Touring Wales (Route Help)

Vélo

I'm looking for some advice with a route.

I'm thinking of doing a weeks touring of Wales in the summer. It'll be a fully loaded tour and staying in campsites. I hope to do up to 80km's a day with maybe a shorter route in the middle of the week to give the legs a rest. I've never done anything like this before but have been looking into what I'd need, it's just a route I'm not sure about yet.

I was going to do France but seeing it's my 1st tour and don't speak French, I thought I'd stick to Wales incase anything went wrong (actually I don't speak Welsh either).

Captain Havoc

Did you try sustrans? Also, if you want to go to France, there's no shortage of English in Normandy due to the invasion of US and UK tourists.

2x4

The Lon Las Cymru looks good:
http://www.cycling.visitwales.com/server.php?show=nav.2584

thebouldwhacker

I toured south and mid Wales last summer and I know others here spent time there too so there'll be plenty of advice I'd say.

My top tip is that the road surface over there are absolutely perfect, really we saw three pot holes in 2 weeks and they were on top of a mountain, in a forestry and they were marked by spray paint for repair!
Because of this you can plot your route on minor roads, the A roads are busy and just as here do not make for enjoyable touring. Here is part of the route we did. The way the geology & geography of Wales is the main roads take up the flat land so be prepared for plenty of climbing with some of the nicest views you will ever see.
Re food and drink get yourself a copy of the good beer guide, if a pub/hotel is in it its a good bet the food will be good too, thats how we did it and I can remember each cask ale and bfast, lunch and dinner, yum!

Camp sites are great too but as with every where some are better than others.

I hope this is of some use:)

I did this last year: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=67208940&postcount=129 (more pics here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=67209085&postcount=130)

It's a great country to go cycling in, and it's perfect to go to from an Irish point of view. I'd recommend stopping in Aberystwyth (there are plenty of B&Bs/Hostels as it's a University town/city), and in Trawsfynydd (small town, but had a massive empty hostel when we were there. And cows on the way to a long bridge). Road surface is excellent as mentioned. Beer is tasty too!

I'd recommend booking Fishguard and Holyhead accommodation in advance as I remember having to ring around several places before we arrived, the other places we just turned up and found spots as required.

mo_bhicycle

2x4 wrote: »

The Lon Las Cymru looks good:
http://www.cycling.visitwales.com/server.php?show=nav.2584

I did part of that last summer.

Nice route but found it a bit frustrating at times. Some of the time the routes go well out their way to avoid A roads and at one point it took us on a stony & boggy farmers track instead of the A road (which it turns out would have been fine).

Take the routes with as a general guide and don't get too hung up on avoiding A roads.

Overall it's a great country to cycle in and I'm looking forward to going back.

seve65

If you are in the north, dont stay in Holyhead, and get off the A55; after that you are probably ok, A5 is very busy but scenic. Good places to stay would be Beddgelert (small), Bala, Betws-y-coed (very touristy), llangollen and porthmadog. You could do worse than plot a route cycling between the various castles, some of the best in europe. Lllandegla moors are quite nice as is Moel Fammau. You cant go wrong really in terms of cycling around the north (or the mid or the south for that matter). If you are in the north, take yourself down llechwedd slate mines or down the best copper mine in europe on the Great Orme. Pot holes are a rarity. A roads and B roads are fine. Unnumbered roads are more like the back roads of Cork And dont forget 'Does dim awyr yn fy nheiarau..'

Vélo

Thanks for all the help.

So far, I like the look of the Holhead to Cardiff route.

What do people do to lock their bike while camping or is there something to lock a bike to in the Campsites?

Vélo

I just booked this for the 1st week in August:)

I'll do the Lon Las Cymru route.
I just have to decide on Cardiff or Chepstow.

feck sake lads

sounds great but how do you go about pronouncing those names tongue twisters

on_the_nickel

I'm heading over to Pembrokeshire with the family this weekend for the week, staying somewhere near here http://maps.google.ie/maps?q=spittal+Pembrokeshire,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.876491,-4.147339&spn=0.729122,3.164062&sll=51.851049,-5.027618&sspn=0.364766,1.058807&gl=ie&z=9

I was wondering if anyone has cycled round here, could they advise of some nice routes, maybe 60-100km. From doing a search of the forum, I see that a nice one would possibly be heading to St Davids and back up along the coast?

Note: I'm on a road bike.

coastwatch

I haven't done any cycling in Wales, hope to get there someday, but as mentioned in an earlier post, sustrans is a good place to look for cycling routes. It looks like you're going to be be in the middle of the Celtic Trail so you could do part or all of that.