Cycling UK Forum

Starting to plan a 3 day cycle holiday in East Anglia.
Say 45 miles per day.
Circular or single location unless there are train stations at both ends.

Not in the Ipswich/Woodbridge/Saxmundham area because that is where we usually cycle.

Suffolk/Norfolk/Cambridgeshire most favoured, although Essex considered.

Any suggestions most welcome.

https://cycle.travel/route/norfolk is a route I did a few years ago. It could be shortened using routes 1, 13 and /or 33 to cross Norfolk midway. I'd suggest Lynn -Wells- then route 1 across to the south side the loop through Fakenham-Norwich -Bungay -Diss-Thetford. Trains both ends. Compared to the published route, you'd lose some forest but not all of it. Same with the coast.

What accommodation? A big factor in planning a tour.

3 days at 45 miles is enough to get from top to bottom of East Anglia, but I'd stick to Essex and Suffolk.

You don't say where you're coming from, but you could take train to Chelmsford and start cycling north from there. Plenty of beautiful Essex villages to meander through eg Finchinfield. Then some of Suffolk eg Lavenham for a history treat.

You'll find it surprisingly lumpy.

Pick a final destination with train station or loop back to Chelmsford. I'm pretty certain all the basic Anglian trains take bikes MJR is the expert.

There are a spattering of Travelodge type places in the area.

Love Essex love life.

simonhill wrote: ↑1 Dec 2023, 1:02am What accommodation? A big factor in planning a tour.

3 days at 45 miles is enough to get from top to bottom of East Anglia, but I'd stick to Essex and Suffolk.

You don't say where you're coming from, but you could take train to Chelmsford and start cycling north from there. Plenty of beautiful Essex villages to meander through eg Finchinfield. Then some of Suffolk eg Lavenham for a history treat.

You'll find it surprisingly lumpy.

Pick a final destination with train station or loop back to Chelmsford. I'm pretty certain all the basic Anglian trains take bikes MJR is the expert.

There are a spattering of Travelodge type places in the area.

Love Essex love life.

Your not wrong there, head out from Chelmsford NW via the Chignals, into the Rodings area, heading for Dunmow, cross over the A120 thenoop back towards Colchester, its a fine area to be on a bicycle, Colchester is a bit busy for cycling , but it does have a cycle network, head through it, then for the Essex / Suffolk borders following the river Stour, constable Country, into Cambridgeshire, but perhaps a bit close to your normal area,
As for accomodation, I normally camp,, where I can, it hotels guesthouses abound, no recommendations for that tho'

Previous discussions, including our trip:
viewtopic.php?t=146660
viewtopic.php?p=1589058#p1589058

Jonathan

simonhill wrote: ↑1 Dec 2023, 1:02am I'm pretty certain all the basic Anglian trains take bikes MJR is the expert.

Yes, it is mostly easy. Most services are Greater Anglia, who run three train types, which all have bike spaces but London-Stansted trains officially don't take bikes (despite 18 spaces!) and any London-Norwich 12-car needs a reservation. The rest are first come first served six spaces per train but this is not normally enforced on London-Harlow-Cambridge because they are driver-only. Other services have guards. The other main company is Great Northern Thameslink who are unreservable with bike spaces on Cambridge-Royston-London-Brighton and offside doorways used on Lynn-Ely-Cambridge-London. All driver-only. There are morning peak bike bans at Cambridge, Ely and stations near London. Then there are some trains from west of Peterborough to Norwich and Cambridge/Stansted services run by EMR and CrossCountry who require bike reservations and I think all have guards.

Years ago my wife and I enjoyed a lovely tour Cambridge-Ely-Wisbech-King's Lynn.

Thanks for all the replies so far.
Accommodation would be hotel probably, as the group size could be around 8 and it is nice to socialise in the evening.
A few years back we stayed in an hotel in Norfolk and rode out in different directions each day.
Ipswich to Norwich and back on the train.
Ride out on old railway lines to the hotel.
A really good holiday.

Last year was a mix of camping and hotel as some members have caravans or campers.
I missed that one due to health issues.

Group discussion next week so I have no idea what the team will think this year - just looking to find something to suggest.

Jdsk wrote: ↑1 Dec 2023, 9:32am Previous discussions, including our trip:
viewtopic.php?t=146660
viewtopic.php?p=1589058#p1589058

Jonathan

Noting that I was a contributor to the first post.

If you don’t mind fixed centre, we have done several trips centred on Hunstanton and Sandringham. The coast road is busy but there are lots of quiet country lanes. You can head east towards Wells or the Walsinghams, south east to Castle Acre, Fakenham or Swaffham, or south towards Downham Market.

We have also done a couple of fixed centre weeks based at North Walsham. Here you can head to Cromer or the coast, west towards Aylsham, or south into the Broads, again all on very quiet country lanes and old railway tracks.

I have the Goldeneye Cycle Map of Norfolk, which is great for route planning.

Just one thought about the trains is that a lot of routes are very London-centric so if you're going between two stations I would check the journey before any planning. Chelmsford to Cambridge for example is a 2hr trip via Liverpool St (or Tottenham Hale/Stratford).
I've done several routes Cambridge to Chelmsford and/or Braintree and I agree- surprisingly lumpy and some very attractive villages. I'd also add some of the routes south of Cambridge (to Newmarket via West Wratting e.g) or the Cambridgeshire Alps around Gt Chishill are nice and you get some good views of the flatlands.
I also quite like cycling across the fens themselves, although if you pick a day with a headwind there are only so many games of "guess which brassica will be next" you can play before you lose the will to live

Just for laughs I looked at train out then cycle back.
3 days at 40 miles gives 120 miles.

Peterborough to Woodbridge looked an interesting option going via Downham Market and Thetford for the two overnight stops.
However I have no idea how pleasant a route this is.

Train travel for more than 4 bikes is also an issue, and two trains at different times might be required.

You have to like the brassica spotting mentioned above to get the most out of Peterborough to Downham Market.... Flat, exposed, potentially very windy, fast traffic even on minor roads.
If that's the general direction of travel I'd suggest starting at Downham Market then join up interesting places heading generally eastwards. The Norfolk Coast and Rivers route on CycleTravel is pretty good for that and a quiet route. Stopovers, maybe Thetford, Beccles???

LittleGreyCat wrote: ↑5 Dec 2023, 8:09pm Peterborough to Woodbridge looked an interesting option going via Downham Market and Thetford for the two overnight stops.
However I have no idea how pleasant a route this is.

The bit across the fens is interestingly massively flat but difficult in a head wind. Not much to see along the way except Australia but you might be too far north for that.

There are two branches of route 30 between Downham and Fetfud. The south is more fens so I favour the northern branch past Oxburgh Hall but the last mile or so into Weeting is on a busy and fast declassified B road. East of Thetford, there is a section of sand road I would avoid, plus the ling and so-called fen west of Diss is an unusual landscape, but maybe you would be south of that.

Train travel for more than 4 bikes is also an issue, and two trains at different times might be required.

All of the Greater Anglia trains carry at least 6 bikesin one labelled area. Thameslink I think is two labelled areas of 4 but you might get more on with careful parking. Great Northern can in theory take 36, in pairs spread along the train.

So the interesting, historic, beautiful, scenic villages and countryside of North Essex and Suffolk are out in favour of the flatlands of the north. Fair enough.

Probably that's the reason I like the area so much, no one else goes there.