The München-Venezia cycle route Overview

Published on:  | Last updated: 16 January 2020

Cyclists on the Innradweg section of the München-Venezia cycle route near Vomp

Cyclists on the Innradweg section of the München-Venezia cycle route near Vomp

Using this guide

This page is the intro­duction to a series of articles, it is intended to provide an overview of the route, together with inform­ation on how to get to and from the start and finishing points. The downloads section at the bottom of the page includes downloads of GPS files as well as maps in PDF format.

The route is described in more detail in the articles in the series. You can navigate between them using the Next/Previous arrows at the end of the main article, or the list of links at the bottom of the page (and in the sidebar if your screen is wide enough).

At a glance

Distance

564 to 590 kilometres, depending on which combin­ation of variants your choose

Difficulty/terrain

Relatively easy - the only signi­ficant climb on the route is from Innsbruck to Brenner. However, note that if you are heading in the other direction, there is a tough climb from Wiesing to the Achensee.

Traffic

Mainly on traffic-free cycleways or restricted roads, or on quiet roads. The climb to Brenner involves 8 kilometres or so on the main B182 road; this was not especially busy, but you can catch the train if you’d rather avoid it. More recently the closure of a section of the cycleway near Castelavazzo in the Veneto means that cyclists have to take to a busy road for 1.6 kilometres. Again, there’s the option of taking the train. There’s also a stressful stretch near Conegliano in the Veneto — but there is a variant that lets you avoid most of this bit.

Surfaces

Mixed surfaces. In Austria and Germany, a signi­ficant proportion is on aggregate-surfaced bike paths - although these are generally in good condition. In Italy, a greater proportion of the route is on tarmac, but there are still some stretches on compacted-aggregate cycleways. The longest aggregate-surfaced sections are between Toblach and Cortina d’Ampezzo, and the final stretch from Treviso along the Sile river.

Signposting

The route is well signposted. The München-Venezia signage mainly relies on stickers or waymarkers added to existing cycle route signs — so it’s worth knowing the names of the cycle routes it uses, and the names of places along the way.

Weather and when to go

May to September is probably the best time to go. You could go in April or May, but expect the sections in the mountains to be cold — with average temper­atures in the single figures. Bear in mind that in the mountains the June, July and August are the rainiest months, both in terms of the overall amount, and the number of days on which it rains. However, this often takes the form of a thunder­storm in the late afternoon or early evening.

Route marker on the München-Venezia cycle route

Route marker on the München-Venezia cycle route

Overview

The München-Venezia cycle route follows traffic-free cycleways and quiet roads through Bavaria in southern Germany, the Austrian Tyrol, and the Italian Dolomites. It is possibly the easiest and most scenic route across the Alps.

Through southern Germany there are two variants, which meet up at the Austrian border: one follows the Isar river via the spa town of Bad Tölz (this is the variant described here), while the other goes via the Tegernsee.

The two variants come together again just over the Austrian border. The route then continues to the Achensee. From Maurach on the Achensee, it descends fairly steeply down into the valley of the river Inn before continuing following the Inn Radweg, possibly Austria’s premier cycleway. The Inntal is a broad river valley cutting its way west to east through the Alps, with villages high on the valley sides. As well as the dramatic scenery, this is an area with a rich history. 

The route climbs from the Inn valley through the Wipptal to the pass at Brenner (1370m). There are a couple of options, but whichever one you take you are looking at a climb with a total altitude gain of over 1000 metres. 

With the climb over, there’s a long descent towards Fortezza Franzensfeste where the main route turns east into the PusterTal (Puster Valley). The views of the Dolomites get ever more impressive as you head towards Toblach. At Toblach, you connect with the cycleway that follows the old railway line that once ran through the heart of the Dolomites. A short climb (a little over 300 metres altitude gain) takes you to the Passo Cimabanche and the border with the Veneto, and another long, and very scenic, descent down through Cortina d’Ampezzo and then on from there into the valley of the Piave river, following the historic Via Alemagna.

