Last year me and Mrs blackflag did a tour of the loire valley. Pretty flat 50k a day and loved it.

Thinking on somewhere to go next year and looking for ideas. Either on Eurostar or a 1 day drive from Cheshire would be the start (so northern Europe).

Tour of Belgium Beers? Northern France? Champagne and Ardennes Region?

I was really taken by Estonia – flat, trees, amazing beaches…
A bit of research shows that the shore of the Baltic is great for touring, and has Eurovelo route all round.

Immingham to Gothenburg ferry is a day…

Immingham won’t allow private passengers

If the weather is right then Outer Hebrides is great.

Get the ferry from Kennacraig to Mull or Oban to Barra then work your way up to stornway

Outer Hebrides and return via ardnamuchan so its a circuit from Oban is the best bike tour I have done

Obanand ferry to Barra. ride to Lewis, back to Harris, ferry to Skye, ferry to mallaig, ride to Kilchoan, ferry to mull, ride to craignure, ferry to oban

^^ That sounds ace but scarily weather dependent.

Belgium was great – did you come with us for McKinley’s 40th?. We went back and did it on tandems.

Coast to Coast to Coast (Workington – tynemouth via the traditional route, back via the reivers route) was fantastic

Last summer was out tour of the irish sea – ferry from holyhead to Dublin, ride down the coast to Wexfod, ferry back to fishguard and back up cardigan bay

Outer hebrides tour as per TJ is stunning, but cycling on skye was not much fun as the roads are quite busy

got a tour of the inner hebrides planned – Ayr – Arran – Kintyre – Oban – Isla and Jura – Kintyer, Arran – Ayr

GPXs available for some or all of the above

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/a-bit-ot-cycling-the-hebridean-way/

As NBT says – the day across skye was not much fun. apart from that it almost all on single track roads which are great for cycling

I have also enjoyed a tour of the Netherlands.

+1 for Hebrides tour as per TJ; probably our best tour to date from among quite a few.
7 ferry crossings for two folk was under £100 on a tour ticket sold by Caledonian MacBrayne.
Oban is probably the best start-finish point, as it is accessible by train.
Great beaches, seafood and history; stunning views and a proper ‘journey’.
Look up Vatersay & Luskentyre beaches. Yes, weather can be a bit variable. It can also be, quite simply, amazing.

Spanish coast to coast?

been to northern norway this year. cant see myself every surpassing that, but also went for a weeks tour in holland and it was awesome.
pure cycling paradise. no cars, good food, ace beer. what touring is all about.

Hebrides in the wind and rain is a **** nightmare. Believe me, I’ve done that and got the (damp) t-shirt. Must be absolutely stunning on the good day though… 🤣

I’m planning on doing one the Camino de Santiago routes next year…

Just shown Mrs Blackflag the Hebridean Way and she loves the idea! I’ve even given her stark warnings about the weather and that’s not put her off.

Probably just do that over a week at a nice easy pace then get a transfer back to Barra rather than head across Skye as that seems a bit too much for a one week trip.

The outer Hebrides in decent weather are stunning.

Accommodation will be an issue (you’ll need to book well in advance.

I had planned 5-6 days but the first day was pishin, I just kept going until the bottom of the hill on north uist…

I do want to go back (but doubt I’ll do the full HW (due to the logistics)). Transfer therefore is a good idea.

A couple of years ago a group of us drove to Dover. Left the car there and went as foot passengers to Dunkirk. Then Ypres- Ghent- Bruges-Dunkirk. Nipped into Holland to go to the seaside on day 3 so it was 4 countries and 400km in 4 days. Flat as you like but obviously you might want to take in some cobbled climbs. Beers excellent as was the weather in early June. Loved it

Consider Denmark. Lovely country, lovely people and very cycling friendly. And the beer is also pretty good.

Eurostar/TGV to Strasbourg then a tour round the Alsace – I’ve went down the French side of the Rhine to Basel then back up the German side. Great food, wine, cycle routes and scenery.

Just marking to come back too

How was the “taking a bike” experience on Eurostar/TGV DougD?

Taking the bike on the trains was absolutely fine, it was a few years ago now but think it was about £30 each way if they were fully assembled. I’d previously managed to disassemble it enough to fit in a bit plastic washing bag type thing and taken it on as part of my carry on allowance for free but I think they’ve change the dimensions for the carry on allowance so that may no longer be possible. Some great villages around the Alsace (e.g. Colmar) and Strasbourg was pretty interesting too. Highly recommended.

Probably just do that over a week at a nice easy pace then get a transfer back to Barra rather than head across Skye as that seems a bit too much for a one week trip.

Wise – to do the mainland return really means two weeks is needed unless you want to do very long days. IIRC we did 400 miles approx

The overwhelming majority of folk doing the Hebridean Way do it in a week, sail to Ullapool and either arrange transfer back to Oban (to their car) or to Inverness (for the train).

check out a few days of the wild atlantic way. fabulous scenery, warm seas to swim in, great pubs, cafes eating etc. slow wee roads so don’t take on big daily mileages!
west cork and kerry are particularly good, as is connemara, donegal

The overwhelming majority of folk doing the Hebridean Way do it in a week, sail to Ullapool and either arrange transfer back to Oban (to their car) or to Inverness (for the train).

when me and the wife did the hebridean way, we did a big circular over 2 weeks.
ferry to lochboisdale, the stops were, linaclate, berneray, drinisiader, stornoway, then tarbert for ferry to skye, then portree, broadford then ferry to mallaig, then stayed at lochailort and archaracle, then ferry to tobermory and stayed there, then lagganulve and ferry back to oban.

was a pretty awesome couple of weeks riding. i thought the best riding was from mallaig to kilchoan. simply stunning. better than the uists and harris/lewis, IMHO

Book marked

But I’ll add ferry to Santander and head West. Lovely part of Spain. Surprisingly Under developed coast line

Over the last couple of years we’ve done top to bottom of Tuscany in 4 days, a 3 night tour in the Cévennes, the Ardennes Arbalette, and 4 days in the Vosges. I can recommend all of them. Different levels of up and down and distance, all carrying either lightweight camping kit or hotel touring (we just see what’s available when we find somewhere we like the look of or run out of the desire to go any further).
I think we’re intending to do a 3 night trip in the western Bourgogne after Easter 20 and then something in early July.

The overwhelming majority of folk doing the Hebridean Way do it in a week, sail to Ullapool and either arrange transfer back to Oban (to their car)

Any transfer companies you can recommend?

I used to work for one, so I’m biased 😊 (that’s also one of the reasons I know a bit about what folk are doing)

https://www.tickettoridehighlands.co.uk/cyclist-transport.php

They encourage lift sharing to reduce costs.

Also try Highland Yaks. https://www.highlandyaks.com/

I’d second (third/fourth or whatever we’ve got to) the Western Isles and back via Skye and Mallaig “loop”.

We got the train to Oban, ferry out to Barra, B&B near the Eriskay ferry. Up the Uists and Benbecula to another B&B. Ferry over to Harris, up to Tarbert and ferry over to Skye, B&B in Portree. Down to Armadale, avoided most of the frankly awful main road on Skye by taking the west coast of the island down to Sligachan, hostel in Mallaig. Down to Kichoan and ferry over to Tobermory, stopped in the YHA there. Looped round the island to get to Craignure, stopped in the pub. Ferry back to Oban, train home.

The hardest day was going up the Uists as there was a strong northerly blowing and it was just hard work. The other days were just standard touring fair of: ride for a couple of hours find a café, ride a bit more, find another café, ride to destination (maybe with another café).