Has anyone done it? I’m planning a trip for myself and my two boys aged 9&10.

Will probably get the train to brighton, ride to newhaven for the 10 o clock crossing to dieppe

So if anyone has any recommendations for campsites, possible wildcamping spots or any fun things to see en route I am all ears (or eyes on here I guess!)

Train to Newhaven might be better. It’s a hilly slog for youngsters along the cliffs from Brighton to Newhaven.

Ok will have a look at connections etc – and at the elevation along that route. Thanks 🙂

What a fantastic adventure for a couple of youngsters. It’ll be tough for them, but if you’re going to do any kind of touring then it’s probably a good introduction. The terrain on the french side is rolling at worst, pancake flat at best.

The hardest part was the ride from Tunbridge Wells to Newhaven on the first day, followed by the overnight ferry spitting you out at Dieppe during the small hours.

We used airbnb to book some decent, cheap accommodation. It was well worth having a place with a good hot shower as it makes such a difference.

A good training ride is the London to Brighton route.

Do it!

I take it that you’re not going this half term week? 😉

We have done a few trips before when they were 5&6 we did a whoping 30 something miles over a few days, the next year we did 60+ miles on the great glen way and the year after we did a lap of the isle of man.

We didnt do a big one last year – and I have been told that I have to sort a trip this year. They have done the previous trips on mountain bikes but I might go for road bikes this time if the surface is suitable.

Not feb half term no, they have done frozen camps before but have yet to do frozen bike camping . . . Will be easier to do when they are bigger and can carry more of their own gear!

Road bikes would be perfect for 95% of the route. There are a few well surfaced dirt tracks. There was only one short stretch of flinty offroad that I thought was totally unsuitable for a road bike (getting close to Paris) but you can walk it in about 20 mins with no problem. If you’re on a budget a good mtb with slicks would suffice.

I’ve always found that side panniers are a bit like an anchor in the wind from both an aerodynamic and weight perspective. Fine if you have the strength, but for younger ones I wonder if they’d find it hard going on tougher days. Personally, I’d be tempted to be the carthorse and take the majority of the weight via a bob trailer and pannier rack but I don’t know how strong your lads are… they sound hardy.

If you keep yourself well fed, snack little and often, you might surprise yourself with the distances.

Hope that helps… Good luck!

They are quite hardy, we live in sheffield and they ride 7 miles most days for their school run so they are happy to ride for much longer on trips.

This is the set up we used in the isle of man

ok so the drop box links don’t work – maybe this one will

my youngest and his bikepacking bags – you can get quite a bit in – but sleeping bags still go in my panniers

double post

Looks like a future Tour Divide winner to me! Seems like a perfect setup with the addition of slicks 🙂

Have you thought about doing the Outer Hebrides some time? Whilst the Avenue Verte was a fantastic ride in itself, wild camping adds a whole new element of adventure… just thought I’d throw that in there for the future…

After seeing the photo of bikepackingwenchjunior ^^^^^ I retract my earlier comment about the unsuitability for young ‘uns of cycling the Brighton-Newhaven Route and now recommend the considerably more hilly offroad route. Brighton Station – Bear Hill – Racecourse – Castle Hill – SDW to Rodmell, then bridleways into Newhaven (with a downland bivi enroute) 😉

wild camping is our first choice everytime – every night of the great glen trip and we managed to do quite a bit in the isle of man too.

They both want to ride to paris though – I think it’s because i did it last year. although my trip was just a quick there and back (london to paris in 24 hours followed by cocktails nice hotel and train back) so their trip will be a lot different!

i have thought about the outer hebrides and it’s definitely on my must do list.

thanks slugwash – i’ll take a look at that 🙂

If the kids fancy chilling out by the pool for a day or two when they get to Dieppe after Slugwash’s SDW epic, I can recomend Camping De La Source. It’s about a 20min pedal out of Dieppe. Nice bit of France that. Not many Englanders.

That might be a good first night stop as I think the day crossing makes more sense (as in less paiful for me tryin to rouse and motivate small people off a boat at the crack of dawn!) 🙂

We did it five years ago when it was still mostly in the planning stage with our then 11-year-old son. The French side was fine but the English traffic even on minor roads was worrying. We wild camped on the cycle path in France (no car access so very safe), in a farmer’s field in France (we asked permission) and in a field in the UK without permission as we couldn’t see a building to ask at.

Although I’ve slept rough in Paris on my own we booked into the Première classe near the Pont de Suresnes which was clean, convenient and happy to look after our bikes.

Thats good to hear, and i doubt the route being open for a while will have changed that much – I cant see it being over run with cyclists trying to wildcamp so we should be able to hide ourselves away a bit

You may have already found this

Thanks chew, I was hoping the brighton to newhaven bit wasnt going to be too bad traffic wise – but didn’t fancy doing the whole english section because I didn’t think it would be a very relaxing start to the journey.

Will look into the french section thats mentioned – im hoping its been sorted since that article was written 🙂