What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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mnichols
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What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by mnichols »

I'm posting this because I joined the CTC, and I want to keep the wings alive. I proudly wear my CTC shirt on tour. For me the club embodied a spirit of adventure, of riding to the horizon and beyond, seeing new places, experiencing different cultures, stepping out of your comfort zone, meeting new people, trying new foods, getting lost and finding a new perspective....and yes it's risky

I'm worried that some of the winged spirit may be dwindling. So I'm putting myself out there in the hope that others will reciprocate and we can keep the wings alive

I don't find it easy to post this, and I am worried that it may seem braggadocious, but that is genuinely not my intent.

Some people will have done more than me, other less, but we've got to start somewhere. It's not a competition. Let's keep it positive. Don't be pedantic. Here's my list from the past 10 years. It's probably not complete, it's probably not in the right order, but here's what I can remember.

Bath to Italy over the Alps
Bath to Spain over the Pyrenees
Lands End to John O'Groats (14 days)
Raid Alps - Nice to Geneva
End to End of Italy
Venice to Switzerland to Nice (over the Dolomites, down the Alps)
Barcelona to Bordeaux over the Pyrenees
Canada to Mexico - down the west side, but a couple hundred miles inland
Lap of Wales
Lap of Devon
Lap of Scotland - base on on NC500 plus a bit more
MTB Snowdonia (CTC)
Coast to Coast of Japan, over the Japanese Alps
Lands End to John O'Groats (5 days)
Coast to Coast of Spain (Bilbao to Malaga)
The Hebrides and Skye
Lands End to John O'Groats (8 days)
The Indian Himalayas - Manali to Leh
and in September I'm doing Pisa to Barcelona

So, what's your list? If you haven't done one, or even if you have what would you like to do? Dream big, the world is your lobster Rodney
Cyril Haearn
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

The old CTC had a slogan something like:

Last year our members crossed the Alps, survived the Nullarbor Plain, did dozens of JoGLEs, and stopped for tea in Much Wenlock

Can't remember the complete slogan so I improvised, but I am sure about Much Wenlock :wink:
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TrevA
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by TrevA »

I cycled through Much Wenlock on my Jogle, but didn't think much to the place, so didn't stop for tea, even though it was mid- afternoon.

As well as Jogle, I've done a CTC tour of the Inner Hebrides, a tour of the Alps from Geneva to Briancon and back, and also been touring in Cuba.
Sherwood CC and Notts CTC.
A cart horse trapped in the body of a man.
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bohrsatom
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by bohrsatom »

I'm looking forward to the replies to this thread as it'll give me some inspiration for future tours!

As for me:
Basel to Brussels via the Mosel and Rhine
4-month ride from Bordeaux to Vienna, then back to Dunkirk
Circular trip around Normandy (1 week)
Manche to the Med
Strasbourg to Ljubljana (the long way)
Faro to Porto in Portugal
London to Paris
Plenty of short UK tours including Norfolk, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire

Hopefully the next big trip will be Taiwan's route number 1.
Last edited by bohrsatom on 19 Aug 2018, 8:05am, edited 1 time in total.
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MrsHJ
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by MrsHJ »

Lots in france
Lots in spain
2 in the Netherlands
One in Portugal -Lisbon to Santander
One on Ireland-west coast
UpcomIng-Geneva -Béziers on EV17 (Rhône)

Big one I’ve been thinking about for some years is the trans America and I’m now ( fingers and everything crossed) planning to do it next summer - Washington DC to Portland Oregon.
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foxyrider
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by foxyrider »

It took me a while to get around to moving on from day rides to 'real' touring holidays but I was immediately hooked. Finances and time restrict me to usually one such trip a year although I may do some shorter trips each year too (4/5 days to York Rally for example). So here are my 'proper' trips to date.

Bonn to Salzkammergut via German Romantic Road 3 weeks camping / b&b
NRW 1 week b&b followed by 1 week Sheffield Hadrians Wall camping b&b
Luneberg Heath 2 weeks camping
Baden/ Bodensee circuit 2 weeks camping b&b
German/Danish Baltic coast 3 weeks camping
German Alpine Road and Tirol return 2 weeks camping
Danish Islands 2 weeks camping
Thuringen and the Maintal 2 weeks b&b
Central Switzerland 2 weeks camping
North Baden and Bayern 2 weeks camping b&b
North Sea Coast - Rotterdam to Ribe 3 weeks camping / b&b
Tirol and central Austria 3 weeks b&b on road bike
South Holland and Holderness 1 week camping / b&b

Nothing longer than a long weekend for 2018 :( but hopefully 3 weeks in Sweden in 2019.
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eileithyia
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by eileithyia »

England; Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, IOW, New Forest, East Sussex, Dorset, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Wilts, Warks, Glos, Various parts of Wales, Shrops, Derby, Northants, Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancs, Lakes, Dales, Northumberland / Cheviots, also includes Coast 2 Coast.
Scotland; Highlands, Islands (Arran, Skye, Colonsay, Jura, Islay), Southern Uplands, Grampians, Cairngorms.
Many of these places explored either by full 2 week tour or via long weekends; Audaxing / race weekend away, LEL, Birthday Rides.

Rest of World; Iceland, Denmark, Black Forest / Rhine Valley, Pyrenees (once from south: rained!, once from north), France Montpellier up through the gorges of the Tarn etc and across to Orange, Andalucia, Mallorca, Dolomites, Tatras:- Poland and Slovakia, New England and the Fall.
A brief day trip to Morocco. Most of the West Coast of Ireland inc the Arran Islands and up to Malin Head, South coast inc Cape Clear Is, Antrim and the North West Coast. Holland
Do hire bikes around Beijing count?

