Iceland & Norway

If there is one thing that unites all cyclists in their love of two wheels, it must be the feeling of freedom riding a bike offers from the very youngest age. This sense of freedom grows with the chance for adventure and travel, to get very close to nature, smell the grass, see the changing colors, feel the silence of the open road.

As amazing the chance is to ride in the hills above Santa Monica, through the Colorado Rockies, over the French Alps, and around Tuscan vineyards, never pass up the opportunity to explore less familiar cycling territories like Iceland and Norway.

Iceland, with around 330,000 inhabitants on a land area of 103,000 km², is the least densely populated European country, which should be music to the ears of anyone looking for quiet, near-carless roads. And though Norway has over 3 times the surface area, and a population of nearly 5.5 million people, it also offers a great selection of roads generally light on the traffic, especially if you are coming from someplace like London or Paris.

With beautiful natural features like fjords, volcanoes and snow-capped mountain peaks, they each promise amazing scenery to accompany the rides.

Better than the name implies, but still important to be prepared to dress warmly.

Best between May and September with mild days and typically sunny. Watch out for the rain!

In the interior of the country, there is little in terms of cycling infrastructure, but within Greater Reykjavik there are more than 100km of shared-use paths.

And riding around the Hvalfjord is quiet and highly recommended for cyclists.

This Scandinavian country does have an extensive network of cycling-friendly roads, include 10 National Cycling Routes. It can be challenging riding with mountainous regions to get over and tunnels to negotiate or fjords to ferry across.

Ten and counting in Reykjavik, but the more towards the interior of the island you get, the fewer shops of any kind you’ll find.

Lots. Mostly near the areas of larger population like Oslo and Bergen, but there are even some sports shops as far north as Bodø which is 67° north.

An island will always be more problematic in terms of gathering supplies, and though the few major towns have the sorts of shops and refueling stations that every cyclist needs, the further away from Reykjavik, the fewer and fewer opportunities there will be to get supplies or a quick espresso. So be prepared!

Similarly to the bike shops, you won’t have any trouble fueling up when close to a city or town center. But be prepared once venturing on longer days out away from population centers.

In this world of googlemaps and constant connectivity with our phones, it means that we have lost some of the charm of exploration, getting lost and finding new, perhaps better ways. But even with that in mind, it would be very hard to get lost in Iceland as a road cyclist there is basically one main road around the whole island.

For Norway, the Lofoten Archipelago provides practically foolproof cycle routes that pass by the beautiful fishing villages and with the famous Atlantic Ocean Road, it becomes harder and harder to get lost, but very easy to have beautiful views out to the Norwegian Sea.