To strengthen cycling tourism in the region of Vidzeme and Southern Estonia, this project connected the bike roads and smaller routes in both countries and developed an impressive cross-border route Tour de LatEst.  This route goes through both countries and its length is 1075 – 1296 km (with shorter and longer options). It is very versatile – by taking this route, one can learn about the heritage of cultural history of Latvians and Estonians, visit the most popular tourism objects, and see the daily lives of the local inhabitants. The route crosses several protected natural territories of European importance – national and nature parks, scenic areas, and the biosphere reserve.

The project involved comprehensive route preparation and testing work, as well as lots of technical adjustments – over thousand special road signs for Tour de LatEst route were installed in both countries, around 60 informative stands were placed throughout the whole route, and almost two hundred bicycle parking places and more than thirty resting places were created. Technical projects were made for improving also the road quality in future.

Tour de LatEst route has been widely promoted by route-map and guiding brochure in LAT, LIT, EST, ENG, FIN, RUS, GER languages. These materials have been distributed in tourism info centres and municipalities, as well as during route presentations in variety of international thematic events in Helsinki, Utrecht, Tartu, Riga, Hamburg, Tallinn and Vilnius. Tour de LatEst was officially launched with an opening marathon in July 2010, where around 100 participants tested the whole route.  There have been extensive publicity for the route, as well as for its notable opening marathon. Also a promotional video material was made to show the whole route to the potential cycling tourists (watch below).

At the end of the project, a conference was organized to discuss the future of the cycling tourism in the region and fid good ideas to develop it further.

Read more on the project home page!