From Vienna to the Tatras: Wroclaw & Krakow, 9 Days

The first riding day is a pure transfer. You meet at the hotel near Vienna, then the motorway takes you quickly across the Czech Republic and over the border into Poland. In the late afternoon you reach the Jelenia Góra valley, where two nights are booked. Your luggage travels in the support vehicle from Vienna onwards, so you ride the day lightly loaded.

Today you ride a loop through the Karkonosze range without changing hotels. The route runs around Sniezka, with a short crossing to the Czech side of the ridge. On the way you stop at the Wang stave church in Karpacz, moved here from Norway in the 19th century. By evening you are back in the Jelenia Góra valley.

The stage crosses the Landeshuter Kamm landscape park and then drops into the plain towards Wroclaw. In the afternoon a local German-speaking guide takes over and shows you the market square, the cathedral island and the dwarfs in the side streets. Many call Wroclaw the finest city between the Oder and the Vistula, and after this walk you will see why.

Via Czestochowa and the Jasna Góra monastery, the spiritual centre of the region, you roll further east. In the afternoon you reach Krakow, the old royal city on the Vistula. A local guide walks you across the main market square, to St Mary's Basilica and up to Wawel Hill. The evening is yours.

Heading south the roads turn twisty again. Along the Low Tatras and past Pieniny National Park the route leads into the best known winter sports town in the region. Zakopane sits at a good 800 metres, with the peaks of the High Tatras right behind it. Two nights here, and in the evening the Krupowki is worth a stroll.

A quiet riding day without luggage and without any pressure of time. The loop runs through the valleys around Zakopane, with views of the High Tatra peaks and enough stops for photos and coffee. Anyone who prefers to stay in the saddle adds another loop, everyone else lets the afternoon run out in the highest town in the region.

Heading west you pass the industrial city of Katowice and reach the Klodzko highlands. After the peaks of the south the landscape softens into wooded hills. The destination is the spa town of Polanica Zdrój, once Bad Altheide, where you spend the last two nights. The spa promenade is a good place to let the riding day fade out.

The last full riding day is a twisty one again. The loop stays in the Polish-Czech border country, on narrow roads over the ridges, with views into both valleys and stops in small border villages. In the evening there is time to pack in peace and go through the week over a last dinner together.

To close, the group rolls back across the Czech Republic to Vienna, where the loop ends at the starting hotel. Anyone who would rather carry on directly says goodbye on the spot and heads home on their own. In the luggage: nine days of mountain roads, two old towns and a lot of corners.