GO LIGHT, OVERNIGHT
Why not double those day-rides with cheap bike-friendly accommodation websites, encourages Rob Ainsley...
Cycling is how I get around. Usually, it’s with as much just-in-case luggage as for a week touring: laptop, badweather gear, inflatable boat and so on.
The idea of a rack and panniers is foreign to most of my cycling chums, but I get their point. Indeed, recently I’ve enjoyed a few two-day, travelling-ultra-light trips, overnighting with little more than a toothbrush and phone.
I just did a light overnight from Glasgow to Edinburgh, all on canal towpaths. It’s a fabulous route – recently tarmacked, flat and family friendly. It has cafés, pubs, sights and selfie ops aplenty. Falkirk’s amazing Wheel, half-lock half-waltzer, that links canals 25m vertically apart; the Kelpies, giant kitsch horse sculptures resembling nightmare chess pieces; ghostly tunnels and precipitous aqueducts; outside Broxburgh, a bizarre landscape of monster spoil heaps, Scotland’s answer to Uluru.
Such extravagance used to be called ‘credit card touring’ – the load-free but
Your clacking cleats are drowned out by the high heels, and that’s the stags
lavish lifestyle of hotels not camping gear, restaurants not gas-stove pasta. Luckily these days nobody minds you turning up to a restaurant in cleats, cycling top and tights. In York where I live, compared to the stag and hen fancy dress parties, bike gear is positively drab. Your clacking cleats are drowned out by the high heels, and that’s the stags.
Maybe ‘internet touring’ is a better term now, because several website accommodation options mean you can travel light, overnight, easily, on a budget. Tea, toiletries, towels – all provided. My Falkirk B&B was under 30 quid through booking.com, one of my regular bargainhunting tools.
Warmshowers.org is another good web resource. It’s couch surfing for cyclists: fellow members offer you a free bed (and often a meal) on a ride, on the understanding that one day you’ll do the same. Because they’re cyclists too, they understand you might want to collapse straight into bed after a 120-miler – or might want to talk bikes in depth over a drink. I’ve always had good Warmshowers experiences with great people, some of whom have become good friends. Well, Facebook friends, anyway.
Airbnb, which lets people rent rooms in their house as informal B&Bs online, has many affordable, bike-aware places. I stayed recently at one: the toilet didn’t flush, the shower had two settings (freezing/scalding), the doors didn’t close, and there was a lodger they hadn’t told me about. So it felt just like being at home. Most importantly, they were happy for my bike to come inside. Thankfully the bedroom didn’t make it too grubby.
People who’ve been cycling for 60 years – the sort you chat to on your club ride as they overtake you – will maintain that hotels used to be the preserve of the wealthy tourer. Not now, thanks to budget chains such as Premier Inn and Travelodge.
There are bargains. Many times in the last year I’ve stayed for £30, or less on Sunday nights. And they bend over backwards to welcome cyclists. Sometimes literally, as they move laundry to clear a space for your bike in the cleaner’s cupboard.
Premier Inn’s website has a substantial bike section, and states company policy that you can always take a (cleanish, dryish) bike into your room. Travelodge has always obliged me similarly. Other hotels have at worst found an unused conference suite to stow it. My bike’s spent more time in meeting rooms than I ever have. No need to bring your heavy lock...
Light overnighting works best in summer’s long daylight – there’s only so much to do on a dark winter evening in your cycling longs with only a toothbrush for entertainment – but in summer you can cycle till late. And just that single overnight more than doubles your range: in two days, travelling out of a small saddlebag, you could do London to Manchester.
I still prefer kitchen-sink touring, knowing I have life’s necessities: books, picnic lunch, binoculars, table tennis kit (you’d be amazed how many free public tables there are). But for the baggage-phobic, I can recommend moving beyond the daycircuit from a car park. Light overnighting may even be a trend: York Cycle Stop now offers swish rural glamping pods specifically for luggage-free bike tourists. Happy touring!