Insider tip: This free map shows you the best cycling tours for spring

At first glance, the OpenCycleMap appears very colorful and confusing. But a quick glance at the OpenCycleMap legend will quickly help you find your way around.

National cycle routes, i.e., longer routes that often run from city to city, are marked in red. Regional cycle routes, in purple, connect larger towns within a region, for example. The blue routes are mainly shorter inner-city routes – for example, in Munich or Berlin.

Smaller cycle paths within towns and communities are also marked with blue dashed lines. These are easily distinguishable from pure footpaths, which are colored orange. A nice side feature: facilities such as fitness trails and other car-free streets are also included in the OpenCycleMap.

Click on “Key and Info” in the bottom right corner to display the map legend and get more information.

Particularly practical are the bicycle parking spaces marked in blue rectangles, where there are fewer than 20 parking spaces, or in larger parking lots with a “C” and the corresponding parking space capacity as a number.

Rental stations for bike sharing, professional workshops and locations with freely accessible tools and free drinking water are also marked on the map.

Restaurants, cafés, and bars are also marked on the map. Locations with free Wi-Fi are also highlighted.

A particularly practical feature: If, for example, you need to travel from the city to the surrounding area, you can also display public transport options using the layer menu on the right side of the screen. This way, you can find the right route to your destination right from the S-Bahn stop.

Essential for cycling tours: potential climbs that need to be overcome. The layers in the upper right corner are helpful here. Here you can access a special landscape map that shows the respective elevation gain.

OpenCycleMap, as the name suggests, is a freely accessible map service that anyone can edit and add additional information to. The large community associated with it allows for a relatively quick and up-to-date view of the latest changes anywhere.

The basis for the OpenCycleMap is OpenStreetMap, which is well known from many navigation services and apps. It is also freely accessible and is kept up to date and continually expanded by many volunteers.