Looking for recommendations for a 7 day tour in England or Wales

[Therealsouthstander]

With our trip to France looking more and more unlikely to go ahead next month, we've turned our attentions towards a plan B.

I'm on holiday from the 4th-20th September.. Probably one week cycling and one week chilling somewhere.

So Looking for some recommendations for a 7 day tour where we will avoid busy roads. To be honest I'm kind of lost as where to start..

I cycled the NC500 last month while carrying all our gear and wild camping, it was an absolutely amazing trip although it rained at some point every day. So looking for some nicer weather so I'm thinking somewhere South. Might take the tent but open to a BB tour. My wife will be with me this time.

I've always wanted to go to Devon and Cornwall but unsure if this is a good tour destination. I've also always wanted to go to Oxford, Bath and the Cotswolds so maybe something around here..

Looking forward to to hearing some recommendations

Many thanks

[PaulaT]

I imagine a good touring destination will mean different things to different cyclists

I've been lucky enough to tour in many parts of England and a little in Mid-Wales and everywhere I've been has had something to recommend it. You could definitely spend a good week on a tour from Oxford to Bath by whatever route takes your fancy. Bath is definitely worth spending a few days in.

[pwa]

We have just done some of Lon Las Cymru (Harlech to the Hay on Wye area) with a self-designed complementary route through the border country and Bala to make a loop. Mostly on very quiet roads with some even requiring the opening and shutting of gates. This was our hardest day, with lots of steep ups and downs to wear us out before the final big climb even started:

https://cycle.travel/map/journey/163429

Have a play on cycle.travel to make your own bespoke route.

Wales offers loads of possibilities if you use cycle.travel rather than just looking for a pre-packaged trail. But your daily start and end points will be where your accommodation is. You need to decide, B&B or camping. And wild camping is being very much frowned upon in Wales at the moment, which is unfair on those who do it cleanly but that's how it is right now.

[Adamcycles17]

How about starting from your home and planning a loop. No travel hassles but the challenge of devising a route?

[PH]

I've always wanted to go to Devon and Cornwall but unsure if this is a good tour destination.

I haven't ridden that much in either, but enough to mark Cornwall as my least favourite cycling county. I don't mind the relentless hills, but I resent the lack of reward. All I seemed to see was mile after mile of high hedge, where were the views? And the holiday traffic, I think I'd prefer a day's urban riding than a day riding in Cornwall. I know parts of it pretty well as it's one of my favourite non cycling holiday destinations...
You haven't given much information to go on, you've said what you've done then throw in that this time your wife is accompanying you without saying what she may like. The LLC mentioned above is IMO a great route, plenty of small towns and villages to find accommodation in, it is quite tough, but rewardingly so. Probably the most enjoyable UK tour I've done is the UK E2W Lowestoft to Ardnamurchan though it involves a fair chunk of Scotland. it's around 620 miles, make your own route up, it took me two attempts, I went round some of the Yorkshire climbing the second time and had kinder weather. I enjoyed that more than the E2E. If you wanted a bit shorter and avoid Scotland, there's the England and Wales version - Lowestoft to somewhere in Wales, St Davids? About 400 miles I think.
Or just pick two points, or link points of interest, or... well just about anything. I like touring in the UK, not least because some of the best bits have been when I'm least expecting them.

[Therealsouthstander]

Thanks for the replies.

We just like cycling, not really that fussed about doing other things off the bike.. Nice scenery, quiet roads, nice villages and towns with good eating out and beer and coffee options. That's what we like..
We are from Northern Scotland so want to try somewhere new. I'm doing the NE250 in a couple of weeks so it will be nice to head South in search of warmer weather.

The Wales trip mentioned above sounds great as does a trip including Oxford the Cotswolds and Bath.. I also remember being in Wiltshire and Berkshire many years ago and loved to small village's and Towns there.

Im not overly familiar with many places in England and Wales other than big cities. Somerset and Dorset are other areas I've always fancied visiting.

Will definitely not cycle in Cornwall but may well have a week there to relax after our tour.. We don't mind driving there..

Please keep the suggestions of your favourite areas to cycle coming.

[gbnz]

How about starting from your home and planning a loop. No travel hassles but the challenge of devising a route?

+ 1. You're on a bike and have got several days. You haven't mentioned many starting points, but which parts of England couldn't you cycle through? (NB. I discovered the delights of getting super, cheap one day tickets a couple of year's ago; one station in a town l
ong disfavoured (Darlington), routinely has tickets at a tenth of the normal fair; gives access to the Vale of York, Lincolnshire, Dales, Lakes, Pennines et al

[Therealsouthstander]

We live in the North of Scotland.. I cycle here all the time.. As I said earlier it rained every day on our NC500 trip, it rained when we cycled Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.. It will probably rain when we cycled the NE250 in a few weeks.. I'm not interested in another Scottish tour after the NE250. We were supposed to be going to the South of France but that's looking highly unlikely at the moment.

