Thinking we will head to Wales for a few days next week to er… celebrate the royal wedding.

Am thinking of heading to Brechfa and maybe Nant Y Arian on the way (from Lancaster). Are these good options? Any others we should check out? Anyone know any good non-trail centre rides in those parts? (questions questions questions 🙂 )

If anyone has any recommendations for places to stay/eat etc near either of those places that would be dandy. And if there are any nice non-bikey things/walks/places to visit that would be great too.

Thanks.

both are great.
i went last august and rode them both mid week.
only saw a couple of riders in the carparks on both days.
trails to myself…………brilliant

Cheers ton, looking forward to it – whereabouts did you stay?

we stayed in a caravan just north of aberystwyth…….place called borth.
i did a offroad ride from there to nant y arian, which was fantastic.

plenty of non bike stuff to do in aberystwyth, and at nant y arian too.
mrs ton and my daughter went on a horse hack for the day.
and the steam railway up the valley to devils bridge is great too.

Ton he speak the truth 😉

grum, get yourself a copy of OS Explorer 213 and go explore. There’s plenty of interesting stuff North of Nant (and to be honest every other direction too).

Nant is a lovely trail, if your going brecfa might as well go to afan too

OK thanks folks. Any more for any more? 🙂

Climax at Mach is a nice trail

http://www.mbwales.com/en/content/cms/bases/machynlleth/climachx/climachx.aspx

You could stay in Machynlleth and put together a big ride linking the mach 3 and nant together, it’s something I’ve meant to do for a couple of years and most likely will this Summer.

You could stay in Aberystwyth (few caravan parks on the outskirts) or there’s also Clarach Bay which is pretty much a caravan park (and has some riding to be seeked out). You can easily ride to Nant from Aberystwyth on back roads and then link up a loop as long as you fancy.

Can’t help further North or South!

Nant yr Arian & Brechfa are both great choices. Neither are your classic trail centre riding, esp if you do the longer route to the North of the waymarked stuff at NyA (if you want a gpx for that email me). If you’re going to Brechfa, try and get to Cwm Rhaeadr too – 20mins down the road. It’s only a short way marked loop but the singletrack descent back down is amazing fun and you can incorporate it it into a longer loop with a map (as in STW a couple of months back)

Thanks again everyone, much appreciated – yay can’t wait!

Machynlleth could be another good stopping off point. Not sure I’m up to any really big rides at the mo so a few little ones sounds good.

Just looking at Brechfa – crikey there’s a fair bit of climbing! Probably won’t be able to do both so what’s best out of the red and black?

I got back from doing a similar trip yesterday – did the long loop at N-y-A, which takes in all the best bits of the two shorter trails, coupled with some crazy double-track,loose-slatey descents (huge ding in my shiny new Trance frame), in some spectacular scenery – it’s worth doing and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! We camped at Woodlands campsite, Devil’s Bridge just down the road – highly recommended (decent food and lunatic cider at the Hafod Hotel 5 mins walk from the campsite). We drove down to Brechfa yesterday morning in about 1.5 hours – I’d never been before and loved it. Have fun!

With Brechfa, unless I missed something, the black seems to be an optional extension at the top of the final descent of the red trail. We didnt bother, as popular opinion appears to favour the red. Plus, talking to two riders at the car park, they mentioned a section was closed atm..

fbk – could you send me the gpx of that longer route at N y A please? Can’t seem to see your email in your profile. Mine is grum01 at gmail dot com

Nice one bullandbladder, that’s really useful info – campsite sounds cool. Good to get your first ding, now you won’t be precious about it 😛

Ah yes it does look like that at Brechfa looking again.

grum – just seen your reply and about to email you the details but your email’s not showing on your profile either now.

nwATvet98DOTfreeserveDOTcoDOTuk if you still need the route.

Saw that too late but never mind, cheers anyway. Had an ace time, amazing weather – Climachx was probably the highlight for me. Thanks for all the advice.