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My partner and I have always camped and have done some bike touring before and enjoyed it. I have floated the idea of another sort Wales tour and it has received a reasonable welcome. This time though we will have a young baby / toddler in tow, so organisation is a must and reasonable limitation be made. Not my usual style of pick up a map and go!
Requirements.
1. 5-7 days riding.
2. Traffic free / traffic lite sustrans type routes as we will have a trailer and a heavy touring load so no gnar. We have done the Lon Cambria, NCN 81 as a mini tour and think this type of route would work well, very quiet roads and beautiful sustran paths.
3. Short daily milage, 30miles ish to allow for stops etc. This obviously gets set a little by the campsites available.
4. Some sort of rail link between start and finish so we can pick up the van when done, or another good solution for logistics. Lon Cambria was super easy as we parked in Shrewsbury, train it to Aberystwyth and cycled back.
I like the look of Lon Las Cymru but feel it will be too far for the three of us and the logistics of getting from north to south (or visa versa) by train look very time consuming and expensive. Maybe a variation on that? Starting from south Wales would be logistically easier but I worry we would spend 1 - 2 days in busy south wales which on a short tour is a big chunk.
Does not have to be Wales but we both love Wales and as we live in between Southampton and Bournemouth so the journey is not too long, especially to south / mid Wales.
Barmouth has a train station and you could ride up to the dolgellau via the mawddach trail and find a campsite. Not all that far from coed y brenin where there are family trails etc. Not ideal but from there you could go back to barmouth and work your way down the coast to harlech and to porthmadog. Catch a train at porthmadog back home or go to caernarfon via lon eifion.
How far are you prepared to travel? Plenty stuff in Scotland that meets your needs. Ardnamurchan / mull. etc
Scotland looses takes a full long day but it possible. I think we would have to extend the holiday though as we have friends and my partners Dad living in. (St Andrews, Falkirk, Edinburgh specifically). So would not want to be a massive drive from that part of Scotland.
You have the forth / clyde canal to use in central scotland but IIRC its not good with trailers - too many chicane gates. I was really thinking of stuff further north.
Holland.
Cheap ferries from the east coast. Traffic free traffic free routes.
Good call on Holland - I really enjoyed my tour there once I worked out that there is 3 different cycle networks signposted
Some beauties I bet. Further north is where I expected you to suggest. I do remember filling a really good route north from Stirling once before Turning off west to love loyn I think. Not sure how far that route continued.
Left field suggestion but get the night boat from Harwich to the Hoek of Holland (leave the van at Harwich) and just ride straight up the coast North past the Haag, Wassenar etc. then come back via another route.
If you're not constrained by school holidays and can go before they dismantle the beach cafes towards the end of October it's super bike friendly, everyone speaks English and the cake is awesome.
However the locals will think you're bonkers if your child pedals themselves along.
Drive to east coast plus ferry might make Holland a bit of a long travel but you have given me the idea of ferry from Poole or Portsmouth and some velo verts.
Brick I'm not that far east of you. About 3hours to Harwich from Portsmouth. It's a bit of a slog but the ferries are nice and the night boat is a very civilised way to cross. We've done it twice with a toddler in tow (we were taking the car over). The day crossing back can work ok as you disembark at kids bed time ish then get an empty motorway run south. Quite a lot of entertainment on the day boat.
I not as bad as I thought. I am a fan of T the ferry too.
Is NCN81 do able on road bikes? It looks ace.
Yes it is and yes it is! That is the route we have done before.
There is one alternative section that is more off road but the normal route is easily road bike possible.
Bump for the day time week day crowd.
Starting to think ferry Poole -> stmalo ride ferry rosscoff -> Plymouth due to the ease of logistics but still open.
Anyone ridden in this part of northern France?
I'm taking the Portsmouth -> St Malo, Caen -> Portsmouth ferry route one weekend in September.
Cabins seem fairly cheap - I'm sure I'll find there's a reason for that! It works out at about £100-150/pp including bikes.
But it does makes it possible to save a couple of holiday days and/or cram 32 hours of pedaling into one weekend.
The tentative plan is to head up to tip of the Cherbourg Peninsula then make my way down to Caen via the D-Day beaches.
looks like a good idea I don't have any idea about that part of France, only ever drive down the motorway!
for north wales try route 5 of the national cycle network along north wales coast from chester to holyhead, and down to caernarfon and porthmadoc