Saddle up for freewheel fun
Thousands are expected to take part in Bike Week, beginning next weekend. If that doesn’t inspire you to dig out your helmet and cycling clips, these holidays definitely will, says BEN HALL.
Gentle Going
Headwater (01606 720 199/www.headwater.com) has just launched UK cycling holidays, with gentle routes through English villages staying in privately run country hotels.
The Wye Valley Cycling Tour, for example, explores the Welsh/English borderlands, with two to four hours cycling a day.
Overnights include Ludlow. From £519pp (two sharing) for five nights B&B, including luggage transfers and bike hire, with daily departures until the end of October.
Forest Forays
Country Lanes (01590 622 627/www.countrylanes.co.uk) offers biking breaks in the New Forest, which has more than 100 miles of waymarked cycleways, gentle gradients and a speed limit of 40mph, imposed for the sake of the ponies.
Country Lanes provides 21-speed bikes from £15.50 per day, including helmets. It has lots of itineraries and can arrange two-night B&B breaks, including bike and luggage transfers, from £209pp (two sharing).
Peak Perspective
Peak Pursuits (01782 722 226/ www.peakpursuits.co.uk) can arrange a guided weekend off-road biking break for experienced riders in the Peak District.
It includes a circuit of the Hope Valley towards the summit of Mam Tor, one of the most prominent hills in the Peak District.
A weekend costs from £120pp (four sharing) full board, including bikes and bunkhouse accommodation.
Family Friendly
Bike Breaks (01837 811 762/www.bike-breaks.co.uk) is run from a working farm in north Devon, close to the Tarka Trail, the Devon Coast to Coast, the Granite Way and Exmoor and Dartmoor, where a self-contained wing of the farmhouse sleeps up to 10 people.
It offers maps, a bike workshop with tools (just in case), washing facilities and a drying room for your muddy gear. Bike hire is from £9 a day.
The house costs between £410 and £1,270 per week.
Wildlife Encounters
Wheely Wonderful Cycling (01568 770 755/www.wheelywonderfulcycling.co.uk) offers cyclists the chance to see the best of Herefordshire.
On the three-day trip you’ll see wildflower meadows and ancient chestnut woods. The cycling is easy and you can start any day of the week.
Two nights B&B from £195pp (two sharing), including bike hire and emergency back-up (children four to 14, £140).
Going The Distance
Sustrans (0845 113 0065/www.sustrans.org.uk), the sustainable transport charity, has developed 12,000 miles of Britain’s National Cycle Network, including several long-distance cycle routes.
On the Coast & Castles route linking Newcastle and Edinburgh, part of the trail runs in tandem with some of England’s finest beaches as well as passing several of Northumberland’s castles, such as the Renaissance treasure house of Alnwick.
The 200-mile route then turns inland through the Scottish Borders via Kelso and Melrose.
Sustrans publishes a guidebook and map pack for the route for independent travellers, suggesting places to stay (£6.99, plus £2.50p&p).
Village Meanderings
Essex (0845 6007 373/www.visitessex.com) will be put on the world cycling map when it hosts the 2012 Olympics mountain-bike cross-country event against the backdrop of the 700-year-old ruins of Hadleigh Castle.
For a more leisurely approach follow the Ride the Rodings trail. Start the 48-mile route in Chelmsford, or just follow a section.
Stay with the “Friendliest Landlady in the UK”, according to the AA B&B Awards 2008. Margaret Frost of Diggins Farm (01277 899 303), a 16th-century, oak-beamed farmhouse near Ongar, can put you up from £35 per person per night.
INFORMATION: 0845 612 0661/ www.bikeweek.org.uk
