EuroVelo is a project of the European Cyclists' Federation to develop an European cycle route network consisting of 13 long-distance cycle routes crossing Europe. The total length will 60,000 km (37,282 mi), of which more than 44,000 km (27,340 mi) are in place.
EuroVelo routes are intended for bicycle touring across the continent, though they are also used locally. The routes are made of both existing bike paths and roads together with proposed and planned cycle routes to connect them. All the routes are unfinished.
In September 2008 the European Union Committee for Transport and Tourism earmarked €300,000 to support EuroVelo.[1]
Requirements for a EuroVelo route are:
Contents |
Total network: 63,505 km/39,460 mi
The aim of EuroVelo is to encourage people to try cycling instead of driving. Although some will cycle across the continent, most journeys will be local.
Development is by national, regional and local governments and NGOs in all European countries. The international status helps in funds and political support for construction. Only routes approved by the EuroVelo route coordinator can call themselves EuroVelo.
| Route number | Route name | passes through these Cities | through these Countries | Length (km or mi) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EV1 | Atlantic Coast Route | North Cape (EV7, EV11) - Norwegian Coast - Trondheim (EV3) - Bergen (EV12) - Aberdeen (EV12) - Inverness (EV12 ) - Glasgow - Stranraer - Belfast - Galway (EV2) - Cork - Rosslare - Fishguard - Bristol (EV2) - Plymouth - Roscoff (EV4) - Nantes (EV6) - La Rochelle - Burgos (EV3) - Salamanca - Sagres | Norway, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal | 8,186 km or 5,087 mi |
| EV2 | Capitals Route | Galway (EV1) - Dublin - Holyhead - Bristol (EV1) - London (EV5) - Harwich - Rotterdam - The Hague - Münster (EV3) - Berlin (EV7) - Poznań (EV9) - Warsaw (EV11) - Minsk - Moscow | Ireland, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia | 5,500 km or 3,418 mi |
| EV3 | Pilgrim's Route | Santiago de Compostela - León - Burgos (EV1) - Bordeaux - Tours (EV6) - Orléans (EV6) - Paris - Namur (EV5) - Aachen (EV4) - Münster (EV2) - Hamburg (EV12) - Odense (EV10) - Viborg - Frederikshavn (EV12) - Gothenburg (EV12) - Oslo - Røros - Trondheim (EV1) | Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway | 5,122 km or 3,183 mi |
| EV4 | Roscoff-Kiev | Roscoff (EV1) - the French Atlantic coast - Le Havre - Calais (EV5) - Middelburg - Aachen (EV3) - Bonn - Frankfurt - Prague (EV7) - Brno (EV9) - Kraków (EV11) - L'viv - Kiev | France, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine | 4,000 km or 2,485 mi |
| EV5 | Via Romea Francigena | London (EV2) - Canterbury - Calais (EV4) - Brussels - Namur (EV3) - Luxembourg - Saarbrücken - Sarreguemines - Strasbourg (EV15) - Basel (EV6) - Lucerne - Milan - Piacenza (EV8) - Parma - Florence(EV7) - Siena - Rome(EV7) - Brindisi | United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy | 3,900 km or 2,423 mi |
| EV6 | Atlantic Ocean to Black Sea (Rivers Route) | Nantes (EV1) - Tours (EV3) - Orleans (EV3) - Nevers - Chalon-sur-Saône - Basel (EV5) - Passau - Ybbs (EV7) - Linz - Vienna (EV9) - Bratislava - Budapest - Belgrade (EV11) - Bucharest - Constanţa | France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania | 3,653 km or 2,270 mi |
| EV7 | Middle Europe Route | North Cape (EV1, EV11) - Haparanda (EV10) - Sundsvall (EV10) - central Sweden - Copenhagen (EV10) - Gedser - Rostock (EV10) - Berlin (EV2) - Prague (EV4) - Ybbs (EV6) - Salzburg - Mantua (EV8) - Bologna - Florence (EV5) - Rome (EV5) - Naples - Syracuse - Malta | Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Malta | 6,000 km or 3,728 mi |
| EV8 | Mediterranean Route | Cadiz - Málaga - Almeria - Valencia - Barcelona - Monaco - Piacenza (EV5) - Mantua (EV7) - Ferrara - Venice - Trieste (EV9) - Rijeka - Split - Dubrovnik - Tirana - Patras - Athens (EV11) | Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece | 5,388 km or 3,348 mi |
| EV9 | Baltic Sea to Adriatic Sea (Amber Route) | Gdańsk (EV10) - Poznań (EV2) - Olomouc - Brno (EV4) - Reinthal - Vienna (EV6) - Maribor - Ljubljana - Trieste (EV8) - Pula | Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia | 1,930 km or 1,199 mi |
| EV10 | Baltic Sea Cycle Route (Hansa circuit) | St Petersburg - Helsinki (EV11) - Vaasa - Oulu - Haparanda (EV7) - Sundsvall (EV7) - Stockholm - Ystad - Malmö - Copenhagen (EV7) - Odense (EV3) - Rostock (EV7) - Gdańsk (EV9) - Kaliningrad - Klaipėda - Riga - Tallinn (EV11) - St Petersburg | Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia | 7,930 km or 4,927 mi |
| EV11 | East European Route | North Cape (EV1, EV7) - the Finnish Lakes - Helsinki (EV10) - Tallinn (EV10) - Tartu - Vilnius - Warsaw (EV2) - Kraków (EV4) - Košice - Szeged - Belgrade (EV6) - Skopje - Thessaloniki - Athens (EV8) | Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece | 5,964 km or 3,706 mi |
| EV12 | North Sea Cycle Route | Bergen (EV1) - Stavanger - Kristiansand - Gothenburg (EV3) - Varberg - Grenaa - Frederikshavn (EV3) - Hirtshals - Esbjerg - Hamburg (EV3) - The Hague (EV2) - Rotterdam - Harwich (EV2) - Kingston upon Hull - Newcastle - Edinburgh - Aberdeen (EV1) - Inverness (EV1) - Thurso - Orkney - Shetland - Bergen (EV1) | Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom | 5,932 km or 3,686 mi |
| EV13 | Iron Curtain Trail | 6,800 km or 4,225 mi | ||
| EV15 | Rhine Cycle Route | Andermatt - Chur - Schaffhausen - Basel (EV5-EV6) - Huningue - Neuf-Brisach - Strasbourg (EV5) - Lauterbourg - Karlsruhe - Ludwigshafen - Mannheim - Mainz - Wiesbaden - Bingen - Koblenz - Bonn - Köln - Düsseldorf - Duisburg - Xanten - Arnhem - Utrecht - Rotterdam | Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands | 1,320 km or 820 mi |
Between The Hague and the German-Polish border EV2 follows Euro-Route R1[3] , an international cycle path connecting Boulogne-sur-Mer with St Petersburg.
