Generic Touring Thread

Someone sent me this. Thought I'd post it somewhere.

http://www.bedsforcyclists.co.uk/

Once ive got my new steed up and running I intend to go on a short tour.

Southend, Harwich, Hook of Hollend. Head South down the coast , Calais, London, Southend.

Thinking of making it a cheap as possible. Famous last words.

Anyone got anytips on booking the cheapest ferry crossings?

And any good hostels/campsites along the way?

Modan. Just before you get to Marseille, literally one climb away you will be in a place called Cassis, there is a long walk to a bay only reachable on foot or by boat called I think 'Calanque'. You should go.
That climb out of/descent into Marseille is awesome!

Hi George, Cassis was really nice! I have to say that it was one of the nicest place that we've been on the tour. We ended staying there 2 nights. We came from Marseille and went on a climb before the town where you could see the red cliff from the top. I really enjoyed going up and the descent towards Cassis town was so much fun!

Hope you guys dont mind me sharing a video of the tour recorded on Go Pro. Keep it Sif 2014 CotedAzur/Provence on Vimeo

Once ive got my new steed up and running I intend to go on a short tour.

Southend, Harwich, Hook of Hollend. Head South down the coast , Calais, London, Southend.

Thinking of making it a cheap as possible. Famous last words.

Anyone got anytips on booking the cheapest ferry crossings?

And any good hostels/campsites along the way?

I did this in reverse last year (but without Southend). Ferries to France are cheap and plentiful however there's only 2 crossings per day from Harwich - the Hook: a day crossing (1pm ish) and an overnight. It takes about 5-7 hours. If you overnight it's compulsory to get a cabin, approx £30 I think, on top of a £35 ticket. But it does mean you don't waste a day on the ferry.

The Hook isn't exciting but there's some lovely places nearby - Delft is gorgeous. Heading down the coast there's the Delta Project and loads of lovely little towns. The Netherlands is so freaking amazing for cycling, honestly, it's a cliché but it's true. If you follow (ish) the coast you can get a little ferry from Vlissingen to Breskens and then you're not far from Belgium. Belgium is super nice, apart from Zeebrugge which is horrible. We stayed in Ostend, which I liked. As you get closer to the French border it starts to feel a lot like Brighton but with trams (watch out for the tram tracks!) but when you cross over into France it gets really shit and the lovely cycle routes disappear and you get loads of french drivers shouting at you.

Dunkirk is a shit hole and I think it continues in that vein until Calais. We crossed at Dunkirk, to save a few miles of crap. Usual nonsense about everything in France being closed on a sunday but things are more civilised in Belgium and the Netherlands. There are also a lot of goats in B/NL, I've never seen so many pygmy goats.

(I do actually like France/the French - but they try really hard to convince me otherwise!)

I've finally found time to sit down with some maps and work out where the hell we're going for our six week tour in two weeks' time (hurrah for unemployment). We'd decided on winding down France and heading over the Pyrenees, and I'm really keen to swing by Barcelona because I love it, but we've been a bit vague after that - at one point I was looking at trying to get down to Seville and back up but I'm starting a new job at the end of August so that looks a bit ambitious. Having spent a long time google streetviewing vast expanses of emptiness in the middle of Spain, we've come to the conclusion that riding the Camino del Santiago (or at least as much of it as is possible to do on road) looks like a pretty good bet, so I think we're going to ride down to Barcelona, then head up and meet it at Logroño, follow it to Santiago, and then follow the coast up and round to Santander, possibly dipping into the Picos de Europa and nipping over to Bilbao/San Sebastian depending on how much time we have at the end. Looks like it's going to be just shy of 3000 miles of riding all in - 42 days, 32 riding days, 10 days spare (either for riding or for lazing around on a beach trying to even out our tan lines).

Anyone done the Camino? I'm currently working my way through this:

which seems very good - maps out every stage (literally; each stage is only about 40km) and says which towns/villages have fresh water, shops, campsites, other accommodation etc.

Actually, might skip Barcelona. Not sure the rubbish roads around the outskirts are worth it.

Can't comment on that one specifically but those Cicerone guides are generally pretty good. I've used the one for the HRP through the Pyrenees and the only time we got a bit confused was where we hadn't read the next paragraph of the route description which told us exactly where to go! Also used the ones for Brecons and Glen Coe areas.

They are good aren't they? I'm now considering doing the entire Santiago route including the French bit... having a bit of trouble trying to find a route through the Pyrenees by myself without ridewithgps throwing a hissyfit and saying there aren't any cycling routes.

Awesome info thanks for the top tips.

