We strongly discourage travelling to the Biketour by airplane for environmental reasons. Most people arrive by train, bus or by bicycle. Travelling by public transportation across different countries usually requires a lot of complicated research, especially when you want to take a bike with you. This page can be a starting point for your research. However, listing all the options to travel cheaply to the Biketour from anywhere in Europe would be beyond the scope of this page. If you would like some support to find the best option to join the Biketour from your specific location, feel free to contact us.
Map
Here is a map of the relevant ferry and train/bus lines and stations to/in Sweden/Norway with the approximate prices to be expected and links to the websites of the transportation companies. Click on a line/station to see more info. Open the map in a new window to have a better overview.
Getting to Sweden/Norway from mainland Europe
Ecotopia Biketour 2026 will happen mostly in Sweden, with the last part in Norway. For participants from most parts of Europe and beyond, this means crossing the sea to get there:
- Long-distance buses are often a cheap option that offer direct connections between far away places. To Sweden, buses take a ferry or the bridge and can sometimes even be cheaper than the ticket for the ferry would be for just a person+bike. However, few bus lines officially offer to take a bike. Often it is possible to take a disassembled bike as oversized luggage, but that requires the effort to disassemble it, often involves an extra fee, and sometimes gets rejected on the spot because the luggage compartment is too full, so it can be an unreliable option. Also, if you travel with small children, you usually have to bring a car seat for them. Taking animals on buses is usually not possible.
- Trains are usually the fastest and most environmentally friendly (apart from cycling) option. They usually don’t have a limit on the amount of luggage. Many trains accept bikes, usually for a fee. Taking a disassembled bike as regular luggage is always possible. However, trains are usually very expensive, especially when booked short term. Also, travelling long distance by train usually requires a lot of research, different tickets from different train operators, several to many changes along the way with the risk of one delay making your further tickets invalid, and unpredictable situations regarding the accessibility of train stations and trains with a bicycle and luggage. When travelling by train with a lot of luggage on your bicycle and/or with children, it is strongly advisable to be a group of at least 2 or 3 people.
- Ferries allow getting from mainland Europe to Sweden/Norway. They are usually convenient for bikes with luggage, as you can simply ride on without even having to take off the luggage. There can be huge price differences between different lines and sometimes different operators on the same line. Long ferry lines that take longer than maybe half a day usually require booking a cabin, which leads to much higher prices. The requirements for bringing animals on ferries differ a lot, on many lines the animal has to stay on the bike alone (for ferries requiring a cabin, a special cabin usually needs to be booked that is exceptionally expensive and has limited availability). Taking a ferry is usually combined with taking a train or riding the bicycle to/from the ferry. Not all ferry ports have a train connection, so a bit of cycling might be required.
- Ride-shares (like BlaBlaCar) can sometimes be an option. Some people are travelling with vans or motorhomes that have enough space for a bike and the luggage. Bringing animals is often possible. It can be difficult to find such rides and you will have to check many combinations of cities, but they can be a cheap and convenient option to do a large segment of the way at once. It can also be worth to ask around in online communities of people living in vans.
- Hitchbiking works better than you would think, but usually involves a lot of time and patience. Vans, motorhomes, trucks and cars with trailers will be able to take you and your bike. There are even stories of people hitchbiking with a river boat for several days. Hitchbiking at ferry ports can be a way to take ferries for free if the line doesn’t charge for the amount of passengers. Often, trucks have two people included in their ticket, so they are willing to take you across if they are travelling alone.
- Cycling parts or all of the way is of course an option that can be considered as well.
Please note that if you are planning to bring a dog/cat to Sweden, the animal must have a rabies vaccination that is still valid and at least 21 days old. In our experience, the pet passport is commonly checked for this after exiting the ferry (along with your own ID/passport).
By bus
Busradar is a website where you can find long-distance bus connections from different companies. A good starting point to find out which bus stations exist along the route of the Biketour is the FlixBus map (if you zoom in, it shows more stations. Also, if you click on a station, you can see the FlixBus connections from there). The major relevant stations along the route are Stockholm, Norrköping, Linköping, Jönkoping, Göteborg and Oslo, depending where you join. You may be able to find a connection to a smaller, more local station, but that usually involves changing at one of the major stations anyways, so it is worth to check other local transport options as well.
As far as we are aware, FlixBus is the only long-distance bus provider that carries bicycles. However, this only applies to some of its lines. The way to find out seems to be to search for a connection on the FlixBus website and specify a bike in the list of passengers. If a connection then says “No bike slots”, it means that this line doesn’t carry bikes. Those that do usually have a bus rack on the back of the bus where you put your bike without luggage (lock it, as bikes can be stolen when the bus is waiting somewhere). Bring a large bag to put the rest of your luggage in, as some bus drivers can be strict that you only have one piece of luggage.
