Summer 2019, UK and Scotland

siraulu

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Hi,
I'm already planning next summer tour and a strong candidate is UK-Scotland tour.

At the moment it will be:
London, Epping - York
York - Edinburgh
Edinburg - Inverness
Inverness - Glasgow
Glasgow - Liverpool
Liverpool - Oxford
Oxford - Epping

So, any tips along the route? Perhaps some "must see" -places, good accomodation, food, pubs, distilleries...
I'm riding with my wife so no long gravel trips...

Thank you in advance!
 
You haven’t told how long you have set aside for this jaunt, nor whether you fancy complete days off seeing ‘stuff’.

When it comes to hotels, are you:

A. Looking for one in each of the stops (I guess they are stops?) you have listed?

B. Wanting five star or cheap B&B’s?

Are you also looking for detailed lists of which roads to ride?
 
Max time is two weeks. For the whole trip I mean.

And the accomodation, from B&B to reasonable priced hotel. 5 stars are out our our budget.

No, not detailed list, just some tips. I have always had a detailed plan and never ridden the planned route :)
 
When in Scotland, spend as long as you can north of Glasgow/Edinburgh. Scenery and roads are fantastic. Make a visit to Applecross over Bealach na Ba, take a tour underground in the Cruachan Power Station, ride the A85 from Tyndrum to Dalmally, then take the A819 to Inveraray for an ice cream by the pier. Catch the A82 through Glencoe - scenery is stunning all around. :thumb2

Whenever we visited Scotland we based ourselves in Fort William for a few nights and took a different route to a different place each day. This is where we stayed - http://westcourt-fortwilliam.co.uk/ .Another very good biker friendly spot is this place - https://www.buccleucharmshotel.com/ - it's further south close to the Scotland/England border counties..

Few nights in the same place might not work for you as you are touring point to point....but still there's some food for thought there....
 
Thank's! A82 is already on my plan but having a couple of days in Fort William sounds a very good idea!
 
What month are you planning? It makes a big difference for the number of people and insects - as it does in Lapland, I have been in mozzie season! And that affects routes and places to go/avoid. July & August are busy and biting.

Where in Finland are you coming from?
 
Super useful this. I’m planning 2 weeks mid/end of June up to Skye then Lewis and Harris then back down south via Durham

How bad are the biting gits in June?
 
Your route and plans are going to mean you spend a lot of time on big roads between big cities. Spend more time in Scotland away from cities and miss Liverpool and Oxford....do them next year!
 
As mentioned, aim to spend more time in Scotland and just travel on the big roads in England to get you to where you want to be, traveling on minor roads in England can end up like a dot to dot of small villages and 30mph zones, so a 100 mile stretch could take you several hours in reality with lots of traffic. Also places like Liverpool have some great places to visit if your into Museums/Beatles history/shopping etc, but not much in the way of actual scenery, although you could have a trip on a canal boat along one of the many canals between Liverpool and Leeds area? Definitely avoid the cities during 7am-9.30am and 3.30pm to 6.30pm, outside those times they are still busy, but the traffic can double you times in rush hour(s).


James
 
siraulu said:
Hi,
I'm already planning next summer tour and a strong candidate is UK-Scotland tour.

At the moment it will be:
London, Epping - York
York - Edinburgh
Edinburg - Inverness
Inverness - Glasgow
Glasgow - Liverpool
Liverpool - Oxford
Oxford - Epping

So, any tips along the route? Perhaps some "must see" -places, good accomodation, food, pubs, distilleries...
I'm riding with my wife so no long gravel trips...

Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...

Back on track from the midges....

This from Alpentourer magazine might well help you:

9646cfb12fa1e31e7be056c3b357429e.png


And this:

b94c31f5198e8c01740d4420ffd80ea2.png


I am a big believer in asking something to do some of the work for me. That doesn’t mean that I’ll ride the roads exactly but it will give me an idea of the sort of direction I’ll need to take and the distances involved. I put your destinations between Epping and Scotland and Scotland back to Epping into the excellent (free) Kurviger website. This gave me:

37c8873716e4e11c5f57fffd9be7dbb1.png


6924b75394c466f9dc159b4ab00ae204.png


2debe41c558b797e4a789dbe7a5d9d66.png


39972085225ac57517b0c988a3d3ed49.png


bf518ac295525038d2b1855558e23893.png


For each, I asked Kurviger to exclude motorways but to give me ‘twisty’ roads but not to give me ‘tiny’ roads.

