All England's 17 World Heritage Sites

Prompted by a recent article on the most expensive luxury travel holiday ever - a 2 year tour of all Unesco's 962 World Heritage Sites costing a cool $1.5 million, we decided to tot up the sites in England you can visit on our tours and the associated luxury holiday price tag.

Currently. by bike or on foot we take you to 9 of the sites - 
The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Maritime Greenwich, The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Canterbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and Avebury, Bath, Blenheim Palace and  the Jurassic Coast of Dorset.


Adding visits to the 8 others - Durham cathedral, Fountains Abbey, Hadrian's Wall, Derwent Valley Mills, Saltaire, Ironbridge, the Cornwall and Devon mining landscape and Liverpool would take 19 days in all. With a  price tag of just less than £3,500 with our hand picked luxury hotels and our very special tailor made service, this all feels like a wonderful and incredible luxury holiday - and is, dare we say it, a bargain!. It's unique too - we only offer one of these holidays per year.   Book it ! 
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At Last - an Invisible Inflatable Cycle Helmet

Brilliant!
2 industrial designers from Sweden have finally come up wtih a sensible solution to the cycle helmet problem. Many of us don't wear a helmet as it doesnt do much for the cycling experience. Their design is a bit like the air bag in cars - it inflates on the way to impact. Read all about it on their website. They don't have an outlet in the UK yet but you can buy it online or view it at the Spin London Urban Cycle Show in May.

4 Heated Outdoor Pools for Cool Spring Days

Lehon swimming pool France

There's nothing better than finding an nice outdoor pool on a cycle ride or walk. Even better if its heated and its one of those cool spring days or even a cold winter day.

So here's our list of 4 wonderful heated pools, all open throughout the winter and all on biking or walking  tours we offer year round. 3 are in Britain and one in France.

• .Hampton Pool close to Hampton Court Palace and on the perimeter of Bushy Park. Accessed from any of our Lower Thames cycling and walking tours
• Chesham Moor in the Chiltern Hills. On our Chiltern Challenge Tour
• Bath Spa Thermae  The original and only natural spring in Britain first discovered in 863 BC. Heated by high temperature rocks 2km below the earth's surface, the waters rise through a city centre spring which until recently ran very wastefully into the River Avon. Since 2006 you can swim at roof top level in the waters which are 33C. On any of our tours going to Bath
• Lehon Pool, France. Minutes fromDinan this charming village and its pool are adjacent to the Rance river. On our Emerald Coast Tour

Where in the World?

It was only last week and it was sunny and warm as we explored routes for a another new tour.. Seems like a dream as its barely above freezing here this week.

Fly Over - Tunnel Under the Thames. A Great Day Out

These are two unique ways of crossing the River Thames in London by bike. They make for a great day out. The  Emirates Flyer is the 1.1 km cable car crossing  that links the Greenwich peninsula on the south side of the river with The Royal Docks on the north and gives a unique view of London. Flip the seat to load your bike and 'enjoy  your flight' as the commentary requests. Its quick- some say too quick, painless and fun.  Pedal past the O2 to Greenwich village, or for a bit of added fun board the Thames Clipper at the North Greenwich Pier and be propelled there. Stop for a refreshment at The Trafalgar with its atmospheric riverside  views, or busy yourself with a visit to the Cutty Sark or Maritime Museum before heading for the lift down to the Greenwich foot tunnel that takes you 50ft below the Thames. Opened over a hundred years earlier than the Flyer, in 1902 and free, (the Flyer is £3.20 on the Oyster) it was built to enable shipyard and dock workers to reach their jobs on the north bank Isle of Dogs. You will have to walk your bike along the tunnel and from the lift you emerge up in Island Gardens. Follow Sustrans Route 1 north through the Isle of Dogs where you'll get some great surprise views of the docks, the Thames and the London skyline. Almost at Limehouse - where you can detour via several canals to the Olympic Park, the Greenway and Broadway Market to mention but a few options, you turn east and pedal along the Cycle Super Highway. Here Dutch style cyclist traffic lights, alleys, bridges and bike paths thread you through east London.  Leave the Highway near the East Inda Docks and then its not far to reach the Royal Docks where you started. This last section is poorly signposted and I admit we took a few wrong turns. You will need a map or local knowledge or one of our guides here.

And the cycling holiday award goes to.....

Awards are jolly nice things to have.  We have been lucky to have been given a few and it certainly swells the heart with pride to put that certificate on the wall.  Blowing ones' own trumpet is de riguer when presented with an award and the hotels we use for our tours are not slow to do so.  Recently we have been sent several emails informing us of gongs most gratefully received.  As they are for hotels and areas we have picked out as being the best for our cycling holidays, it affirms what we already knew.

