UK and Europe best routes?
Discussion
Hi all,
Really enjoyed my first year of riding, wasn't a bad British summer was it? Now looking forward to doing lots more miles in 2019. I'm based in the West Midlands, so forward planning, if you guys had to pick one weekend away for riding in the UK and one week away in Europe, what would be your top picks?
A very open ended question I know, but I'm trying to take my mind off thinking about how long I have to wait for winter to be over and do some longer trips.
Cheers
Really enjoyed my first year of riding, wasn't a bad British summer was it? Now looking forward to doing lots more miles in 2019. I'm based in the West Midlands, so forward planning, if you guys had to pick one weekend away for riding in the UK and one week away in Europe, what would be your top picks?
A very open ended question I know, but I'm trying to take my mind off thinking about how long I have to wait for winter to be over and do some longer trips.
Cheers
Boat to Dublin and explore Ireland. Even better if you time it with one of the many road races. The North West 200 is a fun week with races on alternate days. You can explore in between. You could do a great lap of County Donegal in between race days. It's like a smaller version of the Scottish Highlands.
If the dates don't work then Ulster GP is another highlight on the road race calendar. Also, there's new and very well organised race in Fermanagh.
Or forget the races and just do Ireland.
If the dates don't work then Ulster GP is another highlight on the road race calendar. Also, there's new and very well organised race in Fermanagh.
Or forget the races and just do Ireland.
Edited by gland on Tuesday 18th December 13:07
Mid/North Wales is great for an easy weekend of riding from the West Midlands or for a great weekend of riding suck up the motorway to the highlands of Scotland and explore Saturday/Sunday if you can make it a long weekend!
Europe is very subjective but from my very limited experience Austria was my favourite although have only done Northern France, Belgium, Mid/South Germany and may as well not count Switzerland.
Next Euro trip I'll be doing Spain for sure though as everything I have seen looks or sounds brilliant.
Europe is very subjective but from my very limited experience Austria was my favourite although have only done Northern France, Belgium, Mid/South Germany and may as well not count Switzerland.
Next Euro trip I'll be doing Spain for sure though as everything I have seen looks or sounds brilliant.
In the UK for a weekend, Wales. Loads of good roads both in the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia. For a long weekend the Scottish borders are great, but obviously take a while to get there.
For Europe a weekend isn't really long enough. Closest really good bits to the UK IMO are to the East and South of Cologne, but that's 400km from Calais. Ideally you need at least a week and head for the Alps.
For Europe a weekend isn't really long enough. Closest really good bits to the UK IMO are to the East and South of Cologne, but that's 400km from Calais. Ideally you need at least a week and head for the Alps.
RizzoTheRat said:
In the UK for a weekend, Wales. Loads of good roads both in the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia. For a long weekend the Scottish borders are great, but obviously take a while to get there.
For Europe a weekend isn't really long enough. Closest really good bits to the UK IMO are to the East and South of Cologne, but that's 400km from Calais. Ideally you need at least a week and head for the Alps.
... if you guys had to pick one weekend away for riding in the UK and one week away in Europe ...For Europe a weekend isn't really long enough. Closest really good bits to the UK IMO are to the East and South of Cologne, but that's 400km from Calais. Ideally you need at least a week and head for the Alps.
I had to read it twice too!!!
Oops
In that case the Alps is definitely doable, with the weekends for travel and the whole week to explore the fun stuff. Probably my favourite road was the one past lake Valvestino in Italy, but there's loads of fantastic roads all around the area. In general I'd say my favourites weren't the well know passes though, so it pays to have a flexible plan and go where looks good. This is why I personally prefer to camp as you don't need to plan stops ahead, but I get why a lot of people prefer to use hotels.
In that case the Alps is definitely doable, with the weekends for travel and the whole week to explore the fun stuff. Probably my favourite road was the one past lake Valvestino in Italy, but there's loads of fantastic roads all around the area. In general I'd say my favourites weren't the well know passes though, so it pays to have a flexible plan and go where looks good. This is why I personally prefer to camp as you don't need to plan stops ahead, but I get why a lot of people prefer to use hotels.
Definitely do the alps if you go to Europe. Not long got back from my 3rd trip over there. We based ourselves in Austria for the 6 day stay so no carrying luggage on the days out. Too many mountain passes to mention but we were doing around 250 mile per day and never hit a dull road. Weather is fantastic in summer (maybe too hot in some areas) and scenery is spectacular. Probably wasted 20% riding time each day stopping to take photos and take it in
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