EuroVelo 3 is The Pilgrim's Route. It goes from Trondheim in Norway to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The route follows traces of old roads used for pilgrimages in the Middle Ages. The route passes through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France and Spain. Most of these countries have a developed net of bicycle routes used as part of EV3.
This route[4] is inspired by the Via Francigena, a pilgrim route from London to Rome (and beyond) although not used as much as the Santiago route. It was first recorded by Archbishop Sigeric in the 10th century AD. However, the route of the Via Francigena is an almost straight line path from London to Rome. The Eurovelo 5 route takes a more easterly route that passes through Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg in Alsace. Then it follows the Franco-German border, cuts through Switzerland (following the Swiss National Cycle Network Route 3) and crosses the Alps at the Gotthard Pass. In Italy it follows the as-yet unmarked or unmapped Via dei Pellegrini Cycle Route (number 3 of the Italian network) passing through Rome and following a mainly inland route towards the west of the country before heading east to Brindisi. The route in Italy follows more closely the traditional route of the Via Francigena, a route which has recently been awarded EU funds to reinstate hostelry organisation and for route improvement. More information about this route can be found at Eurovelo5.com.
EuroVelo 6 is the Rivers Route. It runs from Nantes on the mouth of the Loire, along the river eastward through France. It continues on to Lake Constance in Switzerland and then down the Danube through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, where it passes the UNESCO Heritage site Srebarna Nature Reserve then into Romania to the UNESCO Heritage site of the Danube Delta, and ends in Constanţa, on the Black Sea. EV6 includes the Donauradweg, the bicycle path along the Danube; this stretches from Donaueschingen and Passau in Germany through Austria to Vienna and continues on to Bratislava in Slovakia.[5]
Mediterranean Route from the Pyrenees to Athens, mostly along the coast. Route report[6] - note this is old - the document itself is undated but probably at least 5 years old due to mention of "closed" borders that have actually been open since 2005. More information about this route can be found at EuroVelo 8 [7].
EuroVelo 9, the Amber Route, runs from Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea in Poland through the Czech Republic to Austria and on to Slovenia and finishes at Pula on the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. [8][9]
EuroVelo 10 runs around Baltic Sea. Some of its parts are mapped on OpenStreetMap project [4]. On the state of the route there is an OpenStreetMap wiki page Peter Horn User talk 01:12, 27 December 2011 (UTC)[10]
EuroVelo 11 is called 11 the East Europe Route and connect (theoretically) the North Cape with Athens. On the state of the route there is an OpenStreetMap wiki page [11]
EuroVelo 12, the North Sea Cycle Route[12], was the first European route, opened in June 2001, route through England, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. It features in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest unbroken signposted cycling route. The second phase of European Union funding through the Interreg initiative came to a close in December 2006.
EuroVelo 13, the Iron Curtain Trail, follows the old Iron Curtain, the divided borders of Europe during the Cold War.[13] The ICT runs from Kirkenes, Norway on the Barents Sea, along the Finno-Russian border through to the Baltic Sea, then hugs the length of the Baltic coast to Lübeck in Germany. It then follows the old border between West Germany and the former East Germany, the current borders between the Czech Republic and both Germany then Austria, the Austrian-Slovakian and Austrian-Hungarian borders before following the borders of the former Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria. It finishes at Carevo in Bulgaria on the Black Sea after following the border with Greece.[14]
The international Rhine cycle route, EuroVelo 15[15], with an overall length of about 1,320 km (820 mi) passes through four countries from the headwaters of the Rhine in Andermatt in the Swiss Alps to the estuary in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, via France [16] and Germany. The Rhine is Europe’s most well-known and most historic river. Throughout its steady north-south course from the Alps to the North Sea, it is one of the most attractive rivers for tourists with its most charming countryside. It has been one of the most important traffic routes for cultural exchange between the Mediterranean region and Northern Europe for two thousand years. The fluvial topography of the Rhine is amongst the most enchanting and invites to visit the bordering cities and villages with numerous UNESCO world heritage sites, like Strasbourg, Speyer cathedral, the Rhine Gorge and Cologne cathedral[17].