Some specific relevant FlixBus connections that carry bikes are: Hamburg–Stockholm, Berlin–Stockholm (both via Copenhagen, Malmö, Jönköping, Linköping, Norrköping), Hamburg–Oslo, Berlin–Oslo (both via Copenhagen, Malmö, Göteborg). In general it is hard to find out details about specific FlixBus connections, so you need to try around with various options on your specific route.
If you are joining with children, note the FlixBus regulations about children. Notably, for children up to 3 years of age (this seems to mean before their 3rd birthday), you need to bring a car seat that can be fixed with a seat belt.
Other bus companies might accept bikes as oversize luggage if they are disassembled and packed in a bag. However, every company has a different policy, and often it’s the individual decision of the bus driver regardless of the company policy.
By train
Getting by train to Sweden usually involves taking a long-distance train to Copenhagen via Hamburg and changing trains there, since there are no direct international trains to Sweden. (An exception is the SJ night train Berlin–Hamburg–Stockholm, but that does not accept bikes.)
Crossing Germany
If you need to cross Germany as well, Germany has a very complicated train system. In general, there is a big difference between long-distance trains (ICE, IC, ECE, EC) and regional trains (IRE, RE, RB, S).
Long-distance trains are booked through Deutsche Bahn. Long-distance tickets can include sections with regional trains. The sooner you book, the cheaper tickets generally are. Bicycles need a reservation for a fee, and it depends on the individual train whether it accepts bikes at all. In summer, bicycle spaces are often booked out months in advance. If you miss a connecting train (which happens frequently, as German trains are notoriously late), you need to rearrange a bicycle reservation for an alternative train, which can be complicated to impossible.
Have a look also at FlixTrain. Those are private long-distance trains that only run on a few lines, but they can generally be much cheaper.
Regional trains are slow and require a lot of changes, but there are some special deals that allow you to cross the whole country relatively cheaply for a fixed price (so no need to book far in advance). Regional trains generally accept bicycles without a prior reservation, but the conditions vary greatly without the possibility to know in advance (some have a lot of space and a wide entrance, some have only a few spaces and narrow doors and steep stairs to enter. On sunny days the trains can be full and not accept bikes. Also at the stations you often have to walk stairs, as elevators are broken or too small for bicycles). In general, the two options are Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket (day ticket for regional trains in all of Germany, 51 € for one person up to 99 € for 5 people) and Deutschlandticket (unlimited travels on regional trains for a whole calendar month, 63 € for one person). In addition to both options, you will need a Fahrradtageskarte Nahverkehr (7,50 €) for the bicycle. (All these options are for crossing all of Germany; if you only travel within a certain region, there might be cheaper options.)
If you decide to take regional trains, you can search for connections on Deutsche Bahn. Enable the “Bicycle transport possible” option, then it will only show trains that accept bicycles. For Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket connections, click “Mode of transport” and then “Local transport only”. For Deutschlandticket connections, enable the “Deutschland-Ticket connections only” checkbox instead. (The acceptable trains for each ticket type vary slightly, hence the two different settings.) Ideally, pick a connection that is at least 2 h earlier than the latest connection of the connection, to have a buffer in case you miss your connection because of a late train or because changing platforms takes too long. Generally, regional trains run in an interval of ½ h, 1 h our 2 h, so if you miss a train, you will have to wait this long for another train on the same line.
Deutschlandticket can be worth it if you are travelling to the tour and back within the same month (because it can be bought only for whole calendar months, so for all of June, all of July and so on). The ticket is a subscription that you need to cancel until the 10th of a month. For example, if you want to buy a Deutschlandticket only for July, you have to cancel the subscription the latest on the 10th of July, otherwise it will be booked for August as well. You can buy a ticket for July in the middle of July (by paying the full price for July), but if you buy it after the 10th, you cannot cancel it on time for July.
Crossing Denmark
To cross Denmark, you can find connections and buy tickets through DSB. You need to use this special form that only works for connections from the 10th of June 2026 onwards. In the number of passengers, you can add one bicycle. Then it will show a note for connections that do not accept bikes. For connections before the 10th of June, it is not possible to search/book bike connections. The ticket prices are generally much cheaper if you book early. Bikes can be taken on all Danish InterCity and some regional trains. You’ll need to buy a bike ticket-with-reservation called a Cykelpladsbillet for 20 DKK (2.70 €). You can buy the bike reservation using the DSB app or DSB ticket machines at stations. Bikes go on S-toget (suburban) trains for free, without reservation. More information at www.dsb.dk.
If you are crossing Germany and Denmark, you can also book a ticket through Germany to Copenhagen or Göteborg (and many other places in Denmark and Sweden) through Deutsche Bahn. This seems to work even for many journeys that cross Germany but start in other countries. If you book early, this option can be very cheap. If you are planning to take regional trains in Sweden, book your train until Göteborg, Varberg or Alvesta, depending where will be your first interchange in Sweden. One challenge is that with Deutsche Bahn, you can book your bicycle ticket only until Copenhagen, and from Copenhagen to Malmö you need to buy a separate bicycle ticket at the machine in Copenhagen (after Malmö no ticket is needed). This means that you have to book the ticket for yourself separately from the ticket for your bicycle. Keep in mind that most bicycle tickets to Copenhagen are already booked out for the summer and there are very few connections left.
