in planning » Spring 2019 Europe trip

If a few pieces fall into place I'm hoping to do a trip of between 45 and 60 days next spring.

From the old board I learned that it's possible to fly to certain destinations on Air Canada with your bike as baggage and that spurred an idea.

Hoping to fly from Montreal to Dublin in late May early June of next year. See the city and ride around Ireland for few days, returning to Dublin to catch a ferry to the Isle of Mann and catch a few days of the TT. Then ferry to England, working my way down to the chunnel. Still in the very beginning planning stage so from there I'd either head southeast towards Provence, where I've never been, or make a left and head towards Bruges eventually working my way to Alsace, two of my favorite places in the world; a route I've done by car but have promised myself I'd do by bike one day. Whichever route I choose I'd eventually work my way to northern Italy, possibly the Stelvio Pass area, definitely Lake Como to see the Guzzi museum. From there a week or so around Parma, Bologna, Modena and possibly Florence eventually working my way over to the coast, Cinque Terra down to the Amalfi Coast, ending in Sicily. After Sicily I'll work my way up the east coast of Italy, eventually Rome and the flight back to Montreal.

I realize that ferry passage to IOM and rooms during the TT book up very early but am not able to commit to the trip yet so I'll just have to see if that can be worked in or not. As of now everything is just laid out with some simple Google Map searches. If things do start to firm up I'll be looking around for more real world advice from those who have ridden in the areas I'm hoping to visit.

As a single bike you should be ok booking closer to departure - especially with an unsocial hours crossing time ( some ferries depart at 0200). Also, if you are in Europe for 45+ day, and the TT ferry crossings book out consider the Southern 100 meeting on the IOM ( mid-July), Manx GP ( end of August) or the Ulster GP ( Northern Ireland late August) as alternatives for a real road race experience, by adjusting the itinerary. August will be mega hot in Southern Italy , so you could consider flying into Italy and working your way backwards ...

"As a single bike you should be ok booking closer to departure - especially with an unsocial hours crossing time ( some ferries depart at 0200). Also, if you are in Europe for 45+ day, and the TT ferry crossings book out consider the Southern 100 meeting on the IOM ( mid-July), Manx GP ( end of August) or the Ulster GP ( Northern Ireland late August) as alternatives for a real road race experience, by adjusting the itinerary. August will be mega hot in Southern Italy , so you could consider flying into Italy and working your way backwards ..."

Really appreciate the input.

Randy

‘....your bike as baggage.”
Say whaaaat? Can you expand on this at all? Do you mean bicycles? Did I miss a vital clue here? Sorry if I did!