Hi! I’m Tom, originally from England, but the island was too small.
For 20 years I’ve been exploring the world by bike at every chance I get.
Why? Simply put: because it’s the closest thing you’ll find to pure freedom!
Here at TomsBikeTrip.com I share hard-earned lessons about cycle touring and bikepacking, tell original stories, and road-test new ideas.
A love of adventure has powered my 100% AI-free blog since 2006, when I first decided to travel the world by bicycle and write about it.
Welcome!
The blog: over half a million words of hard-earned, hand-written cycle touring & bikepacking advice.
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20 Hard-Earned Survival Tips For Cycle Touring & Bikepacking In Winter
It’s been said that “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing”. I don’t imagine this phrase was uttered after a winter cycle tour or bikepacking trip, but it remains true: there’s nothing stopping you pedalling through darkening days and sub-zero temperatures, as long as you dress for the occasion – and bear a few other key points in mind. I learned this the hard way when I spent a memorable February cycling and camping my way through Norway and Sweden, across the Arctic Circle and into Lapland (click here to watch the 2‑minute short film on Vimeo). After… Continue reading →
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There Is No Better Time To Be Planning Your Next Dream Cycling Adventure
Now is probably not the best time to be setting off on a globetrotting bike trip. But as we’ve all discovered over the last few months, upheavals can create the ideal conditions for change – including changing the way you think. Amid much uncertainty and, yes, real hardship and trauma, this year has brought with it a priceless opportunity to reimagine the paths we’ve been travelling through life, and to redirect those elements of our futures we can control towards newly-reconsidered destinations. That’s why – even if your departure date remains to-be-confirmed, and even if the places you’re thinking of going are… Continue reading →
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‘Janapar: The Game’ Is Now Available. Download It For Free Today!
For the last few weeks I’ve been putting the finishing touches to a project I’ve been working on for many years – and with so many of us in isolation and looking for things to do, the timing could not be better! Yes, that’s right – the story of my award-winning documentary Janapar: Love on a Bike has finally been adapted for video game format! Mixing both role-playing and action genres, Janapar: The Game will take you on a failed journey around the world by bicycle, teaching you tough lessons about life and love in the process. You’ll start Level… Continue reading →
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Tom’s Guide To Cycle Touring In… The Netherlands
As a student at the University of Exeter I once joined an annual fundraising event known as the Amsterdam Hitch. Travelling in pairs or groups, participants would have 24 hours to hitchhike from southwest England to the Dutch capital, spend a couple of nights ‘recovering’, then take a prearranged bus ride home. This, one of my first overseas adventures, did not gave me a particularly broad or revealing insight into modern Dutch culture. For one thing, I and my hitching partner Natalia only got as far as a truck-stop on the outskirts of Ghent, Belgium, before giving up and jumping on… Continue reading →
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What’s The Best Camping Stove For Cycle Touring Or Bikepacking?
Fact: every cycle tourer and bikepacker loves to eat. In fact, one of the pleasures of bicycle travel is being able to eat whatever you want, and as much as you like. Ride a bike for a living and your body becomes a calorie-burning machine – one that needs regular fuelling! While a camping stove and cookset isn’t an essential part of a cycle touring or bikepacking kit list, many adventurous cyclists find it convenient and morale-boosting to cook hot meals at camp at the end of a long day, or at least to boil water for hot drinks. That’s why… Continue reading →
Books, eBooks & Guides
I’ve written a range of guidebooks and travelogues to read at your leisure, whether you’re preparing for a bike trip, living life on the road, or home and dreaming of the next big ride.
How To Hit The Road: A Beginner’s Guide To Cycle Touring & Bikepacking
First published in 2017 and updated in 2021, this book is my comprehensive newcomers’ introduction to the art of the bicycle-mounted adventure.
Every aspect of a cycle tour or bikepacking trip is covered in 34 chapters, split over three parts: pre-trip planning, initial execution, and adapting to the long haul.
As well as broad, practical advice, I’ve woven inspiring and reassuring anecdotes throughout the book – because getting away from the starting line isn’t about knowing everything, but having the confidence to begin.
Drawing on my personal experience of almost two decades of adventure cycling, more than 50 veteran riders from diverse backgrounds have also contributed to this guide, making it one of the most well-rounded introductions you’ll find to this radically liberating form of independent travel.
Whatever you’re planning and wherever you’re going, if it involves a bicycle and the spirit of adventure, How To Hit The Road has got you covered.
Janapar: Love, on a Bike
My first travelogue, originally published in 2013 and the subject of a successful crowdfunding campaign, telling the true story of my first 3½ years on the road.
This was far from your typical long-distance bike tour, however. From the cover blurb:
When twenty-three-year-old Tom Allen and his friends set off from their English village to cycle around the world, they were expecting physical hardship, extreme conditions and a serious case of culture shock. But the hours spent poring over maps could never have prepared them for the experience of life on the road: the petty squabbles, the extreme hospitality, the unexpected joys and dangers.
And then Tom meets Tenny, a feisty Iranian-Armenian girl with dreams of her own, and hits a crossroad. Should he give up his grand plan for the girl he loves, or cycle off and risk missing out on the greatest adventure of them all?
Temporarily out of print (except in the USA), Janapar is still available as a Kindle ebook from all Amazon portals worldwide.