Touring the UK, London, Europe ... any tips?
 

Hi fellow tourers... I am writing this from the airport as I await my departure flight to London. I'm planning to do an open ended tour of the UK and then onto Western Europe, 'open ended' meaning that I have no set dates for anything. I am booked for a week at a hostel in London and I'm planning to do some research as to what route in the UK would be nice to do on the bike. Does anyone have any suggestions for 'must do' routes or 'must see' places? I'm particularly interested in historic/Roman places, I will have to pass near stonehenge for sure... I might go as far North as Scotland.

thanks

Sounds like you want to do Lands End to John O'Groats or vice versa, also known as LEJOG or JOGLE, depending on which end you start at. There should be lots of info out there as it's a popular tour to do in the UK. When you're in London you can cycle along the Thames quite a long way, all the way from the centre out to Kew Gardens and possibly further.

Must see:-

Wales
St David's the smallest city in the UK, ruined monastery and cathedral.
Snowdonia, for mountains

England
Stonehenge ( why??) its a lot smaller than you think
Oxford or Cambridge
Stratford upon Avon
The Lake District..... NOT to be missed
and loads of other places
In London I am sure you have the "tourist" places you need to see, but if you are there at the weekend go to Brick Lane to find Bikes, bits, and camping stuff.
The coast of Cornwall is amazing and has the best weather ( and hills) in England
And of course MY House for the best free bed and breakfast for cycle tourists in England

I am sure I will think of more


george

After you've seen Stonehenge, take a look at Avebury. It's similar in that the stones are aligned for various astronomical events, but the stones are not dressed as neatly as the Stonehenge stones, they're not stacked the way the triliths are in Stonehenge, and a whole village (Avebury) has grown up over the years in and around the stones.

Lon Las Cymru (the Welsh National Cycle Route) from Cardiff to Holyhead is an excellent tour, the off pavement options were great wqhen I did them. Llanberis Pass is also a fun ride, there's an excellent hostel at the top of the pass.

If you haven't bought maps yet, the Goldeneye maps are a really good scale for cycle touring.

I don't know what Scottish weather is like in September, but I thought the west coast of Scotland was great for cycling, the further north the better.

Agree about Avebury, no mass-tourism.
Take train to Falmouth and cycle the coast via Gweek, Mullin (Cove) and Penzance. Visit St. Michael's Mount, continue throug finest hills and coastal jewels near Mousehole and Lamorma to Porthcornu,visit the white beach and the Minck Open Air Theatre, avoid the tourist trap Land's End and cycle from St. Just to Hayle and Truro. Train again, to London or ...
And make a choice: Oxford, Cambridge and stay in the south and don't practice the must-do-syndrom.
London, Canterbury etc. etc.

(I cycled Cornwall two weeks ago, marvellous)

Arie
Have a pleasant trip.

For roaman stuff you must go to Bath not too far from stone henge.

Also check out some of the white hourses in WIlshire and one (the oldest) in Oxfordshire.

Bring a good lock for London and other cities like Oxford e.t.c Not a crappy cabl lock.

Try contacting Sustrans for a list of the cycleways. There's not as many as on the continent, and they're not as good, but they're better than the roads.
As others have said, Cornwall is great, and the lake district. I'd miss out the North West, which is where I have the misfortune to live, and probably the midlands. But I'd definately go for Suffolk, which is how England used to be, and Norfolk, which is big and flat and a bit mad, and North Yorkshire/Cumbria, which is just wild and wuthering. Then I'd get the hell onto the continent and see how much better they do cycling in the real world.
Call me jaded, but I'm just back from 3 weeks in Austria/Bavaria...where it's all just so much better.

Hey, great! thanks everyone for your suggestions... I had started to doubt my decision to do a tour here after I was ripped off £70 for a cab ride from the airport to the hostel, but today I had a very good time walking around the city centre with a friend and Im starting to get really excited about seeing the rest of the country. I think Im going to shoot for the lakes district first... thanks again and if there are any more suggestions they're welcome!... cheers

Come to Ireland! Some lovely cycling here. Take the ferry from Stranraer in Scotland to Belfast or Larne and cycle along the north coast. It's gorgeous! Lots of B&Bs, you can see the Giant's Causeway, and splendid views everywhere in the Glens of Antrim.

Which airport? There's a cycle path out of Gatwick as far as Reigate, when you get tired of riding just throw your bike on a train the rest of the way into town.

For Heathrow, follow the Grand Union Canal to and from central London. Terminal 4 is a piece of cake to access on a bike, Terminals 1, 2 and 3 are more challenging. There's been a fair bit of discussion about this on this forum.

ooh man, I arrived at Heathrow and I knew about the possibility of cycling from there, but I was just so tired and sleepy from the flight that taking a taxi seemed like a good idea... it ended up being a really bad one, costing almost half my airfare from new york!!, I should have moved my arse and set up the bike, lesson learned!

On 3 transatlantic flights out of 4 I've set up the bike in the airport and ridden out, it's a great cure for jet lag and it really beats hauling a bike box and touring gear around on taxis, trains, etc. I travel on a pretty tight budget, so paying for taxis, etc., doesn't appeal to me one bit. On my last 2 flights I put the bike on the plane unboxed, no problems either time. I really think that baggage handlers are more careful with a bicycle than with a big cardboard box that might have a bicycle in it.

cirencester is another good Roman town. Lots of info there.

Contact the London Cycling Campain and sustrans for routes out of London. My preference is a train to a small village station outside london. Trains can be useful bugouts if you are facing a headwind or need to pass some horrible built up area.
The N and W are wetter and hilly, the S and E are drier and less hilly. But not always.

qnz, please tell us, how are you going on?

read canterberry tales and ride round looking for spots from it!


robi

Hi everyone, I'm still at the hostel in London and enjoying my stay very much. I'm actually extending it for another week and it might be even more as there is a lot to see in this city. I've been taking my bike towards Westminster and just try to get lost there but then consult the gps for nearby points of interest.

I stumbled upon the Imperial War Museum and I've been already twice in it as I'm very interested in the history of the two world wars. A museum employee told me that the National Army Museum will be better to learn more about medieval war history so I'll be visiting that as well... I've been riding across London Bridge, near the Big Ben and Parlament buildings, Buckingham palace, Trafalgar square, etc etc... while navigating trough the heavy city traffic, it reminds me a lot of when I ride in my native Mexico City, London is nearly as bad for congestion and chaos but not quite there! Also worth mentioning is that I've almost turned into the wrong lane twice already so besides being a nice physical excersise it is also one of mental concentration.

Im still evaluating options for the ride out to the country. I will have to drop by the sustrans office to check out the maps. Today I was also thinking about the option of parking the bike somewhere and go hiking (walking) for some days as well.

cheers.
Gnz

Here are some fav pictures I took at the Imp War Museum:

HI guy

There is another War museum in Manchester, and there is the Lake District, which is the best cycling and hiking in England IMHO.

Get out of town and enjoy all the Uk has to offer.

and have fun wherever you are.

george

don't forget the R&A, Natural history and Science museums are all in the same street in Kensington