UKC

Hi,

Myself and my husband are planning on biking the coast to coast from Whitehaven to Tynemouth. We've got two little ones and so need babysitters and a place to stop for a week so we have a holiday as well and we get to see grandparents etc.

The plan was to stop in Alston, bike on the first day to Penrith and get the train back to haltwhistle, day two Penrith to Alston and day three Alston to Whitehaven and back on the train.

Has anyone else done anything like this and if so where did they stay? How did the logistics work?

Is it easy to get the bikes on the train? From what I've heard it doesn't seem that easy and is open to if the train people are happy taking them.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Lynsey.

In reply to Lynsety:

There is no railway station in Alston apart from the steam one.

In reply to Lynsety:

There are several gotchas. You can't take bikes on the metro from Tynemouth, so you have to cycle back to Newcastle station (10 miles or so). You are supposed to book bikes on the Newcastle to Carlisle train. However, there are a reasonable number of spaces, so you will probably be OK. The train from Carlisle to Whitehaven only has 3? bike spaces and you can't book in advance. If you are lucky, like me, the conductor will let you sit with your bike at he end of the corridor. However, there are no guarantees.

For a major cycle touring route, the public transport options for getting back to the start are laughable.

In reply to Lynsety:

It might be worth getting in contact with these guys http://www.c2cpackhorse.co.uk/index.php (or a similar business).

In reply to L'Eeyore:

Oh good idea! Thanks.

In reply to wilkesley:

Hmm yeah. Doesn't seem great from that sense. Shame really. Although doesn't seem to put people off

In reply to coinneach:

Haltwhistle closest?

In reply to Lynsety:

Yep