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Hi, adult son has just got a gravel bike for commuting in London and enjoying it, to the extent he's suggested we do a little tour. Very open brief but would value some ideas based on
- we both have gravel bikes, I have barely used mine as 99% of my riding are short xc MTB rides, son's only just started
- so it needs to be easy ish lengths, off road fine if not technical, think son wants bias to road riding
- he's suggested Europe, he has a 5 day window Aug or Sept but Europe likely to be expensive re shipping bikes (he wants to ride his own) and time spent traveling takes a chunk out of the 5 days, so UK and option. We're based in Kent, have a campervan so that seems a good start point
- thinking of 3-5hr loops, interspersed ideally with coffee and cake
- this is for fun and to encourage him!
So any destination areas, UK or Europe, ideas around routes that are road biased, bits of gravel, where the weather likely to be good, but the riding easy and fun would be fab.
Thanks!
What about something like this as a starting point?
https://www.cyclinguk.org/routes/long-distance/cantii-way
You can always extend it and you don't have to bike pack. You could just travel light and book some hotels and B&BÂ
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Ferry across to France and ride along the coast for a few days and then get another ferry back?
I did 5 days in Normandy last September and it was great. Portsmouth - Cherbourg, ride to Benouville (Pegasus Bridge) visiting D-Day sites and staying in AirBnBs along the way and then ferry back from Caen.
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This is what I've done / have planned with two fit teenage sons. For a bit of inspiration. Â
North Dutch coast (or just anywhere in Holland)
Did this with my younger son a year or two back. Â
Harwich / Hoek van Holland
We stayed in a little camp cabin thing in Noordwijk. Â
It's flat but navigation is a doddle, the cycle track network is fabulous and it's just easy. We were doing 20-30 miles a day but he was about 11. You could easily cover a lot more ground than we did and have a lot more flexibility on accomodation if you're both adults. Â
We left the car in the UK and got a lift to the port but there's also a station at the port. Â
Suffolk
Has a nice mix of bridleways and gravel road quality unclassified roads.
The coastal bit especially north of the Deben up to the Broads is mostly lovely (I'm biased I grew up there). The inland bits are nice there too. Â
Easy reach of Kent so long as you go in the few weeks a decade when they're not simultaneously digging up 87% of the A12. Â
A gravel bike is (to my thinking) the perfect Suffolk lanes device. Â
Normandy CoastÂ
In just a few weeks I'll be off. Live near Portsmouth so me and the older one are going Portsmouth / Caen and then cycling to some accommodation on the Cotentin peninsula (about 60 miles) then day riding out from there and seeing some of the D-Day history. Â
That'll be strictly road though as eldest (16) wants big miles (I have told him if he kills me that Mrs gd gets it all not him 😂)Â
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Cantii Way was the first one that popped into my head when I started reading, or perhaps the Rebellion way in Norfolk/Suffolk.
One thought is whether it might be worth doing a weekender, just to see how you get on with it (two routes noted above would be ideal, even if you chose not to complete the full route) and then if all goes well, use the 5 day holiday allowance to head into northern France/Belgium on the ferry.
If you have a road/paved preference then in the UK the National Cycle Network/Sustrans routes are pretty much what you are looking for. Over the years a group of us have done most the the North of England coast to coast routes and a couple of the coastal routes to either Glasgow or EdinburghÂ
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https://www.sustrans.org.uk/national-cycle-network/
Holiday near Dolgellau?
Loads of options around there and short drive with bikes in car to others.
Draw a circle round Northumberland, cumbria Dumfries & galloway and the borders.
Zig zag across the border as many times as you can.
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I think the french coast idea is a good one given your circumstances - take ferry over with just bikes, ride along the coast, ferry and train back. there is a eurovelo route along the coast. Loads of different ferry options you can take
Would agree that French coast is good - or an overnight ferry to holland is another option. Equally, there's loads of good riding in the UK, how about King Alfred's Way?
https://www.cyclinguk.org/routes/long-distance/king-alfreds-way
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I think @alex has done that and wrote something on a thread on here? Check his other threads as he's done a few similar route lieke the Traws Eryri
https://www.cyclinguk.org/routes/traws-eryri-map-and-gpx-file
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and Lon Las Cymru
https://cycle.travel/route/lon_las_cymru
I'm not sure either KAW or traws eryri count as light gravel.Â
Id concur with french coast. We did cherbourg to caen. Well actually nearly to le havre until we realised the ferry was fully booked and we had to back track, oops. We could find any specific gravel routes, but setting cycle.travel to 'gravel' threw up some pretty good routes. As well as the Euro velo route and some velo vertes.
Thanks all, v helpful, we're just off motorbiking for a few days so will discuss!