how to make a tour work.

[jags]

so what's the ingredients for a good tour, be it a week or a month.
for me it has to be good weather and if the company is good then that's an added bonus .but i also like.
good campsites,
quiet country roads,
meeting up with other campers /tourers.
i like all my gear to be working really well everything.
i'm not really a drinker but a pint before bedtime ah makes me rest better.
if i'm going well a hilly route is fine better scenery at the top.
anyway enough about what i like ,what does it for you folks.
cheers
jags.

 

[psmiffy]

Good weather and Variety is what I like

 

[TwoInTow]

I've been musing a lot this week on our next tour, and I've been thinking how very different a tour needs to be if you have children. So few people seem to do it, and it really changes things. Even looking at CGOAB, a lot of the 'touring with kids' journals are really about adults doing it with one, maybe two, teenagers - which is a totally different proposition. I can't wait to get to that point, because it will be so much easier. But for now, the things which really matter are:

- being able to get to the start point in one piece. This is quite difficult (as you'll have seen from my threads this week!). And back from the end point! As an adult, you can take a long time to get there, you can catch loads of different trains/ferries/buses, you can throw your gear in the back of a car or van... As a family, this just won't work.

- lots and lots of campsites along the route. Because you can't ask an 8-year-old at the end of the day just to tough it out for another 10Km. And accommodation gets so expensive when you're paying for four - crashing in a B&B absolutely has to be the exception rather than the rule.

- good quality cycleways and surfaces are more important - partly because the children can cope with less; partly because you are likely to have more/bigger panniers or a trailer, so gates and barriers that are merely irritating for most are an Everest for us.

- good campsites are much more important. As an adult, the playground is irrelevant, you can put up with bad showers etc, you can cycle into the village for a pint etc. With kids, the playground is a godsend, washing them and their clothes etc in a cramped shower block is a nightmare, and you can't get away for a pint, so if there's somewhere nice to sit etc actually at the campsite it's really appreciated. Especially since you're carrying the kids' luggage, so you probably won't have a chair-kit etc for yourself.

- beautiful scenery is important, but it's best if it's broken up with interesting things to do/see - anything from kid-friendly museums, castles, trampolines, waterslides etc. But something rather than just landscape-gazing.

I'm really not making family touring sound good at all, am I? It is fantastic, though.

 

[furball]

I don't have kids so only have myself to think of. I like to plan a route which finishes at a music festival.

 

[HelenD123]

Scenario 1 - the comfortable/softie option

Good weather
Quiet roads
Nice scenery
A route within my physical capabilities
Access to good food, whether to cook or eat out
Campsites at frequent intervals so I can stop when I feel like it
Bumping into other cycle tourers, especially to spend the evening with
No problems with the bike or gear (no more broken spokes!)

Scenario 2 - 'I'm in it for the physical challenge and spectacular scenery'

Jaw dropping scenery
Great free camping
Good weather
Getting a buzz from getting to the top of that hill you didn't think you'd conquer
Bumping into other cycle tourers, especially to spend the evening with
No problems with the bike or gear (no more broken spokes!)

 

[Kirstie]

For me it's beautiful scenery and great company. Great food and beer and a bit of B&B luxury are an optional extra. I've had some of my best touring experiences when I've struggled to find food or a place to sleep because discovering your own resourcefulness and 'winging it' occassionally is one of the pleasures - i like to surprise myself occassionally.

 

[rich p]

Scenery, weather, beer and wine sort of sums it up for me.

 

[snorri]

I've had some of my best touring experiences when I've struggled to find food or a place to sleep because discovering your own resourcefulness and 'winging it' occassionally is one of the pleasures - i like to surprise myself occassionally.

I think you have summed up my feelings too! As one who prefers to just go, with very lttle forward planning, almost every day on tour is a 'winging it' day.

 

[Ticktockmy]

Scenario 1 - the comfortable/softie option

Good weather
Quiet roads
Nice scenery
A route within my physical capabilities
Access to good food, whether to cook or eat out
Campsites at frequent intervals so I can stop when I feel like it
Bumping into other cycle tourers, especially to spend the evening with
No problems with the bike or gear (no more broken spokes!)

Scenario 2 - 'I'm in it for the physical challenge and spectacular scenery'

Jaw dropping scenery
Great free camping
Good weather
Getting a buzz from getting to the top of that hill you didn't think you'd conquer
Bumping into other cycle tourers, especially to spend the evening with
No problems with the bike or gear (no more broken spokes!)

Spot on for me, sometime a little pain make the tour all the more enjoyable at the end and gives a great sense of achevement.

 

[psmiffy]

Spot on for me, sometime a little pain make the tour all the more enjoyable at the end and gives a great sense of achevement.

Speaking for myself the pain is something I endure but really can do without - at the time there may be a sort of fiendish pleasure in grinding out the hills or crashing on through a deluge but I have have always looked upon touring as a pleasant way to explore new places rather than being a challenge.

 

[roundisland]

I will be able to comment more after completing my first foreign tour in May but I'm hoping for good food, great scenery, quite roads and a few challenges.

 

[dragon72]

Don't mind where, just so long as the roads are not flat and straight for too long!
I remember when I started bike touring I actually avoided hills. I soon learned.

 

[Dave Davenport]

Scenery, weather, beer and wine sort of sums it up for me.

+1 but in reverse order and with the addition of (lots of) food.

 

[Bodhbh]

I don't have kids so only have myself to think of. I like to plan a route which finishes at a music festival.

Bit OT. I have considered this, or at least mixing up a weekend at a festival with some cycling (i.e. the Green Man in the Brecon Beacons with some off-roading). However, what do you do about bike security?

I'm not particularly paranoid about it, but music festivals....Unless they've changed a fair bit in the last 10yrs, I wouldn't even want to take a decent tent.

 

[vernon]

The ability to set of knowing only what the start and finish points are and the bits in between are totally unplanned makes my tours enjoyable because each day is a surprise.