carrying a bike on aer lingus

Fian

I have access to a bike bag i can borrow. I am travelling to croatia for a little over two weeks (16 days). I have already booked flights etc. I am just wondering if I would be more sensible to bring a road bike with me in a bike case rather than hiring a bike out there.

I would bring my aluminium road bike rather than my good bike, because I want to be able to park it near the beach etc. without worrying about it, advantage would be that I could still go for a road cycle on it. Alternative is to hire a hybrid over there. Normally we don't hire a car and hire cheap bikes to get around/go to shops, restaurants etc. I find cycling far less stressful and no worries about having a glass of wine with dinnner etc.

I will be hiring a number of cheap bikes anyway, for the rest of the family, regardless of whether I bring my own bike.

I checked the aer lingus website and if i click the "add sports equipment" for my flight there is no option to add a bike. I am just wondering can i rock up with the bike case and check it in as ordinary luggage or do i need to make special arrangements? Is it expensive?

I know i have seen threads on this issue in the past but since the website does not include bikes as sports equipment i wonder if there policy is now that you can just check in the case.

Has anyone just checked a bike case in as an ordinary bag with aer lingus?

C3PO

Aer Lingus policy is that you need to ring and book a bike separately - they charge €40 each way! They allow 10 bikes per flight. However, this is really applicable to complete bikes ie. rolling on wheels! Every year a gang of us go to a big mountain bike race in France and once the quota of bikes is booked on the flight we simply book them on as sports equipment and we have never had an issue! However there is a weight limit of 23kgs which to date I have never seen enforced but it is worth bearing in mind!
All explained pretty clearly here:
https://www.aerlingus.com/travel-information/baggage-information/sports-equipment/

iAcesHigh

I'm from Croatia and I'm bringing bike for Ironman 70.3 Pula this year - I've done what C3PO said and it went quite fast and easy on the phone. Although previously this hasn't happened to me I know couple of dudes who had to pay extra for 23kgs excess (they rather took some stuff out and moved to another bag though ). Enjoy the Croatia

Fian

Thank you both.

Aces high I am flying into pula and staying in a large campsite (camping lanterna) north of Porec. Can I pick your brain for any local knowledge you might have - is there a bike hire you would recommend (bearing in mind i will be looking for cheap bikes not high spec) and any idea on bike hire cost in croatia? I will need to figure out if the €100 cost to bring the bike is more expensive than just hiring over there.

Also are there any bike routes you would recommend? How safe are the roads to cycle with kids? Any special laws (e.g. are helmets compulsory?)

iAcesHigh

sure thing, I'll gladly type what I know a bit later (after work )

Wishbone Ash

C3PO wrote: »

..They allow 10 bikes per flight. However, this is really applicable to complete bikes ie. rolling on wheels! Every year a gang of us go to a big mountain bike race in France and once the quota of bikes is booked on the flight we simply book them on as sports equipment and we have never had an issue!....

I had the opposite experience a few years ago when travelling with a group. I tried to book the bike in later than everyone else and they told me the limit had been reached (all in bike boxes). I was forced to take a much earlier flight and hang around with my bike box for 12 hours until the rest of the group arrived that night. Probably depends on the staff on duty.

C3PO

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I had the opposite experience a few years ago when travelling with a group. I tried to book the bike in later than everyone else and they told me the limit had been reached (all in bike boxes). I was forced to take a much earlier flight and hang around with my bike box for 12 hours until the rest of the group arrived that night. Probably depends on the staff on duty.

I think the trick is not to mention "bicycle"! Just book it on as sports equipment and check it in through oversize luggage - as I say it's never been a problem for us but ....!

07Lapierre

Aer Lingus and bikes don't mix! Ryanair are much better.

JiffyJ

Just returned from touring in France, flew with Aer Lingus and brought our own bikes. No issues on the way out, boxed the bikes in cardboard, with some luggage in there. We were definitely (just) over the 23kg limit but no-one seemed to care. Nice airport even had a bike stand in baggage reclaim to help put the bikes back together.

Way back was a different story... Flying home from a different location so first had to source boxes from an LBS. Having done all that, it turned out that the euro's match in Bordeaux that night meant no taxi availability. Unboxed the bikes, cycled to airport. Staff very helpful there, provided bags for the bikes, and even tools for the work (accidently checked ours in). Bikes arrived home with no issues.

However the moral of this post is that IMHO its not worth the hassle - 50 euro each way to bring a bike on a plane, plus taxi fares, plus worrying about the bike, dismantling reassembling, sourcing boxes, and taping up the important parts.

There are ever-more fantastic companies our there that rent, deliver and support excellent bikes for very reasonable rates. Will be doing that in future!

iAcesHigh

Fian wrote: »

Thank you both.

Aces high I am flying into pula and staying in a large campsite (camping lanterna) north of Porec. Can I pick your brain for any local knowledge you might have - is there a bike hire you would recommend (bearing in mind i will be looking for cheap bikes not high spec) and any idea on bike hire cost in croatia? I will need to figure out if the €100 cost to bring the bike is more expensive than just hiring over there.

Also are there any bike routes you would recommend? How safe are the roads to cycle with kids? Any special laws (e.g. are helmets compulsory?)

Ok, lets go from the last part The last thing I heard was that helmet is compulsory for up to 16 years (not sure if it included 16 so hope you don't have 16-year old kid :P ). While it's not compulsory I would still advise one if you're going to do some serious cycles there (not really for small cycles with a family). While cycling is still safe in general, note that it will be quite bad ATM since the touristic season is in a full wave and Istria is the most visited part of Croatia

When it comes to routes, I know a few (cycle around Motovun is quite flat but really fantastic. Also, cycle up and down the hills around Limski Zaljev is another one for memories for sure!) but it entirely depends on your desires and whether you're going to do it on your own or with family/kids. I think the smartest thing is just to visit the following page, put your preferences in the search and it should find a few nice ones http://www.istria-bike.com/en/bike_trails/interactive-trails Also, you might want to take a look at the suggested routes on Poreč city page at http://www.to-porec.com/en/cycling

Since I never had to rent a bike, I really don't have anything "insider" to report or suggest other than one company a buddy of mine used few times for one-day rentals where he payed something like 70-80 HRK (round €10) for a day (http://vetura-rentacar.com/index.php/en/bicikle-2). I would simply also go to the following page and try to call/google companies listed under, for example Poreč if you're going there http://www.istria-bike.com/en/services/bike_rental

If you have any other questions - shoot. I wrote a small to-do list for a friend of mine something like 2 months ago (what to see and where to eat :P) so if you want I can try and search for it and forward on PM...

Hope you'll enjoy Istria

Fian

Aces high - thanks for taking the time - that is very helpful.


I'm looking forward to seeing Istria!