The Carter Company

Royalty beckons with palaces at Kew, Richmond, Hampton Court and Windsor whilst the history of England is recorded in the fabric of the waterside defining the Thames as 'liquid history'. Enjoy the water meadows, old inns, wildlife and weirs that lead you on through your adventures.

With wonderful luxury hotels or cosy inns this trip is one of our favourites. The tranquil river path provides the route for much of this trip - we love it because it is flat and traffic free and the itinerary is relaxed. What a great way to discover the sights and smells of quintessential England!

5 days of cycling with two further days of optional cycling 10 - 24 miles (16 - 38 km) per day. Mostly flat with a mix of bike paths, gravel tracks and the occasional road and grass tracks. Almost completely traffic free.

Ride beside the sea, through lush green valleys, dip into Dartmoor National Park and enjoy gorgeous scenery and grand views. Pedal along former railway lines, through tunnels and across breathtaking viaducts and bridges. Enroute you will discover magical villages and cream teas you can't resist. Essentially rural but peppered with characterful towns, we have designed the tour with a leisurely tempo, balancing mileages and slopes to ensure as gentle a cycle each day as possible - that's the way we like to do things. And of course, every night you'll relax in our hand picked inns and hotels with a castle stay and gorgeous boutique hotels with spas and award winning restaurants included in our luxury tour.

Much of this route is traffic free as it slices through Devon from the north to the south. It includes the bike paths of the Tarka Trail, the Granite Way and the Plym Valley.

4 days of cycling and 2 days of optional cycling 15 -26 miles (24 - 42 km) per day on the classic tour. 5 days of cycling and one day of optional cycling 18-30 miles (29-48km) per day on the luxury trip. A few slopes most days and one or two steep hills some days. 70% traffic free.

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Awash with boats and beaches, forest tracks and sinuous estuaries, quirky pubs, wildlife and seafood galore, this is a tranquil sometimes remote area perfect for flat leisurely cycling, much of it traffic free.

With a characterful collection of hotels and 2 nights at each stop, you have the choice of relaxing on alternate days with a variety of boat rides on offer or exploring on foot or by bike with the routes we include. Each overnight location offers you something different - the Deben estuary at Woodbridge, the spit at Orford, the town at Aldeburgh and the pier and sandy beach at Southwold - with a great deal more in between!

3 days of cycling 18 - 22 miles (29 -35km) with 3 days of optional cycling or 4 days of optional walking. Almost no hills. 30% of cycling is traffic free. Otherwise quiet back lanes and 0.2 mile on a main road.

All are country houses in beautiful settings with tip top service. All have excellent restaurants and a number have spas. In fact you might want to relax for a day or so and leave your bike idle. Tailoring the itinerary and distances for you, this is the perfect way to enjoy the magic of the Cotswolds. If you like to have a knowledgeable local guide to lead you, we will be delighted to provide one. And if you prefer to have a support vehicle, we are very happy to include one. We have no doubt that we can create a really rather special Cotswolds experience just for you.

The itinerary outlines all the hotels we feel fit into this tailor made tour and the sample price given below is illustrative and includes 5 nights accommodation and breakfast at Estelle Manor Oxford, Foxhill Manor Broadway, Lords of The Manor Upper Slaughter, Cowley Manor and The Pig in the Cotswolds at Bibury, 4 days of self-led cycling of your chosen distance with all biking equipment, route notes or GPS, maps and transfers where required, airport transfer at the start of the tour and return to Oxford at the end of the tour, all luggage transfers, host briefing and entrance to Blenheim Palace and grounds.

The Cotswolds have some hills although we are adept at avoiding as many as possible

This tour can be tailor-made to your requirements.

It's an area of superb natural beauty with a wealth of picturesque villages, an unspoilt coastline, a plethora of castles and small railways and a colourful local history. The area is steeped in distinctive culture.

We are thrilled to have created this special ride which embraces all these wonderful and varied elements as it transports you from Mid Wales to Mount Snowdon and on to the island of Anglesey in North Wales. Stay in artful Portmeirion, view Cader Idris close up, visit castles from royal and grand to relic and haunted, freewheel along coast and estuary past weird and wonderfully sounding villages and towns and reward yourself with a final night's stay chateau style on Anglesey.

