EuroVelo 2 - Capitals Route

The EuroVelo 2 Capitals Route is Europe's great east-west crossing, a single line that strings together Dublin, London, The Hague, Berlin, Warsaw, Minsk and Moscow. On paper it runs from Galway on Ireland's Atlantic coast to Red Square in Moscow, crossing seven countries and touching two European seas, although in practice most riders today finish at the Polish-Belarusian border. Few long-distance routes offer this kind of contrast: you can start with a pint in an Irish pub and end deep in the forests of eastern Poland, with nightlife and culture waiting in the capitals in between.

What keeps the route interesting is that the capitals are only half the story. Between them lie the primeval Białowieża Forest on the Polish-Belarusian border, the peaks of Snowdonia National Park in Wales, the Weser and Saale river valleys in Germany, and the canal towpaths and disused railway lines of the Irish midlands. Seventeen UNESCO World Heritage sites sit along the corridor, which makes this as much a cultural itinerary as a cycling one.

Essential Route Information

• Difficulty: Varies considerably by country. Several sections are gentle enough for beginners and families, while others are recommended for experienced cyclists only.
• Elevation profile: Mostly flat to gently rolling. The Irish midlands are flat throughout, Germany brings gentle hills through the Teutoburg Forest, Weser Hills and Harz, and Wales delivers the most demanding terrain of the whole route.
• Surface: A mix of paved cycle paths, canal towpaths, converted railway lines and quiet rural roads. Surfaces are generally rideable, though quality varies between the well-developed western sections and the eastern ones still under construction.
• Route type: Traffic-free greenways and dedicated cycle paths on the best-developed stretches, low-traffic shared rural roads elsewhere.
• Recommended direction: West to east, which puts the prevailing wind at your back in Ireland and builds naturally towards the eastern capitals.
• Certification: Parts of the route carry the official EuroVelo Certification label, awarded after field inspection by EuroVelo Route Inspectors against the European Certification Standard for traffic levels, surface quality, signage and access to services. Certified sections are the safest choice for less experienced riders.

Route Marking & Navigation

Signage on EuroVelo 2 is inconsistent by design rather than neglect: the route is a patchwork of well-established national networks, and it borrows their waymarking. In the United Kingdom you follow National Cycle Network routes managed by Sustrans, principally Route 4 through Wales and the Thames Valley, then Routes 1 and 51 out of London. In the Netherlands the route runs on the LF4 long-distance route between The Hague and Borculo, with LF node-network signage. Germany overlaps with the R1 Euroroute and D-Route 3, both well documented and mapped.

Gaps exist and it pays to know where. The Dutch stretch between Borculo and Zwillbrock on the German border is not signed as a long-distance route, and eastern sections in Belarus remain at the development stage. Development status ranges from certified to undeveloped, and even on developed-and-signed stretches signs can be damaged or missing. Carry a navigation app or paper map for the whole route, and download the official GPX tracks before you leave. EuroVelo publishes both a full-route track and a separate file containing only the developed, ready-to-ride sections.

Best Direction

Riding west to east is the natural choice. In Ireland the wind blows mostly from the southwest or west, so heading east from Galway towards Dublin usually means a tailwind rather than a fight. A popular tactic among Irish cyclists is to take the train from Dublin to Galway and ride back, turning the prevailing wind into an ally for the whole crossing. The same eastward logic carries through the rest of the route, building from the Atlantic towards the continental interior.

Main Stages & Highlights

The route divides cleanly by country, and each section has a distinct character. Note that the eastern countries are not currently practical for most travellers.

Ireland: Galway to Dublin

The Irish section cuts straight across the midlands, joining the Atlantic coast to the Irish Sea over uniformly flat terrain suited to all fitness levels. Between Dublin and Athlone the route is largely traffic-free, following the Royal Canal Greenway and the Old Rail Trail along peaceful canal banks and old railway lines. West of Athlone it shifts onto small, low-traffic rural roads, where some experience riding alongside traffic is useful. Expect heritage sites, Irish pubs and the chance of a traditional music session.

United Kingdom: Holyhead to Harwich

Landing at Holyhead on Anglesey (Ynys Môn), the route heads into the heart of Wales through Snowdonia National Park and the Brecon Beacons, passing the Welsh capital Cardiff before crossing the Severn. From there it links Bristol and Bath via the immensely popular traffic-free path between the two cities, then follows the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath towards Reading. The final stretch runs down the Thames Valley into London, past Richmond and Hampton Court, through the docklands and north to the ferry port at Harwich.

The Netherlands: The Hague to the German border

Riders landing on the Dutch coast pass through The Hague, seat of the Dutch government, then head east on the LF4 towards Borculo. Amsterdam is not on the route. This is classic Dutch cycling country: flat, dense with cycle infrastructure and easy to navigate using the node network.

Germany: Vreden to Küstrin-Kietz

The German section is the longest and greenest stretch of the route. From Vreden on the Dutch border it threads through Münsterland, the Teutoburg Forest, the Weser Hills, the Harz mountain range, Fläming nature park, Märkische Schweiz and the Oderbruch inland delta. Along the way it traverses the Weser and Saale riverscapes, skirts the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve, collects several UNESCO World Heritage sites and rolls through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Poland: Lubuskie to Białowieża

Poland is the longest single national section and crosses the country from west to east. Starting at the German border in Lubuskie Voivodeship, it passes through Poznań, Włocławek and Warsaw before reaching the Belarusian frontier at Białowieża. Several national parks lie on the way, including Białowieski National Park, where European bison still roam free.

