The short answer
A long-distance cycle tour can look impossibly complicated when you first start planning it.
There is the route, the bike, your fitness, daily mileage, luggage, accommodation, transport to the start and dozens of smaller decisions. The trick is not to solve everything at once. Break the journey into a series of manageable questions, prepare enough to make the trip practical and safe, and then leave room for the journey itself to alter the plan.
Prepare enough to make the journey possible. Leave enough space for the journey itself to change the plan.
Why travel this way?
There are easier ways to travel. A plane can cross a country in hours. A train can carry you between major cities without revealing much of what lies between them. A bicycle does almost the opposite.
It exposes distance. Cities gradually become suburbs. Suburbs become farmland. The land starts to rise. Accents change. Buildings change. Weather systems arrive and pass over you. You smell the fields and the rain. You feel changes in temperature and road surface. A mountain range stops being something marked on a map because you have to climb it.
And because you are moving slowly, people notice you. A loaded bicycle invites questions. Where have you come from? Where are you going? Do you need water? Have you heard about the road ahead? Some of our strongest memories from long-distance journeys are not of the famous places we eventually reached but of conversations, unexpected hospitality and small encounters along the way.
There is a personal dimension too. Long journeys teach you what you genuinely need, how your body responds to repeated effort, what happens when plans fail and when persistence is useful — or when flexibility is the wiser choice.
On a bicycle, you do not simply visit a landscape. You move through it slowly enough to feel it changing around you.
Planning a Long Distance Tour
Start with the journey, not the equipment
Before deciding which panniers to buy or how many pairs of shorts to pack, work out what sort of journey you actually want.
Ask:
- Where do I want to ride?
- Roughly how far is it?
- How much time do I have?
- Am I trying to cover distance or explore slowly?
- Will I camp, use accommodation or mix the two?
- How remote is the route?
- Am I comfortable improvising as I go?
These decisions shape almost everything that follows.
A two-week ride between European towns is a very different undertaking from crossing Australia or the United States.
Read the landscape before drawing the route
Good cycle-route planning begins with geography rather than turn-by-turn navigation.
Look at the large map first.
- Where are the mountain ranges?
- Where do the rivers run?
- Where are the major crossings?
- Can valleys, canals or existing cycle routes provide easier corridors?
- Where are the large towns and long gaps between services?
Only then start choosing individual roads.
When we have ridden south through France towards Spain, for example, the broad geographical decisions came first: easier western terrain, major river crossings, useful canal corridors and a sensible approach to the Pyrenees. The exact roads could change. The geographical logic remained.
Read more → How to Plan a Long-Distance Cycling Route (forthcoming issue)
How far should you plan to ride each day?
There is no universal daily mileage. Terrain, climbing, road surface, weather, luggage and fitness all change the answer. And so does the purpose of the journey.
A 45-mile day that gives you time to stop somewhere interesting may be a better travelling day than forcing yourself through 70 miles simply because 70 was written in the plan.
The useful question is not: How far can I ride? It is: How far can I ride today and still be ready to ride tomorrow? That is particularly important on journeys lasting weeks or months.
Read more → How Many Miles Can You Cycle in a Day on a Cycle Tour? (forthcoming issue)
How fit do you need to be?
You do not need to be an exceptional athlete. Long-distance touring requires something rather different: sustainable fitness.
You need enough endurance to spend several hours on the bike, enough comfort to tolerate repeated days and enough recovery to get back on it the following morning. Practice riding on consecutive days before leaving. We have often found the third day particularly revealing. Aches that barely registered on Day 1 can become much more noticeable once two days of riding have accumulated.
A single long ride tests endurance. Three consecutive rides begin to test touring fitness.
You will probably become fitter as the journey develops. But there is a difference between getting fitter on tour and using the first week as your entire training programme.
Read more → How Fit Do You Need to Be for a Long-Distance Cycle Tour? (forthcoming issue)
Choose a bike you can live with
There is no single correct type of touring bicycle. What matters is whether the bike fits you properly, remains comfortable for long days, has sufficiently low gearing, carries the required load and can survive sustained use.
Our traditional touring bikes were heavy steel machines built for us by Paul Hewitt in Lancashire. Their great virtue was not fashion or lightness. They fitted us.
After thousands of miles, comfort matters much more than what category is written on the manufacturer’s website.
The best test of a touring bike is not how it feels after 20 miles. It is how it feels after six hours — and how willing you are to get back on it tomorrow.
Whatever bike you choose, ride it properly before departure. Load it. Climb hills on it. Find the irritating problems while you are still at home.
Read more → What Bike Do You Need for a Long-Distance Cycle Tour? (forthcoming issue)
Pack for the journey, not its duration
A long tour does not require an enormous amount of luggage. A ten-week journey may require little more clothing than a two-week journey because clothes are washed and reused.
The bigger differences are created by the route.
- Will you camp?
- Cook?
- Ride through remote areas?
- Need additional water capacity?
- Travel through several seasons?
Two riders can also share equipment rather than carrying two versions of everything. On our longer tours we shared the tent, cooking equipment and much of the main repair kit. And don’t assume that everything you start with has to reach the finish.
On our Oregon-to-Virginia crossing, camping equipment was valuable through the remote West. Later, once we were confident that accommodation would be available, we sent the tent and cooking equipment home.
The equipment had not been a packing mistake. It had simply finished its job.
A longer journey usually requires better systems, not more possessions.
Read more → What to Pack for a Long-Distance Cycle Tour (forthcoming issue)
Decide how independent you want to be at night
You can cycle tour entirely using hotels and motels. You can camp almost every night. Or you can mix the two. All are legitimate.
