accomodation without booking

[shobo]

Hi
Thinking of a 10 day LEJOG this month.
All my plans are ready except accommodation.
I plan to aim for a town, for the sake of an example Leominster, and look for B&B signs or signs of pubs offering accommodation.
Anyone out there successfully done this ? The risk of course is that there is actually no decent accommodation to be found without mooching around for hours until something turns up.
Looking on Tripadvisor, there seems to be very little choice of places to stay, in fact so little choice that you would have to pre-book and aim for the place with a satnav.
I would be relying on there being B&Bs around that advertise by sign only. This might be risky. On the other hand there may be loads.

[PH]

It could take a chunk out of your day that might be better spent riding or recovering. I was once turned away from three places with vacant signs up, they said they were full, which might have been true or it might have been that it was getting late and I’d been out in the rain for hours. Plan B was to camp, but it would have been nice not to. Plus it’s likely to cost more than shopping around in advance.
A friend rings his partner at home around lunchtime telling her how he’s getting on and she books for him. I’ve never had anyone I’d ask to do that

[Jamesh]

Closest I got to that was by lunch time not having anywhere to stay.

I just rung up the choices I had in mind and booked a bed.

I was however doing an 8 day lejog so if you were doing 14 you would have more time but you really should be camping!!!

Cheers James

[Tiberius]

This works for me though it might not work very well in the remotest wilderness.

Booking.com app on my phone. It susses where I am and gives me plenty of local options including directions.

I got DEAD familier with the app before I first actually used it. Try it at home first, then at work, then when out and about etc etc until you are DEAD familier with it before you need it.

If nothing else it's a nice 'Plan B'

[shobo]

tx guys

[philvantwo]

I think James stayed in cheap hostel accommodation so there's always vacancies, although one day he finished in Chepstow, got picked up there and taken to pontypridd then the next day started from pontypridd so he's missed a section out!

[althebike]

It would mean planning a stop where there is a variety of bed options, if you stop in a small community and the few of places are full, then there is a problem. I would suggest that you plan to finish your ride earlier in the day than usual, so at least you have an option to get to somewhere else if your hoped for bed has no vacancy. Bring a list of possible b&b so you can go from one to another without wasting too much time. On my ride, a library found one place for me. I routed to roads that had a number of b&b in so I could just knock on doors, but if you leave this too late in the day, you may be less successful.
Good luck with the trip

[1982john]

Hi
Thinking of a 10 day LEJOG this month.
All my plans are ready except accommodation.
I plan to aim for a town, for the sake of an example Leominster, and look for B&B signs or signs of pubs offering accommodation.
Anyone out there successfully done this ? The risk of course is that there is actually no decent accommodation to be found without mooching around for hours until something turns up.
Looking on Tripadvisor, there seems to be very little choice of places to stay, in fact so little choice that you would have to pre-book and aim for the place with a satnav.
I would be relying on there being B&Bs around that advertise by sign only. This might be risky. On the other hand there may be loads.

This is where air B&B has changed things. Booking on the day used to be high risk but with air bnb there's so much more available I don't think you will have any problems in September.

[charliepolecat]

I'd just like to add: There was never a day when I did not look forward to a comfortable bed with a warm shower already pre-booked. I would have hated to have to search around for somewhere to sleep or settle down in a field, or campsite when I was as tired as I could possibly be at the end of each day.

Seeing the hotel or GH ahead knowing I had a room waiting lifted my spirits. It is so much nicer if planning on 100 mile + days having accommodation already booked.

[Jamesh]

I think James stayed in cheap hostel accommodation so there's always vacancies, although one day he finished in Chepstow, got picked up there and taken to pontypridd then the next day started from pontypridd so he's missed a section out!

Indeed I did.

My brother in law had been up all night the night before with a medical emergency so I thought it was unkind to get him to return me to Chepstow and ponti is south of Chepstow anyway. It was a long day ponti to Chester!!!

Cheers James

[Vorpal]

This time of year, it should be okay. Possibilities at the end of the day need to be considered somewhat in advance, perhaps the night before & again midday? Otherwise you could end up knackered at the end of a 110 mile hilly day, and not be within 20 miles of any accomodation, let alone available beds.

That said, I have in the past noted a fair number of B&B type places that do just put a sign out. Backed up by warm showers, air B&B, etc. it's likely to go okay.

I will say though, there is a moderate likelihood of running into problems at least once. I used to do a fair number of tours with spontaneous accommodation. It mostly worked well, but I was not doing 100 miles per day. More like 60. It occasionally took me a couple of hours & some additional cycling to find accomodation. Once or twice, I didn't find anything until quite late due to some event in town, or something. If you check in at 10:30 pm, and still need to eat something (might be hard to find food late, too), shower, wash shorts, etc. it's difficult to get to sleep before midnight, which then means either not getting enough sleep, or starting the next day late, which can make more problems finding accommodation the following day. It's a sort of problem than can cascade into delays & frustration for the whole trip.

[Tinpotflowers]

Has anybody done this riding sleeping in local barns , bus shelters and other such places?

[Jamesh]

There is a bothy at the top of Shap if anyone's brave enough!

Sure there would be some at rannoch moor/ Glencoe etc.

Cheers James

[althebike]

https://www.mountainbothies.org.uk
I considered this, but the ones I looked out were not so suitable for road bikes, needing a walk to get there, great if you are on mountain paths. If you are a camper these would be great, as you are already in this self sufficiency state of mind. Other than B&B with water and food supplied. If you look hard enough you should find the ones you want.

[Jamesh]

https://www.mountainbothies.org.uk
I considered this, but the ones I looked out were not so suitable for road bikes, needing a walk to get there, great if you are on mountain paths. If you are a camper these would be great, as you are already in this self sufficiency state of mind. Other than B&B with water and food supplied. If you look hard enough you should find the ones you want.

Only a couple could be considered enroute for lejogers would be tempted if I were to do it again!

Cheers James