kids children touring

[jonathan ellis]

I'd like to do a small "weekend" bike ride next year with my son.

Hes 7 and can do 20 - 30 miles in a day

I'd like an off road or minimal very quiet roads for the duration

whats available? all i can find in this country is short disused railway lines of about 8 miles.. anything longer?



Do I have to go to France?

cheers all

 

[vernon]

I'd like to do a small "weekend" bike ride next year with my son.

Hes 7 and can do 20 - 30 miles in a day

I'd like an off road or minimal very quiet roads for the duration

whats available? all i can find in this country is short disused railway lines of about 8 miles.. anything longer?



Do I have to go to France?

cheers all

Taff Trail - not all of it on disused track some of is is besides reservoirs and some minor urban incursions.

Tarka Trail - not sure of it's l;ength but it is v scenic

There's substantial pats of the Trans Pennine Cycle route off road

There's substaial parts of the NCN1 Coast and Castles route on very quiet roads through the borders and down the Northumberland coast

A large chunk of Hadrians Cycle route is also on v quiet roads. The route through Newcastle will be a bit of an adventure for the kids most thisn bit being on pavement based cycle paths.

There's also the Byeways to explore http://www.thenationalbyway.org/

Hope that helps.

 

[jonathan ellis]

thanks you two

i feel an excursion is due

 

[ChrisKH]

Crikey, I wish my eight year old could do 20 miles a day!

 

[wafflycat]

Norfolk. Zillions of quiet lanes from village to village with loads of Ye Olde Tea Shoppes for ice cream and cakes. Then there's off-road in Thetford Forest, complete with visitor centre for ice cream and cakes.

 

[wafflycat]

No fear. I'm the daughter of the mother of all Old Witches and I'm used to that

 

[cisamcgu]

Hi,

I did a three day tour of Cheshire with my 11 year old daughter. Between 12 and 20 miles per day. It was organised by these people and we had a grand time. Very quiet roads for 95% of the time. There is a report on crazyguyonabike wot I rote - see my sig below.

Thanks
Andrew

 

[Bodhbh]

There's the section of the Ridgeway bridleway west of the Thames between Goring-Streatley and Liddington. Without checking it's about 20-30miles, all 200m+ up with amazing views north over flat country and passes directly by serveral Iron Age Hill forts, burial mounds and the White Horse of Uffington. Great campsite at Uffington where you can buy wood and have a fire right under the White Horse too. Quite rutted in parts, probably need a MTB, although did see a couple off peeps trying it with drop-bar bikes.

 

[Kirstie]

A friend of mine took his family (including two lads aged 7 and 9) on a tour of norfolk recently and by all accounts it was a roaring success. Don't know much about the route but it involved lots of youth hostels, beaches and bird watching places...

 

[pinkkaz]

A friend of mine did the "Camel Trail" in North Cornwall. Only 18 miles though but I'm sure it would be easy to extend!

http://www.ncdc.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=13629

 

[Enogeze]

8,000km with an 8 year old - just thought this could be inspirational

 

[Trillian]

there's the tissington trail in derbyshire, it links up with another trail that joins onto it, my gf wants to do both in one day (her parents live near by) not sure how we'd get back home again as she claims its 40 miles total (doing both)

i've only done sections of the tissington trail, it goes from / through ashbourne and you can stop at lots of small villages (eg tissington) that are very quiet traffic wise, and lots of lovely views.

not sure if that helps

 

[john2702]

My son's four-and-a-half and not off his stabilisers yet.

Still, he managed six miles a couple of weekends ago.

It'll be great when he can manage 50+.

One day we cycled to my local. Where do you want to go next? I asked. Another pub daddy!
Where do you want to go next? I asked. Another pub daddy.

Sounded good to me!

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

Excellent thread: I'm very interested in the suggestions 'cos Little-LC (8yo) wants to do something similar as soon as we can. While walking in Snowdonia this year, she encountered a Youth Hostel and was intrigued by the whole walking / cycling from place to place idea. Youth Hostels or a "purple hotel" (Travel Inn to you or I) would suit us 'cos although we camp a lot all of our tents tend towards the large size and wouldn't fit on the bikes.

She's only done 13-14 miles at a time to date, but I'm sure she could go further if we made sure we had plenty of hot chocolate and cake stops: those runs were all done in 3-4 hours so we should be able to work up to a slightly longer range given time.

 

[DJ]

I'd like to do a small "weekend" bike ride next year with my son.

Hes 7 and can do 20 - 30 miles in a day

I'd like an off road or minimal very quiet roads for the duration

whats available? all i can find in this country is short disused railway lines of about 8 miles.. anything longer?



Do I have to go to France?

cheers all

I see you live in London, try cycle route four (See maps from sustrans) from Barnes then connect up with the Kennet and Avon canal and carry on west until your nackered.
The advantage of this is there are lots of train stations from which you can get back to the smoke easily on.

Enjoy.