Germany has over 200 long-distance well-marked cycling routes and provides detailed topographical and distance maps of each one. The country has even taken time to categorize the self-guided tours for families, art lovers, food lovers, and city lovers. One of Germany's many self-guided city tours---"In Search of the Little Mermaid"---is also an international tour, beginning in Germany's capital, Berlin, and winding all the way to Copenhagen, Denmark's capital. Once outside Berlin, the route follows rivers from town to town and lake to lake, offering self-paced cyclists a number of stopping points and overnight options. It goes through the Mecklenburg Lakes region, an area with more than 1,000 bodies of water. Cyclists reach Denmark via ferry and follow their maps and the bike signs all the way to Copenhagen, where a statue of the Little Mermaid awaits near the seawall. Because it's self-guided, there are no fees aside from what it costs the traveler to eat, sleep, and make bike repairs.
For cyclists looking for fully supported, guided tours, international touring company Bents offers several cycling trips through Germany. One such tour is an 11-day exploration of the Black Forest region, beginning in Freudenstadt---a name meaning "joyful town"---and ending at Schluchsee, where cyclists can take in the largest lake in the Black Forest. The tour terrain is undulating, offering flat winding wooded stretches, moderate climbs, and easy downhill sections. En route, there are numerous German villages seemingly untouched by time, as well as farms, inns, mills and monasteries. Highlights of the trip include Gutacher Waterfalls---the highest in the country, the beaches of Schluchsee, and Triberg, a city in the center of the Black Forest offering visitors an extensive array of cuckoo clocks. Since the tour is led by guides and fully supported, it leaves on designated dates each summer season. The cost of the tour includes a flight from the U.K. to Germany, lodging, breakfast, luggage transport, train fare, tour guides, and a bicycle for the trip.
A less expensive and more flexible bike tour option is the 6 night, 7 day Mosel Bike Tour operated by Velotour. This bike tour follows the Mosel (Moselle) River from Trier to Koblenz, where the Mosel converges with the Rhine. Along the way, cyclists can stop at medieval castles, vineyards and wineries, and ancient cities. A notable attraction located in Piesport is a 3rd century Roman wine-press. The bike tour is self-guided but supported, meaning there's no tour guide to lead the way, but cyclists pay the tour company for use of a touring bike, maps, a support hotline, luggage transportation, nightly hotel accommodations, and breakfast. Because it's self-led, its departure date is any day between April 17th to September 25th, when the tour company is in operation.