The final sections skirt the foothills of the Alps before turning south towards Treviso. From Treviso, the route follows the river Sile as it meanders towards the Laguna di Venezia (Venetian lagoon).

Highlights

  • the altstadt (old towns) in Bad Tölz, Schwaz, Hall in Tirol and Innsbruck
  • the Achensee
  • the Hungerburgbahn funicular in Innsbruck
  • the Inn valley and Wipptal
  • the historic centres of Sterzing (Vipiteno), Brixen (Bressanone), Bruneck (Brunico), and Treviso

A convenient route north over the Alps?

If you’re looking for a route over the Alps through Austria and into southern Germany, then you may be looking at this route and the Via Claudia Augusta. Both take you through some beautiful countryside and atmospheric alpine villages, but they both also have their problematic points: on the Via Claudia it is the crossing over the Fern Pass, and on the München-Venezia it’s the climb from Wiesing to Maurach. If you’re travelling heavily-loaded and looking for a convenient link to get you to the airport at München, I wouldn’t really recommend either. 

It may be that the best option is to go round the mountains by following the Inn Radweg north either to Rosenheim where you can pick up the Mangfall Radweg to München, or continue to Passau where the Inn joins the Donau (Danube). I say may as I haven’t yet had the chance to test it out. For a guide to the Mangfall Radweg (in German) see: radtourenchef.de: Mangfall Radweg.

cyclist riding along the Isarkanal - part of the München-Venezia cycle route

cyclist riding along the Isarkanal, part of the München-Venezia cycle route

Options

There are four places where you have a choice of variants

  • between München and Achenkirch you have the option of following the Isar river via the pretty spa town of Bad Tölz or going via the Tegernsee (which I assume is also pretty)
  • on the outskirts of Innsbruck you have the option of continuing into the city’s aldstadt (historic centre) and on from there to the Brenner pass, or taking a slightly longer, but a little less steep, route towards the pass
  • north of Brixen (Bressanone) you can opt to make a shortish detour to see the town (defin­itely don’t miss it)
  • in the final stretch as you approach Venezia you have the option of heading for Jesolo and the Venezia Lido on the islands on the eastern edge of the Venetian lagoon. This is worth consid­ering if you plan to consider south towards Chioggia and Ravenna or if you are looking for more economical accommodation

In addition to these options, I would also highly recommend a side trip to the Pragser Wildsee (Lago di Braies) which is quite possibly the most beautiful lake in the Dolomites. (But note that the climb get to it is pretty steep).

Overview map showing the options

  Map:  MV-Overview-FT-map-show map in overlay    |    MV-Overview-FT-map-show map in new window 

Connections

This route connects with several national and inter­na­tional cycle routes, so there are lots of possib­il­ities for custom­ising your itinerary. Here are a few.

The route connects with the the Inn Radweg, one of Austria’s premier cycleways, near Jenbach. The Inn is a tributary of the Donau (Danube) which it joins at Passau, so you could follow the Inn Radweg from Passau (or Rosenheim). The Innradweg continues from Innsbruck to Imst where it connects with the Via Claudia, and from there you can continue on to Italy and the Reschen Pass.

In Italy you could continue south from Brixen towards Bozen (Bolzano) and from there follow the Adige (Etsch river) as it heads south towards the sea. You could follow it, along one of Europe’s best traffic-free cycleways, to Verona, or turn of to the Lago di Garda.

Again in Italy, you could continue from Toblach (Dobbiaco) to Innichen (San Candido) and from there follow the Drau (Drava) as it heads from its source near Toblach to the Donau.

