Cycling Journeys
There are few better ways to discover a place than from the saddle of a bicycle. Travelling on two wheels brings the landscape close: the smell of wet earth after rain, woodsmoke from a distant house, heat rising from the road, the texture of gravel beneath the tyres and the changing sounds of towns, forests and open country. You feel every hill, notice the small settlements that faster travellers pass straight through, and can stop whenever something catches your attention. This is slow travel in its truest sense — not simply travelling slowly, but pausing, noticing and allowing a place to reveal itself.
Some of the journeys gathered here are rides we have made ourselves: long crossings such as Oregon to Virginia and Perth to Sydney, in which the physical challenge gradually became something more personal. Others are routes we recommend, have researched carefully, or would still like to ride. Every card below says which is which, and how far it runs.
They are arranged by country, because that is usually the order in which a ride gets chosen — first the place, then the ride. Journeys that belong to no single country sit under Europe, with the countries they pass through named on the card.
Find a ride by country
Nineteen rides in six groups, alphabetically. Fourteen have a page of their own; the rest are named here with what we know so far. Where a country sits inside another group — Canada inside the United States, the United Kingdom inside Europe — it points at the section that holds it.
Australia
One crossing, west coast to east, with the Nullarbor in the middle of it.
Europe
Journeys that belong to no single country, and one that belongs entirely to Britain. Four of the five are still to be written up. They are named here rather than left out, because they happened.
End to End
From Land's End at the south-west tip of England to John O'Groats at the northern tip of mainland Scotland — the length of the island.
End to End →
London to Prague and back
A journey across some of Europe's finest scenery: out to Prague and Berlin, and home again through the German plains and the Low Countries.
London to Barcelona
From Calais through western France, across the Gironde by ferry, round the eastern end of the Pyrenees and into Spain, finishing at Barcelona. Our ride of June 2004.
London to Barcelona →
We rode thisThe Ride That Stopped at Auch
Saint-Malo down the Atlantic coast to Auch, where illness stopped the ride; then, nine months later, Toulouse along the canal and over the foothills to Catalonia.
The Ride That Stopped at Auch →
London to Nice
London to the Mediterranean coast at Nice, the length of France. The account of this one has yet to be written.
Calais to the Pyrenees
The ride that followed End to End the year afterwards, from the Channel down to the mountains. It gets a mention at the close of the End to End account.
Japan
Three short rides, none of them far from a railway station, and every one of them possible in a long weekend.
Around Lake Biwa
Circling Japan's largest lake — 200 km the full way round, 150 for the northern loop, mostly flat, one hard day or three gentle ones.
Around Lake Biwa →
ResearchedThe Fuji Five Lakes
Five lakes at the northern foot of Mount Fuji, and a ride that chases the same mountain from one shore to the next.
The Fuji Five Lakes →
ResearchedThe Shimanami Kaidō
A seventy-kilometre ribbon of cycleway leaping island to island across the Seto Inland Sea, Honshu to Shikoku by way of six bridges.
The Shimanami Kaidō →
New Zealand
Seven, from easy day rides among the Hawke’s Bay vineyards to the length of the country. New Zealand carries more of our cycling pages than anywhere else, and the trails are the reason.
Tour Aotearoa
The length of the country on back roads and Great Rides, devised by Jonathan Kennett. It has no page of its own yet; for now it is the last entry on our New Zealand routes page.
On our New Zealand routes page →
ResearchedAlps 2 Ocean
New Zealand's longest cycle trail, from the foot of Aoraki/Mount Cook to the Pacific at Ōamaru: mostly downhill, with the wind meant to be behind you.
Alps 2 Ocean →
ResearchedHawke’s Bay Trails
Eight flat, easy loops from Napier and Hastings, along the sea, up the river stopbanks and out through the vineyards, with a cellar door never far away.
Hawke’s Bay Trails →
ResearchedOtago Central Rail Trail
New Zealand's original Great Ride: 152 km of old railway between Clyde and Middlemarch, laid through Central Otago on a gradient built for steam.
Otago Central Rail Trail →
We rode part of thisPou Herenga Tai — Twin Coast
New Zealand's only coast-to-coast trail, Ōpua to Hōreke across the Far North. We rode the western half; the page covers all of it and says which is which.
Pou Herenga Tai →
ResearchedThe Old Ghost Road
Eighty-five kilometres of singletrack between a ghost town and the sea, on a line two generations of road builders started and gave up on. The hardest of the Great Rides.
The Old Ghost Road →
ResearchedThe Timber Trail
Through the middle of the North Island on a line the timber men left behind, over eight suspension bridges and the world's only rideable railway spiral.
The Timber Trail →
South Korea
One ride, and very nearly all of it is bike path.
United States
Three crossings, two of them ocean to ocean, and one that begins in Canada.
Oregon to Virginia
Across ten states on a steel-framed touring bike, with panniers for luggage and a small tent for accommodation.
Oregon to Virginia →
We rode thisSan Diego to St Augustine
The southern crossing, from San Diego in California to St Augustine on the Florida coast: Pacific to Atlantic by the warmer road.
San Diego to St Augustine →
We rode thisDown the Pacific Coast
From Vancouver on the Canadian west coast to San Diego at the Mexican border — a journey full of incidents and surprises.
Down the Pacific Coast →
A final word on riding a long way
A long ride does not really give you a country. It gives you a line drawn through one, at the particular width of everything you can see from a saddle — and that turns out to be plenty.
Andrew + Margaret
- All our journeys, by how you travel Journeys
- Best cycling routes in New Zealand Overview
- Can I cycle in New Zealand? Practical
- Best cycling routes in South Korea Overview
- Can I see Japan by bike? Practical
- Ngā Haerenga, the New Zealand Cycle Trail Official
- Adventure Cycling Association Official
- EuroVelo, the European cycle route network Official