ever wonder ... ?
what kind of shots do I need?
where do I buy a round-the-world ticket?
do I need to box my bike to take it on a plane?
what kind of immunizations will I need?
how do you pronounce words in Chinese?all the answers are here!
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Brule Mountain Gear, Quebec, Canada Phil Brule's BMG makes several sizes of "PanPacks" or bicycle panniers that convert into backpacks. We chose BMG because theirs were the biggest. BMG's World Tour PanPack, which converts to rear panniers, holds 60 liters. BMG's Day PanPack holds another 16 liters. In backpack mode, the smaller pack rides piggy back on the larger one, for a total capacity of 76 liters. Our PanPacks made it 12,000 bicycle-miles around the world, and we used them to carry lots of stuff on a 23-day hike of the Annapurna loop in Nepal. They still look great. We highly recommend them. We do not receive any free stuff or discounts for Phil, this is just our honest opinion. (Phil's email: panpack@ftn.net).
Outdoors Unlimited. San Francisco's premier provider of great rental canoes! They also rent kayaks and ski equipment, lead outdoors trips for kayakers, canoeists, backpackers and rafters. Sometimes they sell sports equipment. And they help pair up people who want to go adventure traveling together.
The Interactive Gear Guy. This guy answers questions about and recommends particular types and brands of gear. If your question matches one he's already answered, you're in luck, because his page has links to past answers. But don't count on him to answer new questions. We sent him a question about pannier-backpacks--TWICE, back in March and April of 1997--and he never responded.
Round-The-WorldTravel Guide Information about everything from planning a trip to adjusting to the real world after the journey.
(see online journeys for links to other cyclists' stories about their trips around the world)
Ken Kifer's bicycle touring site. How do you get started bike touring? What kind of gear do you need, how do you fix your bike, and can you really camp anywhere? Check out Ken Kifer's site for all this stuff. Lots of cycling links including narratives and photos of Ken's own bike tours, dating back to the 1960s! Also check out Ken's bicycling life site.
Travel with Bicycles (Air/Rail/Other) To box or not to box? Great information on how to travel with bicycles on airplanes, trains, etc. Cyclists tell which airlines charged or didn't charge, and who beat up their bikes. Also includes tips on shipping. Compiled by George Farnsworth, based on reports in rec.bicycles.rides and related sites.
Bicycle Fish--home pages of cyclists around the world. Lots of photos and stories from other world cyclists!
Bike Mojo. Lots of links to bike clubs, bike tours, bike catalogues, the works.
League of American Bicyclists. Membership benefits include free bicycle transport on several major airlines (only if you book through the League's travel agent; this doesn't work with frequent flier flights).
How to fix your bike. CyberCycle has lots of well-organized info but don't go unless you know your sprockets from your chainrings from your pivots. Also, CyberCycle doesn't have pictures.
Folding bikes. Check out Bike Friday, the bike of choice for people with big money and big folding bike obsessions.
Critical Mass. Get back at autos by riding your bike through rush-hour traffic in dozens of cities around the world, with thousands of like-minded folks (ranging from folks like me who just like to join the parade, to more zealous folks who aim to get in fistfights with motorists). Happens the last Friday of every month in cities all over the U.S. and around the world. It all started in San Francisco. Here's an SF-Gate news story about Critical Mass.
Richard Gregg's round-the-world bicycle odyssey. Check out this site for photos and email reports from Richard Gregg's ongoing, many-year bicycle odyssey through Africa and Asia. This guy is hardy. When he tore a knee ligament, he didn't quit: he just went home to England for a year to recuperate.
Kent Pearson's journal of his month-long bicycle tour of Quinghai, a China province bordering on Tibet. Read about rutted roads, broken spokes, yak bones, valleys, mountains, monasteries and Tibetans who love to mug for the camera. Kent went in October 1995 with two friends, and spent a lot of time pushing his bike through the snow and crossing freezing streams in Tevas. (Just like we did! Only we couldn't get the Tibetans to smile much ...)
Ian Burns's tales of his 14-month ride through 15 countries in 1993. The Englishman pedaled 13,564-miles through Turkey, Pakistan, India, Thailand, the U.S. and Greece. Great photos, great read.
Paul van Roekel and Anja de Graaf's tales (with link to Dutch version) about their cycling trips around the world (U.S., Australia, Africa, South America, since 1987. Includes cycling tips.