Did you just pay for the ferry on arrival or book them before setting off from home?

Awesome info thanks for the top tips.

Did you just pay for the ferry on arrival or book them before setting off from home?

I booked our ferry from Calais the night before, in a hotel room, on my phone. It was fine.

Keep changing my mind about where to go. Might just get a ferry to santander, chase Rosie & 6pt down and laugh at their table.

I look forward to watching you eat your dinner on the ground while we lord it over you :p

20 days of route that I'm fairly happy with mapped; my brain is starting to dissolve.

Awesome info thanks for the top tips.

Did you just pay for the ferry on arrival or book them before setting off from home?

Ferries to/from France are fine cos there's loads of them but the Holland ferry gets booked up, we had to call them to get them to release extra bike tickets.

Planning a 2 week solo trip to Ireland in August.
I'm from Ireland but embarrassed by how little of it I've seen, so this trip is hopefully going to rectify that!
My plan is to rail-sail from London to Rosslare via Fishguard, then head along the south coast and up towards Limerick.
If I get that far then I'll get the train back across to the east coast and spend a couple of days recuperating with my dad in Arklow before the ferry back via Dublin and Holyhead. If I'm short of time I'll train back from Trallee/Killarney to the east coast.
Rail-Sail is less than 90 quid return, so fairly bargainous...
Haven't worked out a proper route yet, but will be mostly camping, perhaps with a bit of B&B/hostel action every once in a while to dry out and do some washing.
Should be 12 ish full days of cycling and perhaps around 950 km, depending on final routing.
I'm hoping that with a very modest average of 15km/h (allowing for the lumpy nature of that part of Ireland) and riding 6 hours a day on average I should be ok for time.
Not planning on booking any accommodation in advance, so I can adjust the route on the fly if I'm ahead/behind schedule.

Possible route:
Route

Good choice... My family are from Ireland and I had to go over to take care of something when my dad passed away... I used it as an opportunity to see a bit of the country, as I too only used to go to the same places. Sail railed it to Dublin, then down the old coast road to wicklow... Had a bit of a roundabout mini 4 day tour seeing all the relatives (port leish(sp?) being the furthest inland), then back. It was glorious! Allow more time than you think, as people will want to talk to you about what you're doing.... But you know that :0)

Booked ferry and flight, going to do this route, any other suggestion? I got two weeks.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/santander-to-perpignan

That looks like a great route. We did a similar one (but in the other direction) 2 years ago. Some random thoughts

Argeles is nice.

The trip up to Cirque du Gavarnie is worth it and there's a campsite so you can enjoy the cirque in the morning before the coaches of tourists start to arrive

You are currently missing Col d'Aspin, which was my favourite of all the cols we went over.

Tarascon dur Ariege has a great campsite.

Might be worth heading a bit further north on the final bit to check out the Cathar castles?

Updated route, Will look for the campsite at Tarascon dur Ariege, but if it's too soon in the day, I'll stop at Les Cabannes where I previously camped before.

Good shout on Cirque du Gavarnie, Streetview look great.

I've camped at Gavarnie. I think it was something ridiculous like three Euros each for the night. We couldn't find the people to pay when we were leaving so just left a tenner on the door step weighted down with a rock. /csb

If you have time the hike up to the Horquette d'Alans is worth it. There's a refuge about half way up the climb where you can top up with water.

I got 12 days* to cover 1100km, not really a problem except I like to take it easy at around 100-120km a day, so little chance of setting off to hike, let alone carry extra hiking shoes.

*forget to add that the ferry take 24 hours, and need an extra day to pack the bike properly for the airport.

Starting to plan an August trip, and would love some two to three week ride ideas.

What's better/ easier - flying somewhere and riding home, or riding somewhere and flying home? The somewhere is Oslo, and home is Peckham Road.

Logistics wise I would say fly somewhere, ride home, that way you can pack the bike properly for the flight

But not as fun as 'exploring' your way to your destination, being constantly riding back would be a bit depressing for me.

If I were doing it I'd ride out fly back, as if you're unlucky enough to have something happen to your bike while it's in the (very capable) hands of the airline baggage handlers then it doesn't screw with your holiday so much as you've done most of your riding and just need to get the bike home.

Fuckin' A, I rather be riding away from home, not toward it.

I would simply book my flight in a town with a good transport link to the airport and a decent bicycle shop where you can get the cardboard from.

Take the ferry to Denmark from Harwich, then ride to the port to get to Norway, explore the country, and then ride toward Oslo to fly back, or further up north, my extremely rough plan when I thought of going to Norway is this with the airport at the end that'll take me to London;

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/denmark-to-norway