John Martin

I'm of an advanced age and am planning a long ride (on a rental bike) this coming spring in Europe. The primary issue is -- when renting a bike there is the obligation to return the bike to the place where rented (therefore LOOP ROUTE). Other needs are: 1) 200 to 400 miles, 2) no mountains -- remember the advanced age, and 3) prefer a route with civilization -- as opposed to remote locations with no chance of lodging (since I'll not be camping). I've done several long-distance walking treks in Italy, England, and France but am not tied to those countries.

My research -- so far -- has turned up one loop, Le Tour de Bourgogne.

Many thanks for sharing your experiences. John

DangerousDanR

Mrs. Dan and I did a Burgundy tour on our tandem. Great time. We started and ended in Dijon. We rode about 400 miles in three weeks, staying in each town we visited for a day.

We did have to climb one steep hill going from Cluny to Couches, but we made it. One other option would be to ride the EuroVelo 6 route and taking the train back to your starting point.

Atlas Shrugged

Try and look at the various eurovelo routes many seem very suitable to your requirements. Anther option is pick a very cycling friendly location in Europe such as Bedion in France or Girona in Spain and base yourself there and ride daily hub and spoke style.

Wildwood 

C&V events in Europe 2024 - Bike Forums

Bike Forums - C&V events in Europe 2023

Not exactly what was asked, but here are some ideas. C&V things always draw an older crowd. The threads, and ones from earlier years, may also give you some cyclists in EU to private message for ideas.

Steve B.

Or do a point to point and get in a train with your bike and gear. Euro trains are very bike friendly, unlike AMTRAK.

If you are interested, these 2 seniors did a mult-week tour thru central and southern France. Avoided hills like the plague. It was a very good route. They hopped a train to and from the start and finish.

MarcusT

Many bike touring outfitters offer bike rentals and routes, loop and one way. You can choose fully supported or just a bike, a map and hotel reservations.
The Decathlon sports stores offers rental, but pick up and drop off at same store.

SpeedyBlueBiker

Have you looked into taking your own bike with you? I travel with mine all the time. It's not too hard to do but the only drawback can be what to do with your bike case once you arrive. Sometimes I have been able to just leave it at the hotel I use when first arriving. Another option is to go with a bike box like what bikes come in to stores.

Frkl

rather than limiting yourself to a loop, consider taking advantage of the great infrastructure for bikes on trains in Europe. Even high-speed trains often have bike racks. If a high speed connection isn't available, you would have to "settle" for an IC or EC, which are still quite fast in the grand scheme of things--i.e. returning to a starting point 400km away would take you half a day.

If you did one way with a train return, you could do a river route (these are about as flat as it gets, or even with a net elevation loss), like the Danube cycle way, or along the Rhine from point a to b and then take the train back. Or something like Eurovelo 6 from Switzerland/Germany into France can be done one-way with trains on the return, provided this is flat enough.

https://en.francevelotourisme.com/cy...-of-the-rivers

alcjphil

The information point lacking here is the number of days you plan to spend doing this tour I.E. the number of miles you plan to do each day

1970bikes

If you can still find it, Nicholas Crane's 'Cycling In Europe' maybe useful.

I used this book to plan my routes when I cycled through Europe. Admittedly, this was in the late 80's.