Patchen Homitz and Jennifer Fox did a two-year bike tour of the Pacific Rim. They didn't post many of the particulars of their travels, and the link to their old site is broken. But they did post an interesting letter about their custom-made folding bikes.
Alaska Marine Highway System. Ferry schedules, fares and route maps. Find out how to get to and from Alaska's southeast panhandle from Seattle and British Columbia.
BC Ferries. Schedules, fares and route maps for travellers to Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, and the Inside Passage.
Washington State Ferries. Schedules, fares and route maps for travellers to the San Juan Islands and British Columbia.
Amtrak. Schedules, fares and route maps. Good news for Newton/laptop users! If you're lucky and the train's not too crowded, look for a seat with an electric outlet near the window. We saved on lots of batteries this way.
Airtreks.com, (formerly High Adventure Travel) San Francisco, Calif. Even if you aren't actually planning a trip, this site will help you fantasize. With its "fare builder" site, you can build your own, customized round-the-world ticket, and find out how much it costs.
Travel with Bicycles (Air/Rail/Other) (Same link is mentioned in cycling links above). To box or not to box? Great information on how to travel with bicycles on airplanes, trains, etc. Cyclists tell which airlines charged or didn't charge, and who beat up their bikes. Also includes tips on shipping. Compiled by George Farnsworth, based on reports in rec.bicycles.rides and similar sites.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, information page for travellers. Disease and vaccine information by country, side effects of current vaccinations, malaria info, lots more.
How to apply for a U.S. passport. U.S. State Department's site on passport services for U.S. citizens. Includes info on fees, how to apply, downloadable passport applications, how to get your passport in a hurry, etc.
U.S. State Department's travel warnings, indexed by country
Chinese, complete with .wav files that say the words for you! From CLAS, Chinese Learner's Alternative Site, apparently part of SinoLogic. Lots of fun.
Alta Vista's Online Translation Service! Let Babel Fish translate your English into German, French, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese ... or vice versa. A great way to impress some of the folks you've met on the road.
A Web of Online Dictionaries Need to look up a word in Spanish, French or .... Chechen? Latvian, Phonecian or Yemba? You'll find them all here, plus online grammar lessons. An amazing site, courtesy Robert Beard, Bucknell University.
Dennis & Trish's Hawaiian primer Dennis and Trish of Maui have posted this short, though excellent Hawaiian primer, with useful words like "lomi lomi" (massage) and "kaukau" (food).
Cycle around Hawaii's Big Island! We did it in 1995 and it was a blast. (And cheap!) Among other things, we saw Volcanoes National Park and the amazing Waipio Valley. Our wonderful and down-to-earth outfitter was Dave's Bike & Triathalon shop. (Beware of the competing Hawaiian Pedals--though they supply a lot of accessories Dave doesn't carry, they aren't exactly friendly. The guy we talked to had never ridden around the Big Island, but he did his best to discourage us from trying. Among other things, he insulted the bikes we rented from Dave's and laughed at us for not carrying enough tools. He told us we'd never make it. We did. Without a single flat).
Elk Horn Slough, near Moss Landing (a little south of Santa Cruz on Highway 1 in California). This is an amazing place to go paddling. We always see several otters, several dozen seals, and lots of pelicans and birds we can't name. Once we saw a monster jellyfish! If you have your own canoe (or kayak), park at the boat ramp and paddle on in. If not, you can rent one from the kayak connection. We don't especially like group tours, but if you do, Kayak Connection offers some reasonable prices. It's pretty hard to get a camping spot near the beach in summer. But we have found a lovely backup camping spot: believe it or not, Laguna Seca raceway has lots of great tent sites, with views! It's car camping, but if there's no race, it's usually pretty empty. It's a little pricey.
Lake Sonoma. A fabulous place to go canoe camping in Northern California (provision and put-in near Cloverdale). Skip the main lake, which is dominated by powerboats, and head for the no-wake zones among the fingers at the north end. Don't go on Memorial Day or Labor Day unless you like canoe camping with a large powerboat crowd. Big spot for bass fishermen.
Olympic National Park. A gorgeous place to camp and hike. The Enchanted Valley hike is fantastic!
info and links updated June 2001
send any suggestions to: links@ericandjoan.com