Of course, Wales is hilly, but our careful route planning and delightful use of local railways, coupled with E bikes means the ride is an utter dream. With plenty of traffic free miles on disused railway tracks and a couple of forays aboard steam trains, from the summit of Snowdon to the depths of a slate mine, this is a unique journey and a real adventure. With 2-night stays in gorgeous boutique hotels and a castle stay for the luxury option, as well as characterful Inns and small hotels for the classic version, you will steam through this glorious Celtic landscape.

5 days of not so gentle cycling of which 2 optional 14 - 22 miles (22 - 35 km) per day. Some hills most days. 20% traffic-free, rest on back lanes

As if that were not enough, the ride embraces a rich history. From Cirencester and Bath's Roman heritage, to Oxford's historic university - which dates back to 1167; from the 13th Century village of Lacock, to the grandiose Blenheim Palace and two rural canals - which are extraordinary feats of Victorian engineering. There's also lovely Tetbury and delightful Bradford on Avon to explore. All this is topped off by a really wonderful selection of rather unique hotels and inns you'll be staying in along the way.

7 days of cycling 10 - 25 miles (16 - 40 km) per day. Flattish with a few slopes on days three and four. 25% traffic-free, very low traffic on the rest

But on this tour you will discover it offers so much more. From the chalk downs to the coast, medieval towns to trendy seaside spots, vineyards to art galleries and castles to gardens your route leads you through all the wonderful variety of this unhurried region and includes a stay in stunning Leeds Castle.

Cycling along valleys, beside the sea, atop the downs and across ancient marshland, there's bundles to explore with characterful overnight stops brimming with local colour. We are great fans of this locale and so we can't recommend it enough!

7 days of not so gentle cycling 14 - 34 miles (22 - 54 km) per day plus optional miles. A few hills on most days. Very little traffic.

It may be short and it can be as laid back as the moment requires, but it encapsulates all that is so appealing in this much loved area. Pedal through a string of pretty hamlets and along forgotten leafy lanes. Enjoy the market towns of Stow on Wold and Moreton in Marsh and a farm shop extraordinaire. Discover medieval wall paintings, splash through fords and freewheel along hidden bridleways. And at the end of the day, we are sure you will love the characterful inn we have chosen for your 2 night stay and the excellent food and friendly hospitality it offers.

This break comes with quite a range of route choices and a huge flexibility in distances - from 10 to 40 miles per day, so you can have as relaxed or packed a break as you fancy. Gems on offer include Chipping Campden, the gardens at Hidcote Manor, the Slaughters, honey coloured stone thatched cottages, Bourton on Water, gurgling streams in hidden valleys and the oh so unspoilt market town of Burford.

2 days of cycling 10 - 40 miles (16 - 64 km) per day. 10% traffic free, very low traffic on the rest. Terrain, a few slopes.

The route traverses the full range of iconic Scottish landscapes, from epic mountains and lochs to forests and sweeping sand dunes. The reward at the end of each 'not so gentle' day is well worth the effort, with stays in Scotland’s finest hotels on the luxury holiday and in very lovely inns and small hotels on the classic trip.

With so much to see and do along the way, the option of staying two nights in each hotel comes highly recommended. Play on the world-famous golf courses, sample an award-winning 'wee dram' of whisky at a local distillery, take a flight in a sea plane over the Trossachs’ glens, visit historic castles and unspoilt medieval villages, explore the historic and culturally vibrant city of St. Andrews, or spend the day in tranquillity with a spot of fishing on the lochs. Nothing could be grander!

Not so gentle cycling - 4 days of cycling 53 miles (85 km) per day with 3,000 – 3,500 feet of climbing per day. Road cycling, hills aplenty! Most roads are minor; some short sections on busier roads

There is glorious cycling right beside the sea, castles and medieval towns to explore and a rich maritime history of old ports, shipwrecks and smuggling to discover.

You will ride through the many orchards that define this area as 'The Garden of England'. And then there's 'ye olde' Canterbury, full of pilgrim history, packed with museums, famous tales and vibrant with its maze of intriguing side streets.

5 days of cycling 8 - 20 miles (13 - 32 km) per day. Largely flat and traffic-free,