Planning bicycle routes in Podkarpackie – practical tips

When wanting to go on a bicycle trip, you should not only prepare for all possible natural and weather circumstances but – perhaps primarily – determine the route's course. Although choosing a place to visit in Podkarpackie is not easy due to their vast number, this guide will certainly show you how to select and establish them.

Podkarpackie offers a wide spectrum of monuments and interesting places to visit. Here you will find numerous religious monuments – churches, Orthodox churches, monasteries, chapels, and roadside crosses, as well as secular ones – castles, palaces, manor houses, and also military ones – trenches, forts, and fortresses. You can create a monothematic route, or you can visit monuments of various types in one trip. Only you decide!

Although the trails in the northern part of the region are suitable even for casual cyclists, the further south you go, the more challenging it becomes. When choosing specific places, check their location and access conditions. If you feel up to taking the Red Walking Trail through the Bieszczady hills – go ahead, but if you have any doubts, shorten the planned route or choose less demanding surroundings. Do not worry, it is not a defeat – you can always return to the more difficult ones after some training.

This depends on how you plan to reach the starting point and return home. If you are setting out from home for a short trip, the matter is simple – you will make a loop. If you want to drive to the starting point – it is also good to plan a loop. You will do a linear route that is not a loop most easily when travelling by public transport – for example, by regional train. Most of the routes we propose are loops, starting and ending in towns that you can reach by train or bus. Only a few long routes start in one town and end in another, keeping in mind the ease of return as well.

Now it is time to sit down with a map. Of course, we recommend our search engine, but if you want to create a route independently, choose one of the popular online map services. Their advantage over traditional maps is that information about interesting places is continuously updated. Search for them by keywords or mark the area you want to visit – a commune, district, or geographical region. Choose a few points, but not too many, so as not to get distracted and not overdo the number of impressions. After all, it is worth returning to each region several times, getting to know it, and exploring it.

You can write down the route's course on a piece of paper. "In this town, turn right/left into this and that street." You can upload the route on an online service, setting stops along the way, and the site's algorithm will determine the optimal route. Finally, you can also set the route on a GPS navigator/odometer. Odometers, as you can read here, are more resilient than mobile phones, but they usually do not allow for route changes during the journey. In the end, any method is good, so you do not get lost on the way!