A tent adds weight but gives independence where accommodation is uncertain. Hotel-to-hotel touring can considerably lighten the bicycle where accommodation is reliable.
Whatever your preference, avoid booking an entire long journey before you leave. Our usual approach has been to book the first two or three nights, then work forward as the journey develops. By Day 10 of a 70-day trip, weather, fatigue, mechanical problems or somewhere you unexpectedly decide to stay may already have shifted the timetable.
A rolling plan is much easier to adapt.
Read more → Where Do You Stay on a Long-Distance Cycle Tour? (forthcoming issue)
Listen to people travelling the other way
Maps and route planners are valuable. Other cyclists can sometimes tell you what those tools cannot. On our TransAmerica crossing, we regularly stopped to talk to cyclists riding west while we were heading east. They had just travelled through the country we were about to enter. They knew whether the shop was still open, where the roadworks were, what the climb was really like and where cyclists were being offered somewhere to sleep.
The cyclist coming towards you has just ridden your tomorrow.
Those conversations also illustrate something important about travelling by bicycle. Practical information and human contact become intertwined. A five-minute roadside conversation can alter both the route and your memory of the day.
Getting the bicycle to the start
Sometimes the logistics are almost as challenging as the ride. You might fly with your bicycle. You might rent one. For a very long stay, buying locally can sometimes make sense. Or you might join an organised tour where the bicycle and much of the logistics are provided.
There is another possibility too: start travelling under your own power before reaching the official beginning. We have ridden to the station, taken bikes on trains to London, cycled across London, taken another train to Portsmouth and then ridden onto the ferry before continuing in Spain. At that point the journey has already started.
There is no universal best answer. For a long tour, the familiarity and fit of your own bicycle may justify considerable effort getting it there. For a shorter trip, renting may be far simpler.
Read more → Should You Take Your Own Bike Abroad? (forthcoming issue)
What will it cost?
Long-distance cycle touring can be surprisingly economical, but costs vary enormously according to how you travel.
The major variables are usually:
- transport to and from the route;
- accommodation;
- food;
- bike maintenance;
- equipment;
- insurance;
- and occasional emergency or alternative transport.
Camping can keep accommodation costs low. Hotels increase them significantly.
But an expensive bicycle and the lightest equipment available are not prerequisites for having a good journey.
Some of the richest experiences on our rides have cost almost nothing: a conversation beside the road, an unexpected view after a climb, someone offering water, or reaching a small town after a long day and simply sitting down with something to eat.
Don’t plan the journey to death
Preparation matters. A long tour needs a viable route, a suitable bicycle, enough fitness and a realistic understanding of where food, water and accommodation can be found.
But eventually planning can become counterproductive. You cannot know in advance exactly how you will feel on Day 38. You cannot accurately predict the weather. You will discover things from other cyclists. Roads will close. Some places will disappoint you. Others will make you want to stay.
The point of planning is to give yourself enough understanding to make good decisions when those things happen. Not to prevent them happening.
From our journeys
Much of the advice in this series comes from journeys where we have had to make these decisions ourselves.
End to End — Land’s End to John O’Groats
A journey through the length of Britain, with repeated days of changing weather, climbing and the peculiar satisfaction of understanding the scale of a country under your own power.
Read the journey →
Oregon to Virginia
Around 4,200 miles across the United States following the TransAmerica route.
Mountains, remote stretches, small towns, changing landscapes and extraordinary hospitality shaped 77 days on the road.
Down the Pacific Coast
A ride through continually changing landscapes and communities, eventually moving into the increasingly urban world of California.
San Diego to St Augustine
Another American crossing but through very different geography, weather and communities.
Perth to Sydney
Australia on a scale that only really becomes apparent when crossing it by bicycle: remoteness, heat, wind and enormous distances.
These are not simply examples of routes completed.
They are where much of the advice in this series came from.
What we have learned from long journeys
After enough miles, a few principles keep returning.
- You do not need to know everything before leaving. You need enough knowledge to begin safely and make sensible decisions.
- The first days are an adjustment. Rider, bicycle and luggage gradually begin to work together.
- Plans change. This is normal rather than evidence that the original plan failed.
- Other cyclists can be an extraordinary source of information.
- The journey is more than the destination. Much of what you remember happens between the places you thought you were riding to see.
- Flexibility is more useful than perfection.
Planning your own long-distance cycle tour?
To Come: These guides to work through the main decisions:
How Many Miles Can You Cycle in a Day on a Cycle Tour?
Work out a sustainable daily range rather than simply calculating your maximum distance.
How Fit Do You Need to Be for a Long-Distance Cycle Tour?
Prepare for repeated days rather than one enormous ride.
What Bike Do You Need for a Long-Distance Cycle Tour?
Fit, gearing, load-carrying, reliability and comfort matter more than labels.
What to Pack for a Long-Distance Cycle Tour
Carry what the route requires and let the journey edit the load.
Where Do You Stay on a Long-Distance Cycle Tour?
Camping, accommodation and the advantages of planning only a few days ahead.
How to Plan a Long-Distance Cycling Route
Read the landscape first, then choose the roads.
Should You Take Your Own Bike Abroad?
Compare taking your own bicycle with renting, buying locally and supported tours.
One final thought
A journey of several thousand miles can feel intimidating when viewed as a single undertaking.
But you never actually cycle several thousand miles at once.
You ride today’s road. You notice what is around you. You talk to people. You eat, sleep, occasionally repair something and get back on the bicycle the following morning.
Gradually the days accumulate. The landscape changes. And somewhere along the way you may discover that the journey has changed your understanding not only of the country you have crossed, but of yourself.
A long-distance cycle tour needs a plan. It does not need to be planned to death.