One way tour Sicily to Naples or Rome - good/bad?

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jever98
Posts: 1175
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:02 pm
Location: Seattle

by jever98

Hi folks,

I'm considering doing a tour, starting in Catania, Sicily, heading north towards Naples / Rome. Take a one way flight, drop bike boxes at the airport, bike as far as we get, take the train home.

- Has anybody done this type of trip before? Good / bad impressions?
- Very grateful for any tips regarding places to go to / to avoid
- Other ideas of course also very welcome

Cheers
Jever
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No longer in the industry

by Weenie


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joec
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:20 pm

by joec

double post
Last edited by joec on Thu Aug 11, 2016 11:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

joec
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:20 pm

by joec

I do a weeks "tour" once a year with some freinds in october, basically we fly into an airport with packed bikes (MTB'S with racks) put them together and ride somewhere.... sometimes we will book the first or last night so we can leave the bike bags somwhere for a week.

we did Sicliy about 3 years ago, flew into Palermo, went Partinico > Corleone > Enna > Belpasso > over Etna > Linguossa > Randazzo > San Fratello and backl along the coast to Palermo, a couple of guys with us were intending to ride back to the uk but run out of time and got a plane out of Rome.

the top coast of sicly is nice, gets nicer toward the westerly end, in land there is a lot of povertly, and packs of dogs, take pepper spray for the dogs just in case, we were ok but they looked HUNGRY!.

if your open to it try Greece we all much prefered it in terms of both hospitality, scenery, and cost

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kgt
Posts: 8749
Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:29 am
Location: Athens, Greece

by kgt

In case you consider Greece you can start from the Athens Intl' Airport and ride until Patras (220 km) or Olympia (350km), or Kalamata (450km) - or even further - using the old National Road.
It is a beautiful route by the coastline, with many, many places to stop-swim-eat-sleep.

joec
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 9:20 pm

by joec

thats interesting KGT, its looking like I will do grece this year, and we are looking at flying into Kalamarta as BA have just started flying theire from London. I will taske a look at that route

Year before last we flew into Corfu, got a ferry to Igumenitsa, and headed inland to Ioannina and spent a few days in the Pikos range.

another good hint for a none way tour, find a bike shop near your intended flyout point and see if you can scrounge a cardboard bike box.

by Weenie


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jever98
Posts: 1175
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:02 pm
Location: Seattle

by jever98

Thanks both for the tips.

Greece would be fun, the logistics headache would be what to do with the bike boxes during our trip. The charm of doing it in Italy is that we live in Switzerland and can take a train back home at the end of it. Would need to look into how I could make that work.

In the meantime, I looked a bit further and Brindisi might be a good place in Italy to head to as a starting point, working our way up towards Naples. It also turns out that there a number of good resources in Italy, like a web site with bike-friendly hotels: http://www.albergabici.it/ - how cool is that!
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