King Alfred's Way ( 2020 Jan -> Ongoing )

[Si]

Have a look through [ this topic ]
..where you'll find one of the people who helped design the route

[Queens Park Pete]

. . . . <snip> . . Anyone done this and could offer help?

You could buy the guide and help pay the wages of the team that put it together.
https://shop.cyclinguk.org/king-alfreds-way-route-guide

[Zulu Eleven]

My friend and I are looking to do this loop in spring and was looking for someone who has done it to say how far we should plan each day.

My friend is a good cyclist but I am average so looking for suggestions and stops , as we will do it over several days with overnight stops in Local, Hotels/B&Bs

Anyone done this and could offer help?

Official Facebook group has built a good community and I'd suggest thats the best place to get some recommendations

https://www.facebook.com/groups/244929213312364/

guide book sets out a variety of schedules based upon rough miles per day you feel comfortable doing

as for difficulty, theres about 2.5 hours of video on YouTube that Guy, the guidebook author, did for you to get a feel: https://youtu.be/Ne4LbLl0qM8

[BusterB]

The route guide looks amazing, I will purchase today.

[Queens Park Pete]

My friend and I are looking to do this loop in spring and was looking for someone who has done it to say how far we should plan each day.


guide book sets out a variety of schedules based upon rough miles per day you feel comfortable doing

as for difficulty, theres about 2.5 hours of video on YouTube that Guy, the guidebook author, did for you to get a feel: https://youtu.be/Ne4LbLl0qM8

The videos are great but you may want to run them at half speed. The man is fearless (or reckless?)! He must have edited out all the walkers throwing themselves out of his way on those blind single tracks and canal bridges!

[mercalia]

My friend and I are looking to do this loop in spring and was looking for someone who has done it to say how far we should plan each day.


guide book sets out a variety of schedules based upon rough miles per day you feel comfortable doing

as for difficulty, theres about 2.5 hours of video on YouTube that Guy, the guidebook author, did for you to get a feel: https://youtu.be/Ne4LbLl0qM8

The videos are great but you may want to run them at half speed. The man is fearless (or reckless?)! He must have edited out all the walkers throwing themselves out of his way on those blind single tracks and canal bridges!

yes he reminds me of that guy in that video going down that mountaim at speed that some one posted. He clearly wasnt out for sightseeing was he?

[RickH]

I just came across this video* by a guy doing the route on an e-cargo bike with his dog & wild camping over 5 days. Well worth 5 minutes of your time by my reckoning!

[youtube]GX_uhdP3SM0[/youtube]

(*linked to by someone on the Chester & North Wales CTC Facebook group - who says Facebook is all bad! )

[Jdsk]

From my family members who did it while the weather was good.

Jonathan

...

How many days?
It took us a week, cycling very calmly and devoting time to relaxing and enjoying the scenery.

Suitability of road bikes?
Not the best option. We’d recommend mountain bikes.

Why did you use B and Bs/ hotels rather than camping? (They had camping gear.)
The location and availability of campsites wasn't great for us.

Any other thoughts… would you recommend it to others?
We would definitely recommend it to others. It has all the ingredients for a great adventure: crossing the English countryside, challenging roads both for climbs and descents, and beautiful scenery.

[Neilywheelybin]

Hi All,
We're newbies, and 50 something, softy non-campers.. looking to do the King Alfreds Way (probably next spring now) staying in decent pub style accommodation at something like 30 mile intervals to "circumnavigate" in 6 nights...

I'm a bit surprised there's nothing on the web about such a thing, I'm guessing it's a bit new for somebody like Dutch Bike Tours to have picked it up yet for the luggage supported tours?
Or! is it that the route is not suitable for such a plan (although at brief glance I can't see why not) ?

Assuming we're carrying our own gear, any pointers to any existing potential stops, or any advice welcome.

P.s If it is because it's so new, wouldn't it be a great feature for Cycling UK to work something up?
Cheers Neilywheely & Jane

[richardfm]

Have you seen the guide on the CUK website https://www.cyclinguk.org/king-alfreds-way? Pages 92 and 93 have information about places on the route with B&Bs

[Zulu Eleven]

Firstly, they are definitely there, and the towns identified in the guide all have a decent variety of accommodation. My opinion is that the is the 'best' way of doing KAW - travel light and stay in B&B/hotel

a full list of providers definitely something that we have considered, but *very* difficult to work schedules around so many peoples differing cycling ability - we've got some people doing it in a little over 24 hours, and some taking seven days - so the broad schedule and recommended towns to stay in on a 3/4/5 day schedule seemed the best. The bigger picture is that we're involved in some cycle tourism research schemes in a couple of areas of the country at the moment that should hopefully give deeper insight into what sort of cycle friendly facilities work best for accommodation providers etc. So in due course we can hopefully spread this over to KAW with a list of properly accredited bike friendly accommodation. All down to time and money, and keeping on top of things like this, like keeping lists of accommodation updated, can take a lot of resources.

The Facebook group is building up a strong community, so you should get some good recommendations there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/244929213312364/

[AndyK]

Hi All,
We're newbies, and 50 something, softy non-campers.. looking to do the King Alfreds Way (probably next spring now) staying in decent pub style accommodation at something like 30 mile intervals to "circumnavigate" in 6 nights...

I'm a bit surprised there's nothing on the web about such a thing, I'm guessing it's a bit new for somebody like Dutch Bike Tours to have picked it up yet for the luggage supported tours?
Or! is it that the route is not suitable for such a plan (although at brief glance I can't see why not) ?

As someone who runs a small cycling holiday business and knows the area well, I have been thinking about organising something along the lines you suggest. Although my tours are usually on-road, they're all about taking your time, keeping the daily mileage reasonable, taking in the scenery, learning a bit about the history of the landscape you're passing through, treating the journey as something to enjoy - very much in the spirit of the King Alfred's Way.

Early in the year I did suggest to the Cycling UK team that they engage with cycle tour operators, cycle hire companies etc. before launching the Way, so that we could have offerings ready to advertise when it was launched, but then Covid-19 threw a big spanner in the works. The tours will come in time, and routes like the KAW in themselves are a great way of encouraging accommodation providers to offer more cyclist-friendly facilities.

As it's directly relevant to your post, I hope I'll be excused a small commercial plug: I may be able to organise something if you'd like. Feel free to PM me to discuss. Obviously it would be significantly more expensive than a DIY tour.

[mercalia]

Survey.

The people who made it want to explore what people think of it and ideas for further rides

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/kingalfredsway

[Sweep]

I just came across this video* by a guy doing the route on an e-cargo bike with his dog & wild camping over 5 days. Well worth 5 minutes of your time by my reckoning!

[youtube]GX_uhdP3SM0[/youtube]

(*linked to by someone on the Chester & North Wales CTC Facebook group - who says Facebook is all bad! )

Thanks for that, wonderful, gives a really good sense of the route, even if I would be doing it without a dog.
I don"t like facebook either

[Jdsk]

Survey.

The people who made it want to explore what people think of it and ideas for further rides

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/kingalfredsway

Forwarded.

Thanks

Jonathan