My husband and I are going to London for the first time in September. We are there for 7 days. We would like to visit another town and do a bike tour there if possible? We won't have a car. Any suggestions?
Posted by
Penzance
124 posts
There’s an awful lot of bikes in Cambridge and it’s flat.
Posted by
Preston UK
1832 posts
Do you want to just hire bikes and ride around or are you looking for a guided bike tour? If the former there will be lots of places that you could go to, for the latter you will need to find the relatively small number of places that have enough demand for regular tours. Cambridge might well be one of those, as might Oxford.
Posted by
OP
VA
52 posts
We did a self guided tour outside Paris and was thinking similar but we are open to ideas. We have never been to England so just wanted to see some of the small towns outside London as well.
Posted by
Preston UK
1832 posts
Cambridge and Oxford are both fairly flat and very bike friendly cities and of course have plenty of interest for the tourist.
Bath is another very popular place to visit. It is very much not flat but it does have a few excellent trails along old railway lines including one that goes all the way to Bristol. Bath would therefore be a good spot to get a ride more into the countryside. I'm sure that there are plenty more places suitable. I could point you to lots of places up in NW England where I live but I'm not sure it makes much sense to consider somewhere a couple of hours train ride out of London if you're only coming for a week.
Posted by
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
5677 posts
I haven't done it but we visited a relative who lives in Richmond who says he routinely walks from Richmond to Fulham on a nice day. Richmond is hilly but it looks like a lot of the ride could be done along the river. As a walk it would take about 2 hours. Richmond is still worth a visit.
Posted by
Arlington, Virginia
535 posts
The Cotswolds. Lovely villages and countryside.
Posted by
Ohio
180 posts
Not sure if this is further than you want, but we did an e-bike tour with Peter from Cotswold Electric Bike Tours. We were coming from Oxford so travel time is shorter, but would be the same logistics from London. Peter picks you up at the Kingham train station and takes you back to his house/business to ride from there. He was an excellent guide, and the 28 mile route through the countryside was beautiful. We stopped in Stow-on-the-Wold to get a picnic lunch, and ate at a local farm/brewery. We also went through Bourton-on-the-Water and several other small picturesque towns. It was a fantastic day out.
Posted by
London
1229 posts
I've done the walk Allan mentions many times, going along the river for the entire duration- it's a very nice walk and people do ride bikes on it. Some sections can get a bit narrow and it can get a bit challenging to share the space between bikes and pedestrians, but it's one of the nicest walks you can do in London, in my opinion.
Posted by
Land of La
10087 posts