Cycling UK Forum

Thanks - look good.

Does anyone know of a good hostel or campsite in Bilbao - we are arriving on the ferry on sat 6pm, so would like to make life easy for ourselves that night then head off properly the next morning.

thanks

Mike

Hi folks,

wondering whether anyone has any tips on this - heading out on the ferry on Friday! Were planning on camping, but not sure whether it would be easier to find b+b's along the way? Anyone have any experience of this? We like the freedom of camping, but are tempted by not having to carry camping stuff. Will this only work if we book ahead?

Anyone have any route advice on this one as we've not got any tohughts on where to go yet? 7 days, averaging 70miles per day probably!

Our problem is that we are cycling across Spain to spend a week in a villa with friends, so need different clothes etc for that part of the holiday!

Interesting thread,

we just returned from 2 weeks touring around France (Caen - Med near Beziers, then Ventoux and Avignon, clocking up 1000miles). We didn't have a fixed route, so hadn't planned accommodation. We looked at the map each night and thought about where we might get to and each time we got into a new department we found a tourist office to ask for a map of campsites and subsequently planned our route to go via some of these. we also wild camped several nights with no problems (only time we were spotted, we were left to sleep then later the way out of the woods pointed out to us with a 'you shouldn't really be here and a smile). Where the campsites were closed/or appeared closed, we pitched, generally had access to the water and then waited for someone to come round. If they didn't/we couldn't find them, we just made sure we were not noisy or causing a problem, left it very tidy and carried on.

Thanks all, those are very useful!

2 more questions...

1) where do you fill up waterbottles and
2) what do you do about locking bikes at night/outside cafes etc?

Hello,

Less than 2 weeks away from a trip from Caen to the Med and wondered if anyone had any advice. This is our first tour and so we decided to just go for it. Haven't really planned anything yet, apart from trains home at the end!

Couple of questions though and would welcome anyone else's experiences!

1) Maps - what do people recommend, we want to use quieter D roads, so need something that has sufficient detail, but don't want to be refolding maps all the time! Saw michelin 1:200,000 (regional maps) is this the right sort of thing. Also worth noting we don't have a route in mind, so the ability to have some variation would be good.

2) Our end goal is Avignon, but we want to go via Millau and then the Med on the way - any recommendations on route?

3) Just preparing a kit list now, anything vital we should not forget?!

4) What tips to a couple of keen and pretty hardy beginners with adventurous spirits?

Thanks...am sure I'll post more as things cross my mind!

Or even better...

http://www.rapha.cc/the-1910-challenge-movie

Thanks all for the replies. Cheapest (and possibly easiest option) looks like leaving the car in portsmouth and then aiming for trains back to the north coast and ferry back across to portsmouth.

Anyone know of anywhere where it's ok (and cheap and safe) to leave a car for 3 weeks?!!

Thanks

Hello,

have a tour planned from end august from St Malo to Montpellier then across to Avignon for a weeks holiday with friends. So looking to come back to the UK on the 18th or 19th September from Avignon.

Unfortunately, it seems we're a week too late for the bike bus and a week too late for the direct Avignon-London train (grrrrrrr!) so looking for other options. As I see it...

1) flying - really need a hard bike box, which we don't have so rules this out. Don't like the risk of soft bike bag, I suppose could try and source a large box and lots of bubblewrap in Avignon, but not guaranteed to work or protect the bike.
2) Eurostar - train to Paris and then book bikes on same train to London. Seems straightforward but expensive (£200 each!)
3) Ferry - train to one of the northern ports and then ferry across to the uk. Not really looked into this as an option.

2) is our preference, but it is very expensive! Does anyone have any tips for making it cheaper or any alternative ideas?

thanks