Most countries in fewest miles

[christian]

If you ride north from Rettel, France to Maastricht, NL, you should be able to cover France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands (5 countries) in 250km.

61km would also get you through Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium (4 countries) following Luxembourg’s southern border.

If you start in Kazungula, Zambia and ride over the Zambezi River, you can go to Kazungula, Botswana, the Kazungula Border post in Zimbabwe, and over the Ngoma bridge to Ngoma, Namibia (4 countries) in ~80 km.

Are there shorter ways to cover 4 and 5 countries?

3 countries can be covered in 10 meters in various instances obviously.

[bigbill]

I've been to the North Pole a few times where every direction is south. You can circle the earth in a few dozen steps.

[chismog]

A good question for AI...

From Basel area: Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein? Prob about the same 250km, not sure if it's actually a rideable route though.

I suspect there are several shorter ways to do 5 elsewhere in Europe, but this came to mind as I was there recently.

[donevwil]

Lichtenstein - Switzerland - Austria - Germany

[cgolvin]

A little googling and someone claims a route from Lindau (germany) to the Splugenpass (Italo-Swiss border) via Feldkirch (Austrian/Liechtenstein border) at 163km. I took a look on viamichelin, seems to work.
Edit: that was a driving, not cycling, route.

[christian]

Nice that’s a good one.

[donevwil]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

A little googling and someone claims a route from Lindau (germany) to the Splugenpass (Italo-Swiss border) via Feldkirch (Austrian/Liechtenstein border) at 163km. I took a look on viamichelin, seems to work.
Edit: that was a driving, not cycling, route.

I think I found a ridable route at 203km. I've done about ~10% of it on a bike and another ~25% via train so I must be right .

[prototoast]

Is this a theoretical question or a route you'd actually like to ride? Theoretically you can do Jordan-Israel-Syria-Lebanon in about 100 miles.

Similarly Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and China are all close enough to theoretically ride in a similar distance, but you might have some problems at the border crossings.

[christian]

Originally Posted by prototoast

Is this a theoretical question or a route you'd actually like to ride?

Purely theoretical. But it looks like 61 km is the lowest distance for four countries and ~164 km for five countries. Both in Europe, so those both look rideable if someone wanted to.

[vav]

Around the former Yugoslavia maybe? Fun exercise though

[Polyglot]

Originally Posted by christian

Purely theoretical. But it looks like 61 km is the lowest distance for four countries and ~164 km for five countries. Both in Europe, so those both look rideable if someone wanted to.

From Ruggell in Liechtenstein to Lindau in Germany it is less than 50 km by bike and you ride through Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

You can stand in three countries at once at the meeting point of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium

[Talrand]

I've been playing with Google maps for a bit and found some short ones, a bit 'spicy' though

Lebanon > Syria > Jordan > Palestine > Israel should be under 100km for 5 countries

I've found a similar distance in Africa:
Tanzania > Burundi > Rwanda > Uganda > DR Kongo is ~100

There are some similar distances with some micro nations or territories but there are no clear roads in a lot of those areas.

[weisan]

How about circumventing an entire country in 80km?

Singapore

I am sure there are places smaller or shorter distance than Singapore but one with actual road/infrastructure built where you can actually ride on a bike around the entire country.

[christian]

Originally Posted by Polyglot

From Ruggell in Liechtenstein to Lindau in Germany it is less than 50 km by bike and you ride through Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

That's interesting. So it seems that the shortest distance for four countries and five countries is basically the same route. I guess we owe a debt of gratitude to Lichtenstein!

Originally Posted by Polyglot

You can stand in three countries at once at the meeting point of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium

I think there are about 170 national tripoint borders so that's actually not that unusual.

[charliedid]

Interesting idea....