Key Attractions Along the Route

The Capitals Route is unusually rich in landmarks, from primeval woodland to national monuments. The highlights below are grouped by type.

Natural heritage

• Białowieża Forest: one of the last and largest remnants of the primeval forest that once covered the European Plain, never significantly disturbed by human activity and still home to European bison.
• Snowdonia National Park: the mountainous core of northern Wales, and the most dramatic scenery on the route.
• Brecon Beacons National Park: rolling uplands in southern Wales.
• Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve: protected floodplain landscape in Germany.
• Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park: the Belarusian side of the same ancient forest.

Cities and cultural heritage

• Dublin: pubs, live music and the start of the Royal Canal Greenway east of the city.
• London: the Tower of London, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament sit within easy reach of the Thames route.
• Bath and Bristol: Bath Abbey, the Claverton Pumping Station and the Tithe Barn cluster around the Kennet and Avon section.
• Berlin: the route passes the Brandenburg Gate.
• Warsaw and Poznań: the Polish section's urban anchors.
• Moscow: Red Square marks the eastern terminus.

Several EuroVelo routes in this part of Europe also pass close to thermal spa towns, a welcome recovery option after a long stage.

Culinary Highlights

Food along EuroVelo 2 tracks the cultural shift from Atlantic to continental Europe. Ireland sets the tone with pub culture, where a Guinness and a traditional music session are as much a part of the route as the towpath itself. In England the canal and rail paths are punctuated by classic stopping points: the old station buildings at Bitton and Warmley serve drinks and snacks, and Saltford offers a pub lunch within easy reach of the Bristol and Bath path. In the capitals, first-class dining sits alongside the nightlife and culture that draw riders into the cities in the first place.

Accommodation Options

Lodging along the western half of the route is well organised, thanks to national cyclist-friendly certification schemes that take the guesswork out of finding a bed with somewhere secure to lock the bike.

• Bett+Bike (Germany): around 5,900 hotels, guesthouses, youth hostels, nature houses and campsites certified to ADFC quality criteria. Certified properties display a sign at the entrance, and the scheme's website sorts them into hosts, sports, camping and holiday homes, filterable by region and cycle route. The Bett+Bike label also appears in several neighbouring countries.
• Fietsers Welkom! (Netherlands): an annually renewed label from Stichting Landelijk Fietsplatform marking cyclist-friendly restaurants, accommodations and campsites. Listings appear on an interactive map alongside the LF routes and node network.
• Cities and towns: the capitals and larger cities offer the full range, from hostels to hotels, and make natural rest days.

Access & Transportation

Getting there

The route is built around ferry ports and rail links. Dublin Port connects directly to the network via the Dublin Port Greenway, and Holyhead on Anglesey is the natural landing point for riders crossing from Ireland into Wales. In Ireland the route can be joined by train or bus at numerous points along its length, which makes shorter section rides easy to organise.

Getting back

Harwich, at the eastern end of the British section, is a ferry port and the link onward to the continent. Rail is the practical return option in most countries: the Dublin to Galway train, for instance, lets riders reposition to the western end and cycle home with the wind behind them. On stretches classified as undeveloped, EuroVelo itself recommends using public transport with bicycle carriage to skip ahead.

Practical Considerations

This is a route best approached with clear eyes about its variable state of development. Belarus and Russia are not currently advisable: because of border crossing and travel restrictions, EuroVelo explicitly discourages cyclists from entering either country at present, and the Belarusian section remains at the development stage in any case. For most riders today, EuroVelo 2 realistically runs from the Atlantic to the Polish-Belarusian border.

Elsewhere, conditions range from certified quality to unsigned and unfinished. Partially developed sections are recommended for experienced cyclists only, since they can combine higher motorised traffic with poorer surfaces. Check national and regional websites before committing to any stretch you are unsure about, and treat the "developed parts" GPX download as your baseline planning tool.

Useful resources to have bookmarked:

• Official GPX tracks, available as a full route or developed sections only, published under an open licence
• National coordinators: Cycling Ireland, Sustrans (UK), Fietsplatform (Netherlands), ADFC and BALM (Germany)
• The German national bicycle route planner, with open-data GPX tracks for the D-Routes
• Ordnance Survey maps for the detailed UK tracks

Final Tips

Treat EuroVelo 2 as a set of national routes that happen to line up rather than a single uniform corridor, and the planning becomes much simpler. Pick the countries that match your appetite: Ireland's canal greenways are flat, traffic-free and welcoming to families and first-timers, Germany's forests and river valleys reward touring riders who like a steady rhythm, and Wales offers the climbing. Long-distance riders regularly link the western capitals into one continuous journey all the way to Warsaw.

Riders looking to extend or connect will find plenty of options: EuroVelo 12, the North Sea Cycle Route, shares the stretch between Colchester and Harwich, and the German section overlaps with the R1 Euroroute and D-Route 3, both well supplied with maps and guidebooks. Download the tracks, check the development status of each section, and start with the part of the route that excites you most. The rest tends to follow.