You can play around with the settings. For example, you can ask Kurviger to give you a sort of mixture:

e1ec9828cb492c6d762ac6947dee6374.png


You could then ask a different piece of free software to give you an alternative idea. For this I’d suggest using the ViaMichelin website. I chose this website as you can zoom in, which will display the route in excellent Michelin maps in all their detail; all for free. As a very basic example, ViaMichelin offers up two alternatives for Epping to York:

663789f08cfe791a9c592571dd9f309a.png


Is it hard to do? No. I did it all on an iPad in bed, in just a few minutes. These few minutes included taking the screen shots, then turning on Tapatalk to create the post.

Can you break it? No. So play around, it’s free.

You have two weeks of holiday available to you. It’s all completely doable.

Have fun.

Richard

PS Use Tripadvisor and / or similar websites / apps to find chose your hotels. Why? Otherwise you’ll maybe get lists of hotels from bods, none of which might suit you as you’ll be nowhere near where they suggest at bedtime. Similarly, you - and only you - know the sort of places you like.

Distilleries to see? Google up the lists. See which one(s) you fancy, where they sit on your map and work out if you’ll have time in your day(s) to see them. Here’s an easy start:

https://www.visitscotland.com/see-do/food-drink/whisky/distilleries/


Other stuff to see and do? Go to the Scottish tourist board website. Or just Google: ‘10 best things to do in Scotland’. You could even go as far as asking for ‘The 100 best things to do.....’
 
gerarddwatts said:
Your route and plans are going to mean you spend a lot of time on big roads between big cities. Spend more time in Scotland away from cities and miss Liverpool and Oxford....do them next year!
Click to expand...

Good point... I don't like much riding in big cities. But Oxford... I was there maybe 15 years ago and that's one of the "must see" places this time :)
 
Northern jock said:
What month are you planning? It makes a big difference for the number of people and insects - as it does in Lapland, I have been in mozzie season! And that affects routes and places to go/avoid. July & August are busy and biting.

Where in Finland are you coming from?
Click to expand...

Early June. I'd like to be in Finland on my cotteage during Juhannus (that's our midsummer party). Couple of years ago I noticed that you celebrate midsumemr too. We wanted to see Stonehenge and were there just in midsummer. And so were hundreds (or thousands?) druids and the whole area was full. They did not let us go there, too many people.

We are coming from Lappeenranta
 
There is only one big city in the UK. That city is London. All the rest are quite manageable. Ride into them and stay in them, if it suits your plans to do so.
 
A good way of hitting some great roads in Scotland would be to do the North Coast 500 (nc500). Personally, I thing that the far north and the western sections are the best, but it gives you a nice corcular route taking in some cracking roads and scenery. Just be aware that parts of it can get busy and you will likely have to book hotels etc in advance.
The route is easily followed and there is lots of info on the web.
 
Wapping said:
Back on track from the midges....
You could then ask a different piece of free software to give you an alternative idea. For this I’d suggest using the ViaMichelin website. I chose this website as you can zoom in, which will display the route in excellent Michelin maps in all their detail; all for free. As a very basic example, ViaMichelin offers up two alternatives for Epping to York:

PS Use Tripadvisor and / or similar websites / apps to find chose your hotels. Why? Otherwise you’ll maybe get lists of hotels from bods, none of which might suit you as you’ll be nowhere near where they suggest at bedtime. Similarly, you - and only you - know the sort of places you like.
Click to expand...

Quite right. I have used both Kurviger and Michelin, both are very good. And Tripadvisor too. I use it almost every time when selecting a hotel.
Like years ago, my wife chose a hotel randomly from New York. I checked it from Tripadvisor, it was selected the worst hotel in New York, few years in row. We chose another hotel :)

But really, everybody says stay in Scotland. And I believe you.
 
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