Places to Tour Outside London

Headhuunter

Hi all... Looking for some advice. I've been out on a couple of rides in Kent with a friend of mine who doesn't do that much cycling but can manage a 30-40 mile ride at a relatively sedate pace. Anyway we have discussed doing something outside London and he's keen to catch a train out somewhere, do a day of riding somewhere "very scenic" and then either stay overnight somewhere or catch the train back the same day.

Has anyone done anything like this? I'm looking for scenic spots that are relatively easy to reach by train from London for a spot of touring. My friend has suggested heading down to Cornwall or Pembrokeshire but that's as far as we've got....

rhext

If you want a real adventure and some proper scenery, try the Caledonian sleeper to Fort William!!

clarkey cat

Take a scenic route to Brighton, have a night out, and train back the next day?

davis

Surely you wouldn't want to catch a train down to Cornwall for a day's riding?
If it was me I'd limit the train time to say a couple of hours, then draw a circle around London showing places in "range".

Edit: What the hell does "scenic" mean to you anyway? Quiet country backroads? village greens with pubs? dramatic coastlines? Rolling hills?

thistle_

Rent a van?

I met 2 guys at Afan last year who had come from London for the weekend on the train and it sounded like an expensive way of doing it.

If you're going by train then book tickets in advance to save money. Maybe just have a look at where you can get cheap tickets to and use that to decide where to go?

clarkey cat

One option would be to take the train to Weymouth and then cycle along the Jurassic Coast, to the Purbecks, over the chain ferry at Studland, along Poole Bay past Bournemouth to Hengistbury Head and into the New Forest. Then take train back from Brockenhurst.

antfly

There is some good cycling in The Chilterns and it's a lot nearer.

Headhuunter

davis wrote:

Surely you wouldn't want to catch a train down to Cornwall for a day's riding?
If it was me I'd limit the train time to say a couple of hours, then draw a circle around London showing places in "range".

Edit: What the hell does "scenic" mean to you anyway? Quiet country backroads? village greens with pubs? dramatic coastlines? Rolling hills?

Yeah I suppose Cornwall may be a bit far for a day... Scenic means Abby of the above!

lastant

Train to Norwich and then out to the coast and back round to Ipswich for the train home (c.85 miles), or a bigger East Anglian tour that lostinthought* off of this forum did a couple of years back - train up to Kings Lynn, up round and over the coast following it round to Ipswich. Comes in at around 150 miles I think, could be a nice weekender with a stay.

I was in Clapham Junction for a while and still regret not getting on the train down to the south coast and hopping on the ferry to the Isle of Wight for a day's riding - never even bothered heading down to Brighton and then making the way back.

As mentioned above, the sleeper train is the way to do it properly I reckon. If you book early enough you can get them silly cheap, waking up in Penzance was surreal for me...I'd love to do the Caledonian Sleeper some day.

* think that was her name!

craker

Train to Bristol (90mins from Paddington) over the bridge into Wales, up the Wye Valley to Monmouth (actually choose one of the ridges either side), come back via Usk. Lovely day out. :-)

Headhuunter

Thanks for the suggestions all! Will have to look through them all and decide what we're doing....

Kieran_Burns

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock / Buxton - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

davis

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

But that requires travelling to the Grim North!

Kieran_Burns

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

But that requires travelling to the Grim North!

Yeah - it's awful...

davis

I assume those are false-colour paintings, right? I heard it was still black and white up there.

BelgianBeerGeek

davis wrote:

I assume those are false-colour paintings, right? I heard it was still black and white up there.

And the whippets, clogs and flat caps have been airbrushed out.

I wouldn't bother with the Isle of Wight. The roads are narrow and twisty and the traffic can be awful.

South Downs? Easily reached from London and some beautiful riding.

rolf_f

It doesn't matter where you go - it will be infinitely better than riding in London!

mudcovered

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

I wouldn't bother with the Isle of Wight. The roads are narrow and twisty and the traffic can be awful.

Narrow (occasionally), twisty (sometimes) but I never had any issue with traffic when I was there at the tail end of June 2 years ago and there is some great riding out there to match anyones ability.

Mike

rhext

Kieran_Burns wrote:

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

But that requires travelling to the Grim North!

Yeah - it's awful...

I was thinking of suggesting something similar, but I figured that if he just wanted a standard commute he wouldn't have asked about touring.

Gallywomack

Do what I did with some mates earlier this month - ride to Whitstable, have fish and chips and pints on the beach, get train back to Bromley South for price of 10p permit to travel. Boo ya (we did raise around £3k for charidee so I don't feel too guilty about the cheap train ride).

The route we did was lovely, down through Downe to Westerham Hill and then onto the Pilgrims way, following that where possible until the easiest hill I could find back over the North Downs (Hubbard's Hill near Lenham) and then up through Faversham and onto Whitstable. I strava'd the route and could probably create a gpx file of it if you wanted.

YIMan

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

But that requires travelling to the Grim North!

In fact, the grim Midlands...nowhere near the north.

UndercoverElephant

YIMan wrote:

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

But that requires travelling to the Grim North!

In fact, the grim Midlands...nowhere near the north.

North = that place you get to if you manage not to fall down the Watford Gap.

t4tomo

train fro euston to berkhamsted or tring and ride the chilterns would be my suggestion. You can make it as hilly or as flat as you wnat then to suit your mate. Going to cornwall to ride 40miles seems disproportionate train to bike time

rolf_f

YIMan wrote:

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

But that requires travelling to the Grim North!

In fact, the grim Midlands...nowhere near the north.

The Midlands - to the North what Canada is to North America

rhext

Rolf F wrote:

YIMan wrote:

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Train to Derby, local hopper to Matlock - cycle back to Derby via Ashbourne. Train home.

But that requires travelling to the Grim North!

In fact, the grim Midlands...nowhere near the north.

The Midlands - to the North what Canada is to North America

Not sure I understand that. Canada wasn't the birthplace of the industrial revolution and therefore the cradle of western civilisation like what Derbyshire was!

dilemna

Remind me, isn't this forum Commuting Chat? What have places to tour outside London got to do with Commuting?

clarkey cat

BACK IN YOUR BOX EVERYONE

rhext

clarkey cat wrote:

BACK IN YOUR BOX EVERYONE

See, it's back to the london-centric view of the world again. You don't have to live in a box outside London.

clarkey cat

I don't live in London. Can't stand the place.
I live in North Surrey.

veronese68

Surrey is so bad not even Surrey County Council is based there.
I once drove a very long way up the M1, as I passed Leeds there was a sign directing me towards "The North". Leeds is really fookin norff. FFS Camden is norff to me.

asprilla

Veronese68 wrote:

Surrey is so bad not even Surrey County Council is based there.
I once drove a very long way up the M1, as I passed Leeds there was a sign directing me towards "The North". Leeds is really fookin norff. FFS Camden is norff to me.

I'm from Northumberland originally. I regard the M62 as a motorway across the Midlands.