Brighton to Brugge... and how to get back!!

[EmilyCC87]

Hello all,

I am organising a charity ride for me and 5 friends to cycle from Brighton to Brugge.
The route to Brugge is under way with the help of MapMyRide and similar websites but we are struggling to work out how we will get back.
We are making the ride there 300 miles (detour to Lille, Antwerp, Gent) and our target is 3 days so 100 miles a day. I don't think we will want to cycle back(!) so we are looking for a low cost but relatively painless route back (if such thing exists?!)
Has anyone done simlair or even a section of this journey?

Any advice, help or tips are welcome- for the way there or the way back, what to take, what to wear, what not to do etc etc!!

We are all quite new to cycling but really up for a challenge and we've got a while to get some serious training in as we are not going till September. How much training should we do??

Many thanks

Em x

 

[Brains]

You can get back most of the way by train at least to the French boarder.
I would very strongly advise a long look at onward transport as we made the mistake of cycling it, it may be only about 30 miles but due to the headwinds it took us about 8 hours and we missed two ferries.

 

[snorri]

Just to clarify, you are wanting to do a circular tour taking in Lille (France), Brugge, Gent and Antwerpen (Belgium), visiting these places in no particular order and have no preference for Eurostar or ferries/ferry terminals on either side of the Channel?

 

[BalkanExpress]

One possibility, (which I have not tried)

From Brugge it is a short hop to Ostend (either on the bike or by train) then ferry to Ramsgate

http://www.transeuropaferries.com/index.php?page=static&item=1

Ramsgate to St Pancras on HS1 and then St Pancras to Brighton.

The easiest and probably quicker, if more expensive, alternative is train Brugge to Brussels then Eurostar to St Pancras

 

[EmilyCC87]

Thanks for such quick responses!
Yes we want to be very organised as we are going to be shattered- the last thing we want is to miss trains or ferrys!
Is it easy to do via train through France?? It doesn't come up much in searches and I'd imagine it would be at least 4 changes?
The route there is planned- Brighton to Folkestone on day 1. (euro tunnel to Calais- very cheap and a bike friendly service I hear!) day 2 Calais to Lille, then to Gent. Day 3 is Gent to Antwerp then on to Brugge.

Unfortunately they don't take any foot passengers on the Ostend/Ramagate route. Such a shame as this would be the best route back.

We are not fussed how we get back- no preference on ferry port. Though Newhaven is down the road which is very appealing. Ferrys only go to Dieppe from there.

I think you are right about the Eurostar as it would be direct from Brussels to London. It just angers me that they want £30 for each bike!!

Keep the ideas coming- thanks all x

 

[mcr]

How about: hourly train from Brugge to De Panne on the border with France (takes an hour with 1 change - €5 per bike on top of train fare, which shouldn't be too much), cycle 30km via the seafront to Gravelines/Dunkerque, take Norfolk Line ferry (1 every two hours for £15/head if you book early) to Dover, train back to Brighton via Ashford?

 

[srw]

Or there's a tram from Zeebrugge to the French edge of De Panne - tickets cost €2. De Panne to Dunkerque is pancake flat and very bike friendly.
http://www.delijn.be/en/vervoerbewijzen/types/biljet/index.htm#fiets

 

[Brains]

Or there's a tram from Zeebrugge to the French edge of De Panne - tickets cost €2. De Panne to Dunkerque is pancake flat and very bike friendly.
http://www.delijn.be/en/vervoerbewijzen/types/biljet/index.htm#fiets

That's exactly what we did.
Just make sure you do not have a strong headwind on the day, as that 30 mile cycle took 6 experienced cyclist about 8 hours, two members walked from Dunkirk to the ferry port (10 miles) as it was faster and less exhausting than cycling.

Also be aware that the ferry port of Dunkirk is near Gravelines which is closer to Calais than it is to Dunkirk, so you don't need to go within miles of the actual town/port of Dunkirk at all

 

[vernon]

Hello all,

I am organising a charity ride for me and 5 friends to cycle from Brighton to Brugge.
The route to Brugge is under way with the help of MapMyRide and similar websites but we are struggling to work out how we will get back.
We are making the ride there 300 miles (detour to Lille, Antwerp, Gent) and our target is 3 days so 100 miles a day. I don't think we will want to cycle back(!) so we are looking for a low cost but relatively painless route back (if such thing exists?!)
Has anyone done simlair or even a section of this journey?

Any advice, help or tips are welcome- for the way there or the way back, what to take, what to wear, what not to do etc etc!!

We are all quite new to cycling but really up for a challenge and we've got a while to get some serious training in as we are not going till September. How much training should we do??

Many thanks

Em x

Is there any special reason for you needing to cross the channel to do 300 miles worth of cycling? It would be much less hassle and cheaper if you did it in England. You could then donate the savings made to the charity giving the fundraising a substantial boost.

Just a thought.

As for training - there's no substitute for getting out and getting the miles in.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Brugge to Dunkirk (DFDS ferry port) is only about 60 flat miles cycling, by the time you've faffed about with trains etc. you might as well just ride it. There are crossings every 2 hours which you should be able to just turn up for and it's cheap (we paid £10 each way last August).

 

[EmilyCC87]

Wow, that head wind sounds horrific!

I wonder if its something you can find out before hand??

We could do 300 miles in England but we are doing Brugge for many reasons-
1. it sounds better!
2. If i'm going to do such a big challnge I'd like some good scenery/something different
3. It may be my only chance to get a abroad this year!

The train sounds feasible, I'm trying to find out routes but can't seem to find a decent train ticket website that covers France and Belgium. RailEurope keeps telling me that the tickets are unavailable for the date I choose but I keep changing the date and it still wont work!
Depending how we feel we may go for the ride to Dunkirk then Ferry across, I'm worried none of us will be able to walk though, let a lone ride!
Thanks for all your help,

Emily x

 

[TheDoctor]

I can vouch for the unpleasantness of the headwind, having spent 4 hours grovelling my way from Calais to Wimereux once upon a time. It's not always there...
8 hours to do 30 miles sounds more like a head-gale to me!!
Anyhow, the Ostend ferry is barely set up for cars IMHO - it's really a freight route, and pretty grim. The Dunkirk ferry is your best bet, with Calais as a runner-up.

 

[Brains]

8 hours to do 30 miles sounds more like a head-gale to me!!
.

It was a stiff breeze, the trouble is it's straight off the sea.
Two of us regular commuter types found that by slipstreaming for 100m at a time we could hit 7mph in the full force of the wind and 9mph if you could sneak up on a building or tree, but we could not keep it up for long.

What we should have done was:

• Not had such a big lunch at De Panne (great restaurant on the Belgian side of the boarder)
• Gone well inland rather than trying to stay on the coast
• Found if there has a train from De Panne area to Calais and then cycled with the wind behind us to Dunkirk ferry port at Gravelines
• Checked the weather forecast

 

[mcr]

The train sounds feasible, I'm trying to find out routes but can't seem to find a decent train ticket website that covers France and Belgium. RailEurope keeps telling me that the tickets are unavailable for the date I choose but I keep changing the date and it still wont work!

I don't think that there are any trains crossing the border at the point. All Belgian trains terminate at De Panne and the trains out of Dunkerque all seem to head south to Lille or west to Calais, so that does leave a gap to get across by some means. It's easy enough to price up trains on the Belgian leg here. You can print out your own ticket and can even prepay for the €5 bike ticket up to a month in advance and write the date in on the day (but it's probably just as easy to do things from a ticket machine at Brugge on the day). For general route-planning (though not international ticket-buying) there always the good old German Railways site.