For example Cotswold House in Chipping Campden has just been awarded Spa of the Year by Laterooms.  We include this hotel on many of our luxury Cotswolds tours including "Cotswolds and Stonhenge".  Lucknam Park near Chippenham was given the Travellers Choice award in the Spa section by Trip Advisor  and is a favourite with our clients looking for the 5 star treatment on our Simply The Best tour.  The Cotswolds Inns group won small hotel group of the year from the AA and own several stunning hotels in this highly popular and frequently booked area.  London topped the Conde Nast vote for Best City and Devon claimed silver in the Best Holiday County category in the British Travel Awards. Neither of these came as much of a surprise but both offer fabulous cycling and accommodation and so are perfect for our clients.

As the year draws to a close there will be more plaudits to come for sure.  Hopefully we will need to make some room in the trophy cabinet. 

A Deli to Die For

Last night we attended a networking event organised by Tourism Southeast.  Over 30 people were there including representatives from hotels, tourist attractions, and tourist boards.  It was a great opportunity to meet other people working in the same industry in this area.  The added bonus was the location.  No 2 Pound Street in Wendover is a deli with a difference.  It stocks a huge selection of wines, cheeses and meats which can be taken away or enjoyed on the premises.  They recently won Best New Retailer at the British Cheese Awards which is not surprising when you see the interesting selection on offer including Stinking Bishop which should be handled with care.  The deli sits in the pretty Chiltern town of Wendover which is at the end of our new Challenging Chilterns tour.  We recommend leaving some space in your panniers for a few goodies.

Easy Cycling to The Olympic Park

I would recommend the ride I took this week to the Olympic Park.  It's so easy, traffic free and gives a view of the capital most people have never seen. It gives away how startlingly near the Olympic Park is to central London.  Hop on your bike at Tower Bridge and pedal east through St Katharine's Dock and on to St Katharine's Way.  Ahead here, you pick up the waterside route to Shadwell Basin which leads back to the riverside. Don't overshoot the zigzag bike path taking you under the road. Follow the north bank of the river - some say this route is for pedestrians only;  even if it is, its a great walk with a fabulous view - until you reach Limehouse. Take a left here into the mega basin where canal boaters prepare to enter the tidal Thames (yep, I've done that too - choppy and a bit scary). Exit the basin following signs to Bow and ride for 20 minutes or so along the inelegantly named Limehouse Cut. You'll fly over locks and slide under the approach to Blackwall Tunnel before reaching elegant Three Mills (Britain's oldest Tide Mill and biggest film/TV studio) and the massive new locks round the back, designed to aid Olmpic Park construction, but never put to use. Cross the canal here and continue northwards and shortly you will reach The Stratford Greenway and Olympic Park.
From here you can explore all sorts of other fascinating areas of North London without any traffic at your backside. For our self guided circular rides to the Park. email us.
And the conclusion is: Don't/ do not/don't even consider reaching the Park during the Olympics via Stratford station with all the other thousands of people trying to get there by underground.  Pick up a Boris bike - there's got to be a docking station near the Park, although as yet I've not seen one and enjoy a quiet pedal.

How a tandem can open up the world

On the pm radio programme yesterday, a thrilled blind lady was featured - she had just been cycling on a tandem. Through Companion Cycling, a charity based in Surrey, people with disabilities are able to take to a bike and enjoy the wow feeling we all get from pedalling away.

Last summer, we had our own tandem wow, when Erik Weihenmayer took his young family cycling with us in Oxfordshire. Erik, who lives in Colorado is the only blind man to have reached the Everest summit which he did in 2001. His life reads like an action man Oscar and his autobiography, Touch The Top of the World is a source of inpsiration to all of us.  Now married, his wife took the front saddle of the tandem and with their two children following, they rode out of Oxford along the rural Thames to start their adventure with us. We had made some adjustments to the tandem before their arrival as the front rider is not usually the smaller of the pair. All went well and we were left standing in awe and viewing the crudentials of the tandem in a new light!

Rousham Gardens

I was at a talk this week by English garden designer Arne Maynard. He obviously loves the gardens at Rousham House in Oxfordshire, as I do, which were designed by William kent (1685-1748) and remain almost as kent left them. Ponds, cascades and rills remain in situ along with a fabulous seven arched viewpoint overlooking the river with a pretend ruin in the vista beyond. Its a garden that plays with light and shade and exudes peace. The walled garden has a wonderful dovecote, as above. I also like Rousham because its so uncommercial and whenever you are there, you seem to have the place to yourself. We hope Rousham will feature in a new cycling and boating tour we are putting together for this summer.

New Website

Finally, after many months, the new Capital Sport website is live. We've added to our cycling holidays by offering walking, boating and gastronomic tours.  One of the new features we like a lot are the google maps we have created for each individual tour.  The very large images are also great - I've always homed in on the pictures and headlines of any script!

Happy browsing.