy to provide you with free GPS-data for the entire route to help you complete and plan your own personal cycling tour. This data is divided into nine sections, which are definitely not intended to be recommended stages. The GPS is north to south in orientation, i.e. from the River Main to the Alps. The difference in altitude between Würzburg and Füssen is around 600 m, which split over a seven-day cycling tour, is about 85 m a day, so the difference in altitude is not really a reason to travel from south to north. There is a much more important reason to set off in a north-south direction – the main wind direction along the entire route is namely west or north west, so anyone travelling north will most probably be riding into the wind, whereas from north to south, will have the wind in the back.

The Romantic Road offers visitors from near and far one treasure after another, lined up like pearls in a necklace. Historic old towns, medieval city walls with their fortified towers and gates, Baroque pilgrims’ churches, Roman abbey walls and the Bavaria’s fairytale king’s fantasies in stone are as much a part of this as wild, romantic river valleys, fish pools and a rural, cultivated landscape, which has grown up over many generations; dark forests, an ancient meteorite crater and the overawing panorama of the Ammergau Alps. Pedal pushers will be rewarded with the most beautiful sights that Franconia, Baden, Württemberg, Swabia and Upper Bavaria have to offer.

The Romantic Road long distance cycle route is carefully marked throughout and has proven itself as a long distance cycle trail, along this route, over many years. Provided cyclists follows the clear signposting along the way and carefully researched descriptions in the accompanying guide, they are unlikely to have difficulty finding the way and will find themselves cycling along a superb, varied and cycle-friendly route. It does sometimes happen that signs are damaged or deliberately removed or become temporarily overgrown following a spring growth spurt but most of the signs are reliable.
If, when you look at the map, you see one or two detours, they have not been put there arbitrarily but because of a desire to give Romantic Road cyclists as many memories as possible to take away with them by taking them on an exciting itinerary. Don’t let signposts for other cycle routes lead you astray or onto main roads! In recent years, new cycle routes have been created for cyclists who use them either by choice or necessity to travel between specific locations along the Romantic Road (as in our special case), especially on heavily utilised trunk roads, where the aim is to reduce motorised long distance traffic. They are certainly not intended for peaceful cycle tours. Do not, under any circumstances, follow the huge yellow signs near the main traffic arteries. Regrettably, these yellow signs have been erected at certain locations along the Romantic Road long distance cycle route. We have no idea what purpose they serve.