Cyclists on the Neustadt in Sterzing (Vipiteno) leading to the Zwölferturm

The Neustadt in Sterzing (Vipiteno) leading to the Zwölferturm

Map and altitude profile

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Run your cursor over the graph to show the elevation, and distance from the start, for any given point on the route. (Note: the altitude graph is not shown where the route is flat).



map detail

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München-Venezia cycle route distances
München to Bad Tölz 58 kms
Bad Tölz to Achenkirch 48 kms
Achenkirch to Hall in Tirol 51 kms
Hall in Tirol to Brenner via Ampass 49 kms
Hall in Tirol to Brenner via Innsbruck 50 kms
Brenner to Sterzing (Vipiteno) 22 kms
Sterzing to Bruneck (Brunico) 57 kms
Bruneck to Toblach 29 kms
Toblach to Cortina d’Ampezzo 29 kms
Cortina d’Ampezzo to Vittorio Veneto 105 kms
Vittorio Veneto to Treviso 67 kms
Treviso to Mestre 45 kms
Mestre to Venezia 10 kms

Sign on the Innradweg/München-Venezia cycle route

Sign on the Innradweg/München-Venezia cycle route


Cyclist on the München-Venezia cycle route near Pfons

Cyclist on the München-Venezia cycle route near Pfons

Getting there

Planes

The Flughafen München (Munich airport) is to the north-east of the city. You can catch the S-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof in the centre of town (the journey takes about 40 minutes). Note that there are restric­tions on when you can travel with a bike: according to mvv-muenchen.de, you may not take your bike on trains during the rush hour (i.e. Mondays to Fridays between 6:00 and 9:00 and, between 16:00 and 18:00 during school term times). Bike tickets cost 3€. Check the page for the detail on tandems, folders and bikes with small wheels (not to mention ‘fairy cycles’, whatever they are). 

Alternatively, the Isar river and Isarradweg pass close to the airport so that you could follow the cycleway through München. You have the option of riding either bank, but you’ll need to cross the river if you want to follow the main cycleway which is on the right bank (looking in the direction the river is flowing). According to the Open Street Map, there’s a cycleway that takes you from the Besucherpark along the Nordallee. It then follows the B301 south to the Grünecker Straße where you turn right and cross over the river.

Cyclist on the Pustertal cycle route near Welsberg (Monguelfo)

Cyclist on the Pustertal cycle route near Welsberg (Monguelfto)

Trains

As you’d expect, there are frequent train services to München Hauptbahnhof from a wide range of European cities.

München has a well-estab­lished network of cycleways, so it’s relat­ively easy to pick up the route direct from the station — although you may find that you need to get off and push your bike through the pedes­trian zone if you want to take the direct route through the Altstadt.

… and getting back

Planes

Venezia’s Marco Polo airport is relat­ively close to the centre of Mestre, and you can reach while avoiding the main road, by going from Mestre to Favaro Veneto, and then heading for Tessera.

Treviso airport is also a short train ride away.

Trains and coaches

The most convenient option for returning from Venezia to München is the DB-ÖBB Eurocity service via Innsbruck. There are places for 16 bikes on each train This is the most direct train with the shortest journey time, however, there are only two depar­tures a day, arriving in München in the evening. There are earlier depar­tures from Verona, and you can take a regional train from Venezia to Verona. 

Another option would be to take an ÖBB Railjet or Intercitybus via Udine to Villach, and change trains there - journey times are a little longer but not by very much, so they are worth considering.

There are at least two companies offering coach transfers back from Venezia. The ones I know about are: Zion Reisen (zionreisen.eu) and Schmid Reisen (bikeshuttle.at).

Next
Cyclists on the Innradweg section of the München-Venezia cycle route near Wattens

Cyclists on the Innradweg section of the München-Venezia cycle route near Wattens

More information

Places to stay

Hotels and B&Bs

There are plenty of hotels and accom­mod­ation along the way, generally reasonably priced.

One thing to bear in mind if you are planning to stay overnight in München is that if there is a major trade show, prices on everything from hostels upwards can triple. If you can choose when to travel, it is worth using booking.com to research prices before you book your travel tickets. Another event to bear in mind is the Oktoberfest which, despite the name, starts around September 20th.

My favourite place to stay is the Bold Hotels hotel in München centre which is an easy bike ride from the station. It also has a car park where you can leave your bike (and the rooms have handy bike-sized balconies, but whether you are officially allowed to store your bike on the balcony, I don’t know).

