Bikabout's Top 5 Routes, Route Map, Bike Baggage Chart & Tips

Not only is train travel hot again, but Amtrak is getting their rear in gear around accommodating 2-wheeled tourists. This blog post is dedicated to Bikabout's favorite routes, a bike friendly route chart and train travel tips.

Photo highlights of Bikabout founders' Cape Cod weekend getaway for National Bike Travel Weekend. 

Coming off a somewhat disappointing Milwaukee visit a few months back, in which we saw virtually no infrastructure progress made since we last visited in 2010, we cannot help but think that Atlanta has now stolen Milwaukee's baseball team and its bicycle mojo. Atlanta is on fire. And they're excited to show you what's changed.

Maybe your flight is eeeeearly, before the T is running. Maybe you don't like cabs. Maybe you're planning to bring your folding bike with you on your trip. Maybe you're just looking to kick off your vacation with a sense of accomplishment. Maybe you're looking to arrive for your flight alert and ready. Maybe you just like the sound of it... biking to Logan Airport. Well my friend, you're in luck, because it's easier than you probably imagined. Let's get into it.

Buses and bikes ought to be a match made in heaven, particularly with long distance buses that travel between cities. Those bigger buses have plenty of room in their cargo holds for bikes – especially folding bikes – and cyclists looking to easily extend their routes make great paying customers for bus lines. Why, then, is the experience of bringing a bike on a bus sometimes a baffling ordeal, or not even possible at all?

Bikabout founders tell you why a Brompton folding bike is worth the investment, how to carry your child on the Brompton and finally, offer the 101 on the three ways to fly with your Brompton: carry-on, gate check and luggage check.

It’s Thanksgiving. You’ve probably traveled. Even if you didn’t descend upon someone else’s house, someone probably descended upon yours. The result is always the same: Come Friday after Thanksgiving, you’re ready to get out of whatever house you spent the prior day over-indulging in, and go do …something. Traditionally in America, this has meant waking up at an obscene pre-dawn hour to go wait in huge lines at big box stores to get a discount on a flat screen tv you didn’t exactly need. We at Bikabout feel there’s a better way to spend Black Friday.

Seattle has a location problem. It's sandwiched between Bicycle World darlings Portland and Vancouver, both of whom have deservedly hogged the lion's share of what precious little press space there is for bicycles in North American press. Right in between these two lies relatively ho-hum Seattle, ever the bridesmaid, never the bride. Arriving downtown (by train, naturally), one would be forgiven for failing to lift a finger to challenge that viewpoint, really. It remind me very much of the most buttoned-down parts of downtown Boston, but with massive, weapons-grade, "this is not cool" hills. Picture traffic, few trees, drunken Seahawks fans, concrete, and 1st gear hills that go on for 20 blocks.