First tour - Calais > Bruges > Ghent > Lille > Calais

[Tom Fiction]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I've just started planning my first tour and would appreciate thoughts or advice. I'm going with a friend and we have 6 days for the whole trip but would like to think 4 days in the saddle would do the job with days off in Bruges and Ghent. We're from the UK but want to visit somewhere outside the UK. My first thought was to do some of Belgium and France as a circular, avoiding cycling east > west on the coast because of headwinds. I've looked at cycle routes in Belgium and think this route looks doable but I would really appreciate any feedback from people that have done part or all of the route.

We're planning to go in June/July

Here is the route. https://goo.gl/maps/N6R84

If anyone has any other better suggestions of routes that won't cost a fortune in transport please let me know.

 

[Will1962]

Belgium is really under rated as a cycling destination. The infrastructure is not as well developed as the Netherlands, but still has lots of good cycling routes. The roads/cycleways alongside the canals are usually wide and well surfaced. I have cycled all over Flanders and would go again.

I would avoid following the coast near Gravelines/Dunkirk. It is all industrial and not very scenic. If you head inland you can pick up LF1 (aka The North Sea Cycle Route). LF1 crosses into Belgium at Oost-Cappel which has an old style border post:
https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=50.92...7PxF0cbwoYH_JCf8aoA&cbp=12,54.61,,0,7.27&z=16

If you follow LF1, then you can see the WW1 trenches at Diksmuide, before heading down to the coast at Nieuwpoort.

You can also get a Ferry to/from Dunkirk. The ferry port is actually at Gravelines (west of Dunkirk). Cyclists arriving at Dunkirk normally recommend following the Digue du Braeck (along the coast). It is not possible to follow that route anymore - Since August last year one of the bridges has been stuck in the upright position blocking the route, and they don't seem to be in any hurry to fix it.

The Flanders part of Belgium has a system of cycle route junctions called knooppunts. You use the knooppunt numbers to navigate from one junction to the next. Not all possible routes are used, but there are enough to allow you to get from A to B fairly directly. You can travel all around Flanders without having a map, only a list of Knoopunts to follow. The Knoopunts are indicated with a sign that gives directions to adjacent knooppunts. There are signs at junctions between knooppunts.
You can see a example of a knooppunt in this Google Streetview:

https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.10...d=cvk9EiNsUW9CdvrC0OBKrQ&cbp=12,1.41,,1,15.27

In this example, we are at knooppunt 87, and the signs show the directions to 94, 91, and 81.
Opencyclemap shows the knooppunt system. Most cycle maps of Belgium (Flanders) also show them. It is a really easy system to use. It was first used in the Limburg region of Belgium and is now used across all of the Netherlands as well.

Will

 

[Tom Fiction]

Hi Will,

Thanks so much for your information. This is really useful!