Find and book places to stay with Booking.com

Booking.com pages for places on this section of the route:

München | Bad Tölz | Hall in Tirol | Innsbruck | Sterzing (Vipiteno) | Brixen (Bressanone) | Bruneck (Brunico) | Toblach (Dobbiaco) | Cortina d’Ampezzo | TrevisoMestre | Venezia | Jesolo | Venezia Lido

About these links

If you use these links to book accom­mod­ation Booking.com will pay me a small part of their commission. This helps support the costs of producing this site.

I use Booking.com to find and book places to stay when there are no campsites in the area. The large majority of hotels and many hostels are now on ‘Booking’. I like it because it means that I can get almost-instant confirm­ation. The rating system is also a reliable guide to the quality of the accommodation.

I’ve never had a problem finding places to keep my bike —even if it’s a cupboard or store room. I always use the ‘special requests’ field on the booking form to tell the hotel that I’m travelling with a bike, which gives them the oppor­tunity to let me know if there’s a problem.

Many properties offer free cancel­lation but it’s a good idea to check the condi­tions as these vary from property to property.

Hostels

There are a dozen hostels on the section of the route through Germany and Austria, although most of these are in München and Innsbruck.

There are only three hostels along the Italian section of the route. There are several hostels in Venezia, but if you are travelling with a bike you won’t be able to get to them unless you can dismantle it put it in a bag (but I wouldn’t recommend trying to haul a bike bag around Venezia at busy times).

  Map:  MV-hostels-map - show hostels map in overlay    |    MV-hostels-map - show hostels map in new window 

Campsites

There aren’t a huge number of campsites on the German section of the route, but there are enough. There’s a much greater choice along the route through Austrian, although there is no campsite between Innsbruck and Sterzing on the Italian side of the Brenner Pass. 

In Italy, there’s a reasonable choice of campsites along the northern part of the route, but none on the southern section until you get to the coast.

  Map:  MV-campsites-map - show campsites map in overlay    |  MV-campsites-map -   show campsites map in new window 

Transport and services

Ferry and boat services on the Laguna di Venezia

The Tronchetto to Lido di Venezia car ferry

Bikes are allowed onto the number 17 car ferry service that runs from the terminal on Tronchetto island to the Lido di Venezia. For more inform­ation about the ‘Ferry Boat’ service see: actv.avmspa.it: actv-ferry-boat. There’s an ACTV ticket office on the Tronchetto.

The service runs every 50 minutes. I think that tickets cost €7.50 plus €1 for your bike. You should be able to download the pdf timetable from this page: muoversi.venezia.it: orari servizio di navigazione or from actv.avmspa.it: timetable download page.

Other boat services on the Laguna di Venezia

Apart from the number 17 ferry service, you can take bikes on only two of the ACTV vaporetti services on the Laguna di Venezia

  • the number 14 (Punta Sabbioni to the Lido di Venezia)
  • the number 11. This runs from the Lido di Venezia to Chioggia with two water­borne sections: Alberoni to Santa Maria del Mare, and Pellestrina to Chioggia

On Saturdays and public holidays the number 11 service between Pellestrina and Chioggia is reinforced by a dedicated service for ciclo­turisti. The boat can carry 40 bikes, and sails 6 times a day. There may be additional services on other days - download the timetable for details.

You can download the timetables as pdfs from actv.avmspa.it: timetable download page.

In addition to the ACTV services there are privately-run services from the Fusina ferry terminal (note this is separate from the Fusina port). On Saturdays, you can take their boat service from Fusina to Alberoni on the eastern edge of the lagoon. Note: you need to call reserve your place. For timetable and contact details go to terminalfusina.it.

Venezia: bike-friendly traghetto routes and cycleways. Map by Giovanna Cicogna. From actv.avmspa.it: Venezia: servizi di mobilita’ — Bicicletta

Ferries from Venezia

From Venezia you can catch ferries to Croatia, Greece and other destin­a­tions in the eastern Mediterranean. There are three ferry terminals:

The San Basilio jetty and Venezia Terminal Passeggeri are a short distance apart in Venezia itself, while the ferry terminal at Fusina is 10 kilometres south of Venezia — so be sure to check which terminal the ship leaves from before you book or make other travel arrange­ments.

