Practical Cycling Holiday Tips

Thanks to Ashley M for his suggestions for a new post.

Although these are general best practise in general travel, I thought I'd cover them here as well.

In this post I discuss:

• Travel visas
• Insurance
• Document Protection

Travel Visa
These days in Western Europe, we basically don't need a visa to travel at all. Of the countries you could fly into, out of or through whilst around France, as far as I am aware, you don't need visas for Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Portugal or the Netherlands.

If you are flying via the USA, you need to complete an online visa application, which can be done here for free. Make sure you do this, or else you'll turn up and get turned back or face some difficult questions!

Travel Insurance
Although I discuss insurance in the Cycling Through France guide but I think it is worth discussing again.

I used to use standard travel insurance from the travel agent when heading overseas.

These days though, I always buy my airfares on my platinum credit card which provides much better insurance than what I can get through a travel agent.

In 2009, I had to make 2 claims and these were paid without even so much as a phone call – the money was paid right into my bank account.

In case you're wondering I use Westpac Earth Platinum and Westpac Altitude Platinum. Yes I have one of each – Earth Platinum is linked to Qantas Frequent Flyer and earns at 1.5:1 and Altitude can be redeemed on numerous airlines and earns at 3:1.

Given I travel overseas once or twice a year, the $250 Platinum card fee is well worth it since I usually spend $150 or so on insurance anyway.

Document Protection
Before travelling, I always scan my travel documents including:

• Passport
• Ground Itineraries
• Accommodation vouchers and info
• Ground and and transfers
• Travel insurance documents
• Plane e-tickets

I then upload them to some webspace I have, copy them onto a USB stick (which I take, and keep separate from travel docs), email a couple of close friends, and email to myself (I do have access anywhere on my iPhone though).

I also photocopy everything with 4 copies, and give one to my travel partner, put one in one travel bag, and 2 in another.

You just never know, so it's best to be safe than sorry.

Train Travel
I didn't cover train travel in the Cycling Through France and there's a reason for that – I wanted to focus on planning your trip around following the Tour de France and to a lesser extent the L'Etape du Tour.

So, I'm throwing the door open to the first velonomad.com guest post. If there is someone out there who has done some train travel whilst chasing the Tour or even just for leisure, and who would like to write a guest post, then drop me a line.