Wherever we end up it Will surely be better weather than we've had on our cycling trips this year.. When we were cycling over the Bealach Na Ba it was 7 Deg C.... In July... Other days it was 12 or 13 Deg C... I Need warmer weather

[Paulatic]

Like PH Devon & Cornwall would not appear on my list for a cycle tour.
I’ve shelved all my original plans in Scotland for this year and hatched a plan B starting Sunday.
Vale of York > a bit of coastline >N Y Moors Chosen because I’m thinking, avoiding the honeypots, it might be reasonably quiet and there’s a lot of roads to choose from making main roads avoidable. Forecast for next week is looking good and it’s a drier climate down there than home.
Just took a look and it’s 25 years since the Birthday Rides were at Norton (Malton). After that time a lot of it will look new again.

[keyboardmonkey]

... We just like cycling, not really that fussed about doing other things off the bike.. Nice scenery, quiet roads, nice villages and towns with good eating out and beer and coffee options. That's what we like..
We are from Northern Scotland so want to try somewhere new... loved... small village's and Towns...

Im not overly familiar with many places in England and Wales other than big cities... We don't mind driving there..

Please keep the suggestions of your favourite areas to cycle coming.

My suggestion would be to drive to the Yorkshire Wolds and base yourself in one place for the week. You could maybe take your camping kit for an overnight option somewhere during your stay.

How far would you be looking to ride with and without camping stuff?

Do you have a GPS device?

If you stayed in say Sledmere, Driffield, Pocklington or Huggate there is easily a week of varied cycling available to you. Here’s a bit of info on the area:

https://www.yorkshirewoldscycleroute.co ... hire-wolds

Some places are better than others as a base in the Wolds, but if you’re interested get back to me and I could put together half a dozen routes for you. Cheers.

[mjr]

How about starting from your home and planning a loop. No travel hassles but the challenge of devising a route?

Then you spend at least half a day at each end on routes you already know well. Even if you have stunning routes like West Norfolk, you could see them on any day off, without using a day of limited holiday time.

As for routes, the Coast and Castles seems popular and hasn't been mentioned yet. I've not ridden it yet. I have just ridden the Norfolk Coast Cycleway and Two Rivers Route and would recommend it to people looking for a varied route but without mountains. I'm writing it up at https://cycle.travel/route/norfolk

[pwa]

How about starting from your home and planning a loop. No travel hassles but the challenge of devising a route?

Then you spend at least half a day at each end on routes you already know well......

That will depend on where you live, but for the OP I imagine it is correct. I have just returned from a 12 day tour, having started and finished the cycling at my home, with only the first and last ten miles on lanes I cycle a lot. But that is because of my particular geographical circumstances which required me to push through a grotty area I would normally avoid. I used a carefully chosen route and it was fine, but even so it is not a direction I would normally go except to get through for a long excursion. It did make life easy though. No transport issues, no timetables and tickets, no concern over Covid on public transport, and no car.

[Tangled Metal]

One established route a few friends did once and enjoyed was the coast and castles route through northeast England into Scotland. We've got family in the northeast if weekend and they do get less rain than us on the west. Also it seems brighter and sunnier to units you're unlucky. This year is strange in many ways and one such way was we had drier, warmer and sunnier times earlier this year than where our relatives live near Middlesbrough.

There's also way of the roses route. People I know who did it said they had fun. A very short route could be made around forest of bowland and Ribble valley perhaps. You'll see beautiful sights round every bend there I am reckon. Biased though since I got into cycling as a teenager exploring that area in the holidays.

We liked the southern parts of the peak District but we had a young son when we went there so plenty of old rail lines for traffic few cycle ways was good but there's quiet roads too and it's more like the Yorkshire dales.

Shropshire? Can anyone recommend that for cycling? We did a bit but not sure either way, perhaps someone knows more about it.

There will be a good area to cycle for sure as the UK is so varied around the country. Someone here will know more.

[PaulaT]

[quote="Tangled Metal"Shropshire? Can anyone recommend that for cycling? We did a bit but not sure either way, perhaps someone knows more about it.
[/quote]

I toured in Shropshire quite a lot and can thoroughly recommend it. It's a bit of a Jeckle and Hyde county being flat in the north (but with some lovely lanes) and bumpy towards the south and west. Plenty of places of interest too ranging from Irornbridge (you could spend days in the various museums there) to delights like Stokesy Castle. Some pretty little towns too. Ludlow and Much Wenlock are my particular favourites of mine. IMHO a great county to tour.

[Jdsk]

One established route a few friends did once and enjoyed was the coast and castles route through northeast England into Scotland.

We rode from Newcastle to Edinburgh on tandems and camped. Great route and lots of history.

Jonathan