Reaching the three terminals is relat­ively straight­forward, but it’s worth checking the map first.

The cycleway from Mestre, which runs beside the SR11 road across the causeway that links Venezia with the mainland, brings you to the port area. You’ll need to get inform­ation from your ferry operator on which of the terminal buildings you should head for. Don’t follow the signs for the ‘ferry-lido’ as this takes you over a bridge to the Tronchetto ferry terminal.

To get to the San Basilio pier, you need to take the Calle Dietro ai Magazzini from the junction with the Ponte della Libertà.

Venice RO Port ‘Motorways of the Sea’ ferry terminal is at Fusina, about 10 kilometres south of Mestre. (Note that there are two ferry terminals at Fusina — the other just offers a passenger ferry to Venezia). 

Getting the Venice RO Port is pretty straight­forward, but if you don’t do anything else be sure to stay off the SS309. This is on my list of The Most Horrible Roads in Italy. The route I would suggest is to take the cycleway that goes under the Mestre station, and then continue through Marghera heading for the village of Malcontenta, and then take the SP23 (Via Moranzani). A slightly longer, but possibly more scenic option is to follow the cycle route on the right bank of the Naviglio del Brenta and then cross back over and head for the ferry terminal. 

At Malcontenta you defin­itely should make the short detour to see the Villa Foscari (‘La Malcontenta’) designed by the architect Andrea Palladio. If you don’t have much time you can just admire it from the waterside, but it’s worth the visit to see the frescoes in the reception rooms.

Bike shops and bike hire

The individual sections of this guide list bike shops along the way.

Bike hire

The most promising option for renting a bike in München looks to be bikebringer.de who offer respectable-looking trekking bikes plus accessories including child seats and pannier bags. As you’d expect from the name, they offer a delivery and collec­tions service, but they are also based close to the route in Sendling to the south of the city centre.

If you’re starting from Innsbruck you could try Die Boerse. They say We can grant almost any equipment wish this includes touring bikes (or even e-touring bikes) and child trailers. Their website doesn’t say anything about delivery and collection. Thanks to Joel R for the suggestion. 

Please drop me a line if you have any feedback or other options.

Storage for bike bags etc in München

The München tourist office have published a useful page on the left luggage facil­ities at the München stations (muenchen.de: left-luggage) . There’s a similar page on the MVV website (München public transport). Both have maps to help you find the Gepäck-aufbe­wahrung (left-luggage offices) in the two stations.

The Hauptbahnhof looks like the best bet for long-term storage — offering storage for up to four weeks in the main office, as well as long-term locker hire. 

The München airport (flughafen) has left luggage offices (‘Service Center’) in both terminals. You can get further inform­ation, and download the price list, from the airport’s website: munich-airport.com: left-luggage.The price list gives the prices per day for storing bulky luggage and bikes, but doesn’t specify whether there is a maximum storage period.

Bike parking and luggage storage in Mestre and Venezia

If you are planning to spend a few days in Venezia, the best option is to find accom­mod­ation in Mestre, or on one of the islands, that has somewhere to store your bike.

There’s a Bici Park (bike parking facility) near Mestre station actv.avmspa.it: bicycle park Mestre Venezia. From the pictures I’ve seen, the Mestre facility looks pretty secure, or at least it’s staffed, and the access is controlled. The cost is €0.5 per day. Note: you can’t leave bikes overnight — the Bici Park closes at 19:00 and all bikes must be removed by 19:30.

In Venezia itself, there is parking for 25 bikes beside the Autorimessa Comunale (municipal car-park) at Ponte della Libertà (entry to the right of the vehicles entrance). The operators emphasise that it is not guarded, or monitored by CCTV. 

For luggage storage, there’s a Deposito Bagagli (Left Luggage office) at Venezia Mestre station and also at Venezia Santa Lucia. Charges: (per item) €6 for the first 5 hours then €1 per hour for the next seven hours, and and €0.50 for every hour after the first twelve. For more inform­ation go to: veneziaunica.it: depositi bagagli or veneziasantalucia.it: Left-Luggage.

