Thinking of doing this next year over 5 days.
I've done 2 c2c's recently, Way of the Roses in 3 days, Sea to Sea 2 days so I think the distances are ok but I know the LLC is meant to be pretty tough.
Slightly concerned over accommodation - there isn't much in mid Wales! Using B+B's, not camping so any recommendations welcome.
Yes from Cardiff to Holyhead in 2012.
We used a Travelodge in Cardiff, then a mix of hostels / B&Bs:
Brecon - hostel (can't remember)
Llandrindod Wells - Portland House B&B (accommodating, friendly, big bedroom, curry nearby)
Llanidloes - Unicorn "Hotel" (a very nice B&B, lovely little town)
Dolgellau - YHA (not great, in my experience the private hostels offer a better experience)
Porthmadog - Cwm Pennant Hostel (superb facilities, fantastic woodland location)
Beaumaris - White Lion Hotel (above the pub - great food there, OK B&B but our room was v small)
Day 1 (Cardiff to Brecon) was very tough, but the other days weren't taxing except for an unexpected massive hill between Machynllyth and Dolgellau (which I should have known was there!).
We had shockingly wet weather but I enjoyed the experience 🙂
We Did it a few years ago with a cycle to Holyhead to start and a cycle back to Manchester at the end. we did this comfortably in two weeks son a week should be fine. We pre-booked acommodation and it worked really well. The only really tough day was from Machynlleth as there is a lot of climbing. The nice places we stayed were Trericket Mill tremeifion hotel. Both these a Vegetarian but you can easily find other places if you have problems with not eating meat.
We really enjoyed our trip and hope you do to.
I did it in 5 days and that seemed about right. I camped so can't help with accommodation. I have the GPX files if you need them.
I've bought the Sustrans maps so no need for the files, thanks.
I don't know why but it makes more sense to me to do it North to South.
I did it N to S and rode to the start from Cambs. Made sense to me too.
I did it north to south, it's seems that there is an inordinate amount of hills. Maybe that's just wales but there was loads of stupid hills, where they take you up some little rural lane to avoid an A road and it's just up down up down continually, the type which zaps your stamina and you can't really get any consistent speed going. You will not need a bouncy mtb, a HT 29er with semi slicks would be ideal.
I've also done the C2C and this was a lot harder and the countryside was a lot more boring, ha.
I have a Genesis TDF, so no problems there. Not bothered about speed!
You won't have any problems finding accommodation, mid-Wales is full of B&Bs.
We offer it as a self-guided holiday over 8 days - this makes for quite short distances and plenty of time for sightseeing. It's perfectly doable in 5 days if you're happy to push on.
As others have said, it's very hilly and doesn't take the path of least resistance by any means. Often you're up and down on the sides of valleys when there's a much faster (and not all that busy) A-road down in the bottom. It's very scenic and takes you through some lovely scenery, though. Most feedback we get about the route is very positive, as long as people haven't over-estimated the distance they can cover in a day.
Had planned to ride half of this in October, Holyhead to Mach and then Mach to Cardiff on another weekend but as usual work and life got in the way !!
When I planned mine I found plenty of b and b and camp sites so you shouldn't have an issue with finding places to stay 🙂