Bike tours

Biking the U.K. and cycling tours of England, Scotland, and Wales

Seeing the British countryside at the pace of pedal power is one of the best ways to appreciate the pace of life in the Olde World, and to see the kind of small villages and hamlets that feel straight out of a storybook.

D.I.Y. Britain by bike: Transporting and renting bicycles in the U.K.

You can rent bikes at private agencies in just about any city or town.

Avid cyclists who plan to tour a whole region by bike, however, will probably want to bring their own bicycle. 

Some airlines charge extra to bring a bike; many count it as one of your pieces of checked luggage. Either way, your bicycle must be properly boxed—remove the pedals and front wheel; buy the box at a bike shop or the airport for around $10 (here's a good article on the best way to pack a bike for the plane ride).

You can bring your bike onto most British trains, sometimes for free, sometimes with a supplement. Some trains require advance reservations for your bike. (Sorry I cannot be more specific, but with around 30 different companies running the British rails, there is no single policy; you can investigate the details at the National Rail site.)

Neophytes might want to try a short trip at home first to learn the basics and figure out the essential gear. Perhaps the best way to do it the first time is to hook up with a cycling tour:

Cycling tours of the U.K.

There are two basic types of bike tours:

• Escorted tours - The company provides everything: Bikes, accommodations, sag wagon, guide, and usually meals. You provide the pedaling and the enjoyment.
• Self-guided/Supported tours - You pedal yourself from B&B to B&B, but a host provides the bikes, daily itineraries, and accommodation reservations (usually), as well as a sag wagon takes care of luggage transfers. Sometimes it's just you and your friends/family; other times there are others following the same itinerary in a sort of loose group. 

The links below can hook you up with dozens of tour outfitters—as well as provide general useful intel—whether you are interested in a one-day bike trip or a multi-day cycling tour.

Cycling

• Biketours.com - The old Bike Tours Direct is a sort of middleman that can hook you up with smaller, local bike tour outfits, which are often much cheaper than the big international agencies and tour companies.
• Realadventures.com - This is not a tour operator or travel agency, but rather a clearing for independent tour operators, local adventure outfitters, and vacation agencies to offer their trips and tours direct to consumers. As such, it offers a potpourri of trips around the world, from single-day experiences to two-week tours, and they run the gamut from ballooning or biking to walking holkdays, cooking schools, and much, much more.Partner
• Infohub.com - Not a tour company, rather a kind of aggregator of trips offered by tour companies—including dozens of biking tours in England, Scotland, and Wales, plus nice mixed trips like the barge-and-bike tours of the Thames in England. Infohub casts one of the largest nets over the industry, listing some 14,000 tours offered by 4,000 operators in more than 100 categories, with more than 200 tours in England, nearly 100 in Scotland, and 65 in Wales.Partner
• Viator.com - Best place to search for one-day biking adventures—from guided city tours to countryside routes. You'll have to search England, Scotland, and Wales independently, but there are dozens upon dozens of adventures. Partner
• Ciclismoclassico.com - My favorite bike tour outfit, extremely well-run—but currently with only one England bike tour on offer.
• Naviki.org - A crowd-sourced navigation service and app for biking in Europe that allows you to plot routes between any two places, near or far.
• Cyclema.ps - A British-based bike route mapping app.
• Roadcyclinguk.com - An online magazine devoted to British cycling, with a (small) section on "Best of British"—reports (including phtoographs and video) of some classic road biking trips through northern England, including the Lake District, North Penines, Yorkshire Dales, and Forest of Bowland.
• Visitengland.com - A potpurri of articles on cycling from the England tourism board.