Still on the list; Alps, Basque Country, American west coast; Rockies and down into South America, and re-visiting lots of places in Britain inc exploring via answering BCQ questions.
I stand and rejoice everytime I see a woman ride by on a wheel the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. HG Wells
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meic
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by meic »

I tour West Wales about once a week on average. 8)
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Vorpal
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Vorpal »

-various tours in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New York, Nebraska, Colorado (USA)
-Dallas to Mexico City
-Pacific Coast, USA (Seattle to Palo Alto)
-Scotland
-(edited to add) Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina & Virginia USA
-southern Germany & Austria
-Denmark
-Belgium
-Dolomites / northern Italy
-New Zealand & southeastern Australia
-Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire
-Hadrian's Wall
-Peak District
-Chalk horses/hill figures (Wiltshire, Oxfordshire)
-Oslo - Stockholm
-Larvik - Flåm Norway

I liked Denmark, Scotland, and the Pacific Coast the best. I liked walking Hadrian's Wall better than cycling it. I also really like Rallarvegen between Haugastøl and Flåm in Norway. I've done it 3 times as a weekend mini tour.

I've also done lots of day trips & mini tours within a day or two (cycling) of places I've lived in Wisconsin and Illinois, USA, Essex, and southern Norway. I sometimes travel for business, and often take, borrow, or hire a bike. I used to extend business trips over weekends, or taking some holiday time when I could, as well. That has allowed me to do some cycling on the Rhine, Danube, around the Netherlands, France, Austria, Italy, Sweden and a few other places that I wouldn't really count as tours.

I'm in the planning stages for tour of stave churches in Norway, but I'm not sure when I will be able to do it.

I would also like to do some end-to-end type tours, but I don't care for 100 mile days. I prefer time to be a tourist & see some sights, stop at museums, etc. That means taking two weeks or more, which makes it difficult to get the time away from work & family commitments.

Other tours I'd like to do: I'd like to tour in the Netherlands. I've been there a number of times for business, and cycled there a fair amount, but I've never toured there. It would be nice to do the Rhine & Danube cycle paths as tours, instead of bits here and there. I would also like to do some family cycling trips in Germany and Belgium, because my kids haven't been there. I'd also like to tour Ireland, Wales, and Nova Scotia.
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iandriver
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by iandriver »

I normally fly my bike to somewhere that is essentially Disneyland for cycling, i.e. the area between Avignon and Mont Ventoux where you just can't go wrong and do day rides from a fixed base luggage free, I've only 'move on every day camped' in the UK. I want to see Rome and the Strada Bianchi roads, so have pretty much settled on this for next year: http://www.viafrancigena.bike/en/
Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
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pjclinch
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by pjclinch »

My wife and I have done long tours in NL, the Western Isles and NE Scotland that I wrote up as web diaries. We've also done around Norfolk and with our children NL and Angus but I never got around to writing those up.

Not practical at the moment as one of our children is a bit of a velophobe and the other one would be notionally on board but only is she can't find something to do with her pals. We did manage lots of day trips on hired road bikes in Menorca last year while they did their own thing in or around the resort we were based at and they'll be old enough to rot by themselves soon enough at which point we have a fairly long list of places to go, very probably starting with a leisurely bit of France.

(We also tour on foot, skis and by sea kayak).

Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...
Jezrant
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by Jezrant »

My first long distant bike tour was in New England in 1968. It was run by the YHA when they used to do that sort of thing. Our leader from NYC had a Peugeot PX10 with sew-ups. Fifty years later, I'd quite like to cycle around Norfolk, a place I've never been to before but sounds interesting from the thread on here.
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northernrebel
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by northernrebel »

We usually load the car up with the bikes, drive to somewhere in Europe we can leave it for a couple of weeks & do a loop.

-Saintes, down to Bordeaux then inland and back through St Emilion, Riberac & Cognac
-Munich (parked at an airport hotel), across to Chiemsee, then up the Inn Valley to Insbruck, then back over Achensee and Bad Tolz
-Neuf Brisach (great campsite run by cycle tourers who let us leave the car for free) - down the Rhine past Basel to Lake Constance then back along the Danube and over the Black Forest & Freiburg
-Chef Boutonne (a friend has a gite we left the car at) - south to pick up the Canal Lateral de Garonne at La Reole - followed this before heading off to Albi & Castres then headed back to the canal at Castelnaudary where we had a very interesting day with SNCF getting back to Saintes.
-Grigno in Italy(again left the car with a friend) down to Venice, ferry to Rovinj, a loop of the southern end of Istria returning to Venice by ferry from Porec then train and bike back to Grigno.


As far as what I would like to do:
-Just take the bikes across to France on the Ferry and set off - probably keeping west of Paris and heading across the Loire and down to the Med.
-Explore more of Germany - it is so enjoyable and straightforward riding around and the towns and landscape are beautiful.
-Inspired by a recent post on this Forum - explore more of Croatia and get into Slovenia
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TrevA
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by TrevA »

In terms of what I'd like to do - the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, Mont Ventoux, Netherlands and Germany are all on my list.
Sherwood CC and Notts CTC.
A cart horse trapped in the body of a man.
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TRM
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Re: What tours have you done? What do you want to do?

Post by TRM »

You lot are providing lots of inspiration for a novice! Only two tours for me so far. Cherbourg to just past Quimper (supported) and then a week in the Loire valley camping.

Heading to Norfolk next week

For the Future:
Rhone Valley
LEJOG
Around Ireland and NI
London to Barcelona
Something in India (feels like a daunting prospect!)

Unfortunately work gets in the way of cycling so currently limited to 2 weeks at a time.
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