Trasbagagli is a private company offering luggage handling and storage services around the city (including at the airport and ferry terminal). I don’t know if they can store bikes (please let me know if you do know).

Transport services for groups

There are probably other companies, but here are links to four firms in the Treviso and Venezia areas who have bike trailers and offer transport services to groups:

For further inform­ation please contact the firms direct.

Resources

Cycling-related websites

General tourist information websites

  • bavaria.by (en/de/it/nl/fr/pl/ru/cn/jp)
  • austria.info (available in 22 languages)
  • tyrol.com (de/en/it/nl/fr/di/ro/pl/ck/ru) is probably the most useful tourist inform­ation site for the Austrian section. There’s also an excellent iOS/Android app
  • suedtirol.info (de/it/en/nl/cs/pl/fr/ru) is the main tourist inform­ation site for the Südtirol region of Italy
  • veneto.eu (it/en/fr/de/es/pt/ru/cn) is the major tourist inform­ation site for the Veneto region

Resources for München

  • muenchen.de (en/fr/it/ru/cn) is the main tourist inform­ation website. If you are planning on exploring München by bike then check out the site’s cycling section: muenchen.de: biking
  • the Open Street Map mapping seems to cover cycleways in the city pretty well, but if you need it there’s also an online cycle route planner at muenchen.de: cycle route planner (de/en)
  • muenchen.de: Brochures including links to download a city map, an excellent city guide and accom­mod­ation directory. If you go to the German-language version (muenchen.de: Download of the page you’ll find (in the bottom left corner) a link to a nice guide to bike rides around the centre of München. The text is selectable so you can translate it using Google Translate — although the maps on their own might be enough
  • muenchen.de: taking-your-bike rules on taking your bike on public transport

Other useful websites

Maps

I use and would highly recommend the Open Street Map digital mapping from openfietsmap.nl. For tradi­tional maps, there are the excellent ADFC-Radtourenkarte. These are 1:150,000 and the Oberbayern München (Blatt 156) covers the route as far as Innsbruck. As a bonus, the maps are water­proof, and you can download the GPS files for all the cycle routes shown on the map (amazon.co.uk: ADFC-Radtourenkarte Oberbayern M).

Tour operators

The muenchen-venezia.info website has inform­ation about a couple of tour operators offering holidays on the route:

If you’re wondering: ‘self-guided’ means that the operator trans­ports your luggage and takes care of booking the hotels etc. They also provide maps etc and some degree of backup if you have problems.

Downloads

Maps to print out or view offline

The zip files contain pdf files packaged together for convenience. If you are using a tablet, you may find it easier to download the individual sections.

Show map download links for individual sections
München-Venezia A4 maps
München-Venezia A5 maps

About the maps

The maps are in two versions: A4 portrait format - for printing and maybe also for viewing on an iPad, and A5 for smaller tablets and smart­phones. (A4 and A5 are inter­na­tional paper sizes).

 sample map page.

Links open in new windows unless you ‘save as’ etc.

GPS files

  •  München-Venezia gps files
    (.zip file containing 22 gpx files)
  • Italy Points of Interest

    About POIs

    POIs are like waypoints, but while you can usually only store a limited number of waypoints on a device, you can store thousands of POIs. These files include inform­ation about campsites and hostels, bike shops, train stations, drinking water sources as well as warnings for tunnels and roads where bikes are banned. Please check the ReadMe file for instruc­tions. Updated April 2018. The file format is only compatible with Garmin GPSes .

Articles in this series

München-Venezia cycle route: the Ciclabile delle Dolomiti between Cortina d'Ampezzo and Calalzo di Cadore

München-Venezia cycle route: the Ciclabile delle Dolomiti between Cortina d’Ampezzo and Calalzo di Cadore


Get in touch

Please get in touch if you find any errors in the information, or if there’s anything, good or bad, that you’d want other cyclists to know.

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