Brighton to Dorset

[Bibendum]

Hello chaps,

First post so please be gentle with me.

The missus & I are keen cyclists and having spent the majority of last summer finally moving house from London to Brighton last year - we are dead set on making the most of the summer this year rather than endlessly trapsing around furniture shops & dying a little bit inside in the process.
I've a bunch of chums in Weymouth and Ringstead in Dorset so I'm planning a trip from Brighton to there or thereabouts over the summer.

Speaking to a few people their opinion on how challenging this will be & how long it would take varies wildly.

Anyone done this before and any tips, recommendations, suggested routes etc?

We both have road bikes and are quite fine with cracking 50-60miles a day in.... but, we'd like to avoid as many hills as possible!

Thanks in advance. All answers greatly appreciated!

 

[rich p]

Not much help but you probably know that you can use the cycle path on the coast as far as West Worthing/Goring. The A259 gets pretty fast and unpleasant with traffic towards Littlehampton, so I'd avoid that section.

 

[Bibendum]

Not much help but you probably know that you can use the cycle path on the coast as far as West Worthing/Goring. The A259 gets pretty fast and unpleasant with traffic towards Littlehampton, so I'd avoid that section.

Hi Rich, another Brighton denizen.. Huzzah.

Yeah, we've tried the Worthing (just there and back yesterday afternoon as it goes) route - were planning to get over to Little Hampton at some point too but I'd heard that you had to travel inland and away from the actual coast which I'd obviously like to avoid also fast busy roads I want to avoid like the plague where possible.

Cheers anyway matey.

 

[rich p]

To get the quiet lanes you'll probably need to head towards (though not to)Petersfield, that is north of the Downs. It is really lovely over towards Buriton and South Harting and would be well worth the detour.

 

[andym]

Hmm Brighton to Weymouth avoiding as many hills as possible - a bit of a tall order!

There is an NCN route (or prospective route) along the coast but it does mean long urban stretches through Portsmouth, Bournemouth etc so probably better to head north or north west and then down through the New Forest before picking up the NCN at Wareham.

Bikely.com is a good source of inspiration:

http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/srchkey/brighton

 

[Bibendum]

Hmm Brighton to Weymouth avoiding as many hills as possible - a bit of a tall order!

There is an NCN route (or prospective route) along the coast but it does mean long urban stretches through Portsmouth, Bournemouth etc so probably better to head north or north west and then down through the New Forest before picking up the NCN at Wareham.

Bikely.com is a good source of inspiration:

http://www.bikely.com/listpaths/srchkey/brighton

Nicely done fellas.

I know it's a bit of a tall order but hey, you don't ask, you don't get. The other option would be to get to Portsmouth and then grab a ferry over to the Isle of Wight and have a good pootle around there to see what we can see. I've never been there before so it may be fun.

 

[andym]

Oh the Isle of Wight is definitely worth a visit. then ferry to Lymington and on to Weymouth.

 

[Headgardener]

Funnily enough that just what I was thinking.