Kiwi heading west from London in May. A couple of questions please?

Hi Patrick,

London is less daunting than it might be if you pick the right route, and there are a good number of signs for cycle routes and a long cycleway hading towards Houses of Parliament. Sustrans NCN 4 does in fact follow the Thames for quite a substantial length in Greater London, before cutting a corner to Windsor Castle and then into the countryside. It is well waymarked too and you'll see most of the 'sights' in the central city and Richmond Park and Hampton Court Palace on the way out. However this does mean it takes a rather circuitous route around meanders, plus having ridden it on a wet day the hours of gravel and puddles don't make for either a perfectly smooth ride nor any great speed. Probably much nicer in the dry though and it's tranquil and pretty wide.

Outside London the route sticks mostly to canal towpaths. If you are going as far out as Bristol I would definitely recomend the section through old railway tunnels and a skyline view of Bath then more former railway to Bristol (with steam trains alongside you at one section).

Lauren suggests one good map app - I use a free OpenStreetMap one called rMaps on my phone, which shows all NCN routes on the layer 'Open Cycle Map' as well as local routes, cycle parking and hire, and pubs.

NB the prevailing wind in the UK is from the west - it can be noticed in coastal areas!

Hi Patrick - I'm a Yank (Boston, Mass.), but have cycled between Heathrow and London several times. I may well be right behind you, as my wife and I are headed directly west out of Heathrow on May 26, likely toward Lands End, before going on to Bath, Wales, and then Ireland. First, my experience is that the Sustrans routes are poorly signed in places. While they're good routes, you may spend a lot of time retracing steps to find some well-hidden signs unless you use GPX tracks. My favored app is Osmand on my Android phone - it has a higher learning curve than Maps.Me, but has tremendous flexibility and great features for cycle touring. Second, while it's easy enough to follow the M4 and A4 out of London via cycletracks, they're not exactly scenic. You might instead take the Heathrow Express train out of the city (expensive but legal), or the Underground (cheap but illegal). I've biked from Hyde Park to Brentford via local streets, and then along the lovely Grand Union Canal (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network/grand-union-canal) to Heathrow or on to Slough. Let's talk more if you think your route might intersect ours!