When visiting a certain city, you can always choose the way to reach its main attractions: you can use the public transportation or rent a car, but have you ever considered renting a bike? It’s great for your health, it’s eco-friendly and you can choose when and where to stop, in order to take the best pictures. Here are five of the most accessible cities when it comes to biking.

5. Basel, Switzerland

The Cultural Capital of Switzerland or the University City are just few of the labels people use, when talking about this wonderful city. With a beautiful medieval center and a carnival not that crowded like the one in Venice, but at least that impressive, Basel is the perfect place for all the biking lovers. Here you can find clearly marked bicycle lanes in the city and even special route maps for bicycling. The best place in town for starting your adventure is the Rent-A-Bike underground bike park, in the center.

4. Paris, France

We’ve all heard about Paris and why this amazing city is famous. The most romantic and cosmopolitan city in Europe is also one of the most congested, so if you really want to enjoy your trip there and not get stuck in traffic, then you should think about renting a bike. Paris owns Velib’, the world’s largest public bike renting program. You can choose one of the 20,000 bicycles in the 1,450 rental spots and don’t forget that the first 30 minutes are free.

3. Berlin, Germany

In the second largest city of Europe, half of the citizens own a car. Therefore, the local government is currently investing large amounts of money in perfecting the bike system. With more than 140 kilometers of bike lane all over the city, as well as online and offline maps and route planners available, biking in Berlin has never been easier. Each day, more than 400,000 people use their bikes here, so why won’t you be one of them?

2. Copenhagen, Denmark

In the capital of Denmark, the city that was recently ranked the sixth in the world for the quality of life, one third of the workforce uses bikes for getting to work. The cycle paths are far-reaching and you could easily cycle from the Little Mermaid, Copenhagen’s most famous sculpture, to the Trivoli Gardens, Denmark’s oldest and most beautiful amusement park. In Copenhagen, you can get a bike with a returnable deposit of only $3.55.

1. Amsterdam, Netherlands

In the biking capital of Europe, more than 40% of the street traffic consists of bicycles. This is not just the result of the governmental promotion and of the safe and well developed biking network, but also of a real biking culture. In Amsterdam you can see every kind of people riding bikes. And if you still don’t believe that this is the most bike friendly city in Europe, check out the 2,500 biking garage near Amsterdam Central, the main train station. It’s one of the busiest parking lots (of all types) in Netherlands.

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