From Copenhagen you can take the Øresundståg train to Malmö, Sweden: Copenhagen–Malmö: (6 bikes per train, can take bike in if there is space, they would not have extra cost within one country but when crossing from Copenhagen to Malmö you have to have a ticket for your bicycle from Skånetrafiken or from the station. Reserving a bike spot not possible. No trailers allowed but kid’s carriages are allowed.) With the same company you can continue to Göteborg if that’s where you plan to join the tour. More info can be found below in the section about getting around in Sweden.
By ferry
A good starting point to get an overview is the Ferry Routes map. By clicking a certain port, you can see its ferry connections (note that not everything is up to date). On Direct Ferries, you can compare prices of almost all different ferry lines. Notably, you can also enter countries as the start/destination there to compare all lines that go between the countries. In general, ferry prices vary hugely between different operators. Some lines, specifically very short and frequented ones, have fixed prices (although they might vary by season), but for most, booking either very long (months) or very short (0–1 days) in advance yields might cheaper prices, sometimes by factor 3–4 cheaper.
Getting around in Sverige (Sweden) / Norge (Norway)
Taking public transportation with a bike around Sweden is surprisingly and exceptionally complicated. Long-distance trains by the national train operator SJ generally do not accept bikes. Most, but not all regional trains accept bikes, but each line is operated by a different company with a different policy. For example, taking regional trains from Copenhagen to Stockholm involves 6 different trains from 5 different companies, and separate research is required about whether each line accepts bikes.
Whenever possible, FlixBus is another option, see By bus above for details how to book it. Unfortunately, it seems like only the international FixBus connections from Berlin/Hamburg to Stockholm/Oslo accept bikes, but not the national connections within Sweden. Some regional bus lines in Sweden accept bikes, but these are usually not relevant, since trains run on the same line with more space for the same price. Where relevant, we have added them to our map.
We have done most of the research for you and put the information on the map above. You can find detailed information about each line by clicking on it. If you want to do your own research, here is how to do it:
For finding out which trains can take bikes in Sweden, we recommend checking out these two guides: 1. “Cykel på tåg” where you can visually see the different train companies on a map (and by clicking the name of the train company can reveal more information) and 2. “Traveling with bicycles on Swedish trains”.
A good starting point would be to find out which train stations are close to where you want to join the Biketour. For this you can use the public transportation map on FacilMap. The black lines are train lines, and if you zoom in, you can see all the stations and find the one closest to where you want to join the tour. If you want to know a prediction where the tour will be on a specific day, please contact us.
We have tried to add all the relevant regional train lines that you need to join the tour anywhere to our map above. Regional trains in Sweden generally seem to have fixed prices and bicycles are for free, so no booking in advance will be necessary.
If you want to look for a specific connection, Deutsche Bahn can be a good starting point. One detail to keep in mind: The letter “å” is replaced by “aa” on Deutsche Bahn (if you want to join in Borås for example, it is called Boraas on Deutsche Bahn; entering Boras will not find it). After entering the start and destination, a button “Mode of transport” appears under the form. When you click it, you can select “Local transport only” at the top to only search for regional trains. Note that the form has an option to search for trains that accept bicycles, but in Sweden this does not seem to work, since most trains that do accept bikes are listed as not accepting bikes. After searching for the connection, click on the “Operator” button to see which company runs the train. Then you can search for the website of that operator and research there whether it accepts bikes and what the ticket costs. Unfortunately, the operator is not listed for all train lines. One way to find out seems to be to search for the train number on https://tågstationen.se/tåg/<number>/, for example for train number 18872 on https://tågstationen.se/tåg/18872/. There you can find the name of the train/operator for further research.
Once you have picked a connection, separate tickets can be booked from each operator along the way for its section. This means that if you miss a connection because a train is late, your further tickets would probably be worthless. It seems that regional train tickets in Sweden are generally fixed price, meaning that there is no price difference to book them one month in advance or one hour. You can check this for a specific operator by checking one connection now and one in one month and see if the prices differ. For fixed-price connections it usually makes the most sense to book them once you are at the station of departure (at the machine or online), since then you know you will make the next train.
Getting to/around Norway
Norwegian trains relevant for the region where the Biketour goes are all operated by Vy (the Norwegian one, there is also a Swedish Vy, which is different) and all accept bikes, including the train Göteborg–Oslo. There are long-distance and regional trains, and it is not easy to tell the difference. The train Göteborg–Oslo is a long-distance train, which has dynamic pricing (the earlier you book, the cheaper) and recommends a bicycle reservation for about 25 € (you can go without reservation, but chances are that all spaces will be occupied). The other trains in the region are regional trains, meaning that the price is fixed and no bicycle reservation/ticket is needed/possible. You can find all these details by clicking on the individual lines on our map.