Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Cycling Britain (Lonely Planet Cycling Guides)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book for planning a cycle tour of Britain. It has strengths common to all the Lonely Planet series, such as advice on getting to and from Britain and using rail and air travel to get to the various touring routes. There are also sections on bicycle maintenance and pre-tour fitness training that might be useful to potential tourists.

From the perspective of using this book as an actual road guide, there are many shortcoming. This book is very much a "townie's" guide, with the majority of route description focusing on where to spend your money on food and accomadation rather than discussing on-the-bike route navigation. The route maps printed in the book are of minimal detail, with many towns and roads omitted. The routes themsevles are descibe by lists of verbal cues and arrows, for example "--> At unisigned road." The combination of these factors means that it is very easy to miss a cue, get off-route, and wind up on a part of your map with no description.

I would recommend supplementing the book with at least the 1:250,000 scale Ordnance Survey Travelmaster maps. The book itself also recommends this, but the editorial review claims the book is a stand-alone guide. Also, many of the descibed routes coincide with the Sustrans National Cycle Network (NCN) in Britain. One might do well to use this book in planning a tour of Britain, then acquiring the detailed cycle route maps from Sustrans.