cycling holiday companies

Saddle Skedaddle has a huge range of trips

Peak Tours has trips in the Peak District

Bikecation has trips in UK and Europe

Hooked on Cycling has trips in Europe and Canada

Cycle Active have mountain bike and road holidays around the world

Cycle Fiesta have guided and self guided trips in Spain

Norske Bygdeopplevelser have cycling trips in Norway

Many of the main activity holiday companies run cycling trips


The Guardian website has a cycling holidays section

The Travel Lists website has a cycling holidays section with UK and overseas operators

The Cycle Holidays directory isn't very attractive

C2C has a short list of cycling holiday companies

burma in october ...

i previously wrote a post about searching for a holiday - going through lots of different websites ... well, this time i found a decent search engine called Tour Radar ... hope it survives !

i'm looking for a trip to Burma which leaves on or after Friday 5th October and returns by 1st November ... and can be away up to about 16 days (3 weekends) ...

one of the cheapest options is Imaginative Traveller / Gecko who have a trip for 951 gbp - it includes an overnight train to Bagan/Pagan but doesn't mention whether it's a seat or bed (most trip fly up) ... starts in Yangon on Sunday 14th October and finishes on Sunday 28th

Explore have departures every couple of days starting in Yangon for example from Sunday 14th October to Saturday 27th October (but with limited availability), cost 1,399 gbp (or 2,233 gbp if the group flights are available) and includes two flights

The Adventure Company have a trip starting in Yangon on Saturday 6th October and finishing on Saturday 20th October for 1,570 gbp (or 2,619 gbp if the group flights are available) which includes 2 flights and a night on a riverboat / riverbank !

Exodus have a trip starting in Yangon on Wednesday 10th October which ends on Tuesday 23rd October for 1,449 gbp (or 2,259 gbp if the group flights are available) and includes 4 flights.

Spice Road have a cycling tour which is unfortunately fully booked, starting in Yangon on Sunday 7th October and finishing on Saturday 20th October for 2,895 USD plus 525 USD for cycle hire.  It includes 2 internal flights, 8 and a half days of cycling and is fully supported in case the cycling is too tough !

KE Adventure unfortunately don't start their interesting looking trip, which includes 4 days of hiking, until November

Bales Worldwide are fully booked for their October trips which cost 3,295 gbp from London

Panoramic Journeys unfortunately don't start their trips until late October.

Regent Holidays don't start their trips until November, and anyway, they're fully booked

Kumuka has gone bust

Travel Indochina have a trip starting in Yangon on Monday 15th October and finishing on Saturday 27th for 1,835 gbp including 4 internal flights.

Cox & Kings have a departure from London on Friday 19th October arriving back on Wednesday 31st October for 2,933 gbp including 4 internal flights.

Asian Horizons have a shorter trip with departure from London on Saturday 13th October, arriving back on Thursday 25th (seems too short for such a long way away) for 2,499 gbp staying in 4* hotels and includes three flights (rather than transferring by boat from Bagan to Mandalay) ... I guess you could add a few beach days on the end ...

Trans Indus have a trip starting on Sat 6th October from London arriving back on Thursday 18th for 2,698 gbp and include 4 internal flights


Amongst the companies offering private trips are Trailfinders who offer a 13 day itinerary, including 3 or 4 internal flights for 1,562 gbp from Yangon.

Mountain Kingdoms don't have any availability on the group trips, but do offer them as private trips.

Bamboo offer a 15 day itinerary from London for 2,995 gbp which includes 5 internal flights and takes in the west of the country that most trips ignore.

Another odd looking website has more suggestions.

Monfalcone to Florence

Having decided to fly to Trieste (price to Milan doubled within a couple of hours) ... the next decision is what train to get ...

The journey from Monfalcone (near Trieste airport) to Venice is on a regional train where there is no discount for advance booking ... with the flight arriving at 14:35 ... the 15:07 departure (arriving into Venice Mestre at 16:37 and S Lucia at 16:49) should be doable without flight delays, otherwise the 16:07 arrives into Venice Mestre at 17:37 and S Lucia at 17:49 - the price to go into S Lucia is 8.95 eur in economy or 13.50 eur first class

The decision is what to do on the Venice to Florence leg ... in case the flight is delayed it's probably too risky to make an advance booking on the 17:09 departure from Venice Mestre (which arrives into Florence S.M. Novella station at 19:35), in which case the walk-up fare is 43 eur in economy ...

But it would be safe to book the 18:27 departure from S Lucia (18:39 from Mestre) which would be 29 eur in economy or 39 eur first class, and arrives into Florence S.M. Novella station at 20:35 ... that would give either 1.5 hrs or half an hour (depending on whether the flight was on time) to get reacquainted with the Grand Canal ...

london to italy for the jubilee weekend

Looking to go to Florence from Sat 2nd June to Tuesday 5th June

Flights to the nearby airports (Florence / Pisa / Bologna) are either too late or too early ... so there seem to be two reasonable options:

STaNsted - Trieste
dep 11:35 and arrive 14:35 for 76 gbp, and then get the train from the nearby Monfalcone station (no need to go into Trieste itself) at 15:07 arriving into Florence (via Venice) at 19:00 for 38 eur (58 eur in first class) or the later 16:07 departure which arrives into Florence at 20:35 for 48 eur
LHR - Milan Linate
dep 9:25 and arrive 12:30 for 142 gbp, and the get the train from Milan at 14:20 (or an hour later) arriving into Florence at 16:05 for 49 eur

On the return journey, there are options from Rome to Luton (dep 19:35 arr 21:15 for 98 gbp), or Milan to Gatwick (dep 21:50 arr 22:40 for 109 gbp) ... but since it would be good to check out the leaning tower, the options from Pisa are:

Pisa to Luton departing at 16:25 and arriving at 17:45 for 131 gbp
Pisa to Leeds Bradford departing at 16:20 arriving at 17:45 for a ridiculous 33 gbp.  The 19:15 departure from Leeds arrives into Kings Cross at 21:28 and costs 60 gbp, or 89 gbp in first class

ski weekend from dublin ...

looking to do a long weekend skiing in january from dublin ...

first problem is flights - the lack of direct flights (let alone well timed flights) severely restricts options ...

the best choice seems to be to fly out on the Thursday to ZuRicH with Aer Lingus, departing DUB at 17:00 and arriving in ZRH at 20:05 for 52 EUR excluding baggage charge or ...
to fly to MUniCh with Aer Lingus, departing at 16:00 and arriving in MUC at 19:25 for 52 EUR excluding baggage.

the best return flight seems to be to fly out of MUniCh with Aer Lingus, departing at 20:05 and arriving into DUB at 21:45 for 82 EUR excluding baggage fee or ...

to fly out of Milan Malpensa with Aer Lingus, departing at 21:20 and arriving into DUB at 22:50 for 42 EUR excluding baggage.


As for where to go to actually ski ... trying to find a resort with reasonable access to the airports poses another challenge ... one option is Mayrhofen ...

a train from MUC to Jenbach (half an hour taxi ride from Mayrhofen) is available at 20:04 (arriving into Jenbach at 22:34) or at 21:04 (arriving into Jenbach at 23:39) ...

on the way back, a (rather slow) train from Mayrhofen itself departs at 15:48 and arrives at the airport at 18:55 leaving plenty of time for the 20:05 departure ...

looking at the town's tourist office search results, accommodation in Mayrhofen appears to be plentiful and reasonably priced ...