djer

A buddy and I are going to Edinburgh in August for the fringe festival and will have 2 full days to ride out of Edinburgh to see Scotland! Parameters:

* We have to start in Edinburgh
* We'll rent road bikes with 1 pannier each -- we'll be "credit card" touring
* We can ride between 50 and 75 miles each day
* We don't have to loop back -- as long as we end up in a place with frequent train service back to Edinburgh that would be great.

Suggestions for routes and places to stay along the way welcome, thanks!

fietsbob

I'm looking in my copy of the CTC route guide to cycling in Britain and Ireland .. used paperback copies are cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140464212 more info from https://www.ctc.org.uk/

contango 

You can get an idea of cycle routes from www.bikeroutetoaster.com - go to the Course Creator tab, move the map to Edinburgh, then choose the Cycle maps (buttons in the top right of the map). Then you can see cycle routes that go through Edinburgh.

Be aware a lot of them will favour traffic-free and traffic-light routes over main roads, so they might take a six mile detour over a big hill to avoid half a mile of a fast road. Some of them will also use things like riverside towpaths and shared paths so an all-out road bike with skinny wheels might not be suitable for some sections.

Machka 

North Sea Route
https://www.northsea-cycle.com/

Sustrans
https://www.sustrans.org.uk/


If you take a train into Edinburgh, come out of the tunnel, walk around the train station to the right, and tucked in behind the train station is a Tourist Information Centre. There, you can get all sorts of maps of routes etc.

We followed the North Sea route out of Edinburgh to Dalkeith, Innerleithen, and eventually Berwick-Upon-Tweed. That was a nice route, but might be a bit long for what you have in mind.

chasm54

Machka is onto something, there. If you can ride 75 miles per day you could go Edinburgh to Berwick on day one, and (this would be a toughish day) Berwick/Newcastle, day two. Excellent train service back to Edinburgh from Newcastle, and the ride down the Northumberland coast is nice. The last twenty miles of this route are pretty dull, though. Alternatively, make day two a loop from Berwick into the Scottish borders, which is great cycling country, then get on the train in Berwick.

Alternatively, go north. Riding across the Forth road bridge is an experience in itself, and the M90 has removed most of the traffic from the old Perth road, so a ride to Perth - which is a cracking little town - would make an excellent first day. Plenty of routes around Perth on day two, some of them pretty challenging if you like hills, or you could just ride up the banks of the Tay towards Pitlochry. Again, there's a frequent train service from Perth to Edinburgh.

EDIT. On second thoughts, the train journey from Edinburgh to Perth is short enough that you could take the train to Perth and start your ride from there. I have done this myself in the past, riding out of Perth and up into the Cairngorms. Hilly, but scenic, and Braemar, for example, is only 50 miles from Perth. Anyway, as you can see you have a lot of options.