Lonely Planet cycling guides

Has anyone used these books extensively? Are they any good?

For what purposes are they most useful, long tours or dallies around nice pubs and vineyards?

Thanks.

I got a couple of cycling guides for New Zealand if you're interested. Cycle touring mecca of the world btw.

So I've heard, but the problem is that it's far too far away. I think there's enough in europe to keep me busy and at least then I don't have to fly. Thanks very much for the kind offer though.

literally just bought one this week. no time to read it yet tho so who knows what's inside.

I would be interested in knowing as well. I'm cycling down to the south of France in the summer and at the moment i'm just guessing what a nice route will be (google imagin towns / roads etc). If this shows good routes for the whole way then i'll snap one up.

^ +1 (except that I'm not definitely cycling to the south of France)

I have these in the shop and they look OK. Inside you get a table of 40-ish rides sorted by area, said rides being from 4 hours to several days long. So it's more orientated towards cycling tourism than fully loaded, cross-country cyclo-camping.

I have these in the shop and they look OK. Inside you get a table of 40-ish rides sorted by area, said rides being from 4 hours to several days long. So it's more orientated towards cycling tourism than fully loaded, cross-country cyclo-camping.

I will be travelling very light (small backpack with one change of clothes) as i'll be staying in motels each night. It's more that i want to try and get the best route all the way down but still be quite direct.

Going cross country is a bit tricky regarding the maps. You'd want a 1:100 000 scale, so that would be at least 10 IGN yellow ones.
Check out crazyguyonabike.com, you might find useful infos.

I've got the Britain one. It's quite interesting although I've not actually done any touring here.

Going cross country is a bit tricky regarding the maps. You'd want a 1:100 000 scale, so that would be at least 10 IGN yellow ones.
Check out crazyguyonabike.com, you might find useful infos.

Thanks. I'm going to plot the route before i go, using a GPS effort, so i just need something that will tell me what a good route and what a really shit route is.

I've got the Britain one. It's quite interesting although I've not actually done any touring here.

What does it say? "Cycling in Britain is simply great, if you enjoy lashings of verbal abuse, broken bones, attempted murder and general hatred towards you, then get on your bike!"

I've got the Britain one. It's quite interesting although I've not actually done any touring here.

What does it say? "Cycling in Britain is simply great, if you enjoy lashings of verbal abuse, broken bones, attempted murder and general hatred towards you, then get on your bike!"

hmm. cycling in Britain / France / Italy / New Zeland / Australia.

so surely they should *all *say that..?

Well I don't know about Australia and NZ, but when touring in France and Italy I've had nothing but encouragement from passing drivers and peds - certainly for France I feel you could get by without any sort of guide as it's such a pleasant place to cycle around.
But I can't help but being cynical about cycling in the UK, especially when you read stories like that one about the bloke who cycled around the world on his old banger, and then, upon arrival in Dover, someone nicked it.

What does it say? "Cycling in Britain is simply great, if you enjoy lashings of verbal abuse, broken bones, attempted murder and general hatred towards you, then get on your bike!"

No, that's an exerpt from the Melbourne guide.

Well I don't know about Australia and NZ, but when touring in France and Italy I've had nothing but encouragement from passing drivers and peds - certainly for France I feel you could get by without any sort of guide as it's such a pleasant place to cycle around.
But I can't help but being cynical about cycling in the UK, especially when you read stories like that one about the bloke who cycled around the world on his old banger, and then, upon arrival in Dover, someone nicked it.

Most certainly a dodgy Frenchie..