Why book an organised cycling holiday? And why with us?!

Let’s face it. Organised cycling holidays aren’t necessarily cheap. So why bother when you can just set off independently for a fraction of the price? And what is it about Pedal Nation that differentiates us among the many cycling holiday companies out there? In this blog post, Pedal Nation Development Manager and Cycle Guide (and these days, a vastly experienced cycle tourist herself) Lucy Burnett explores the benefits of letting someone else like the Pedal Nation team do the grunt work!

How the alternative might look…!

I still remember my first multi-day cycle tour clearly. I had finished another year of my degree at Edinburgh University and fancied an adventure. And well, I had never been to the Outer Hebrides! Yes, there were various things to sort, but how hard could it be?

Through friends of friends of friends, I managed to source a one-person tent. I begged stole and borrowed some panniers. Not waterproof. But, you know, it wasn’t going to rain, was it? My cheap Halfords road bike wasn’t great, but it pretty much supported a rack. Just wobbled and creaked a bit. I couldn’t get a bike space on my first or second choice of train to the start of my chosen route from Inverness, but I managed to get one that might work if I hurried en route towards my return train from Oban having cycled the length of Lewis, Harris, the Uists and Barra. Yes, travelling north to south. More than likely to have a headwind (nay head-gale) the whole way, if only I had thought or known. And of course, the perennial optimist, I hadn’t imagined that my second-hand tent might not be wholly intact. It was a miniature A-frame number, with barely more height at the higher end than a coffin, but only such creature comforts if the crucial A-piece hadn’t been missing. In its absence I got to know the top of my not-much-more-than-a-bivvy-bag fairly well over the course of the week.

Being a student (aka skint), I camped wild every night, requiring me to spend the last part of each day seeking out a suitable spot. Praying I would find a decent one at the right time. And crikey did I smell; I hadn’t reckoned on my battle with midgies as I washed myself of an evening in freezing cold peaty rivers. Oh and whatever you do, don’t mention my day’s riding on a Sunday, when every shop in Lewis was shut. There are better cycling diets than a ¾ packet of slightly stale biscuits to fuel you dragging your luggage up and down the steep coastal headlands. Perhaps it was inevitable that I would get injured, only a few days in – and now, in the middle of nowhere, what was I going to do?! How would I get home…?

Of course, not every independent cycle tour is quite the comedy of errors that my own one first one was. And I am not suggesting that any of Pedal Nation’s clients are quite as chaotic as my 19 year-old self! OK, so I remain an ardent fan of independent touring, albeit my tours are now infinitely better organized (picture here is of me in Argentina during a 2024 tour of the Americas, not the Hebrides – look at what I am wearing)!…But having now guided a handful of Pedal Nation tours, I can entirely see the appeal and benefits of having someone else organize it all and carry those blooming bags of so many things you won’t ever use anyway! Let alone the enticement of a hotel with a swimming pool to ease into at the end of the day (albeit no tin Scotland). Frankly, bring it on.

So why book an organized cycling holiday instead?

1. To draw on the knowledge of the experts. We can’t promise no headwinds, but we do have a large amount of expertise and knowledge to bring to planning our trips. Not only is every trip well-researched, but we know what to research so can do so much more efficiently.
2. To enjoy the wonderful experience of a cycle tour without having to carry your own luggage! Here at Pedal Nation our emphasis is on our trips being journeys – being just as exploratory as a traditional cycling tour – but without panniers! Oh the joy of the support van!! Oh the joy of sweeping downhill without your luggage destabilizing you. Or struggling uphill at slower than walking pace.
3. Having on-tap back-up. Of course, things can go wrong on any kind of a cycling holiday, but by booking with Pedal Nation you have the back-up and knowledge of the guides and the office support team to problem-solve. If I’d had this in the Hebrides, I would have known and not needed to find out that the local buses have bike racks…
4. You will never have to eat soggy biscuits for breakfast, lunch or dinner, let alone all three! We pride ourselves on stonkingly good picnics, and on seeking out the best local restaurants, and breakfast is always at the hotel.
5. Hotel accommodation! Of course, you could organize your own hotel accommodation and do a credit-card style independent tour. Traditional cycle touring doesn’t have to involve camping in cramped tents on uncomfy or punctured sleeping mats (yes, both sore points with me!) But isn’t it nice to have someone else do all the bookings; to have someone else to check out good deals (thereby actually saving you money); to draw on our prior knowledge of which hotels are good and which frankly…aren’t? And to have someone to get you to the hotel if something goes wrong or you run out of steam? A single day gone wrong can make a whole series of bookings start to fall down like dominos.

Yeah, but isn’t the above true of all companies? Why Pedal Nation?

6. We transport your bike for you to and from the tour, including e-bikes! Having now done multiple tours across the world, I can’t over-emphasise what a bonus this is (the above image is a real-time pic of my bike upon return from Gran Canaria on Easyjet – always an anxious moment!) With Pedal Nation there is no having to try to book bikes on planes or trains or buses (and planes won’t even take e-bikes). No having to take your bike apart and try to rebuild it (what’s the equivalent essential bike part to a tent A-piece that might have become waylaid en route)? Let alone the cost of aeroplane bike transport. If you can get it to and from us in Sheffield, or live roughly on our way, then we will take all the stress out. If flying is essential (eg you live in Australia), then we will transport your bike bag / box for the week, saving you the stressful process of sourcing a cardboard box from a bike shop at the end. I have never not succeeded. But hairs have become greyer…
7. Our trips are small with a great ratio of guides to clients! Maximum numbers are 12, with 2 guides alternating between driving and riding with you. On our holidays, you can genuinely get to know everyone, and the guides have time to spend with you all. All of our cycle guides are also genuine cycling enthusiasts with a vast amount of experience. Hand-picked – often known in advance.
8. We are lovely? Well, we would say this, wouldn’t we?! I can’t prove it in this article, but what I can say is that you will receive a genuine personal touch from us, from the start of the enquiry process to beyond the end of the holiday. The core office team at Pedal Nation is small, and we work with a core team of guides, both of which enable us to keep costs down. You will always know who to contact, and this person will have a name (no AI bots with us)! And we will bend over backwards to try and be helpful. Just check out our ace reviews if you think I am being partial.
9. Our routes – a large number of our routes, apart from a handful of well-established trips, are point to point, not least to enable that sense of ‘journey’ which is our DNA. This is far harder to do independently. And our route development team are always seeking out imaginative new options. Montenegro and Albania next year? You never know…but it’s my own favourite area of Europe in which to tour. Or the Hebrides, now with the benefit of four different trips I’ve taken?! There’s a thought.
10. Excellent value – our holidays are priced incredibly competitively, with only small margins for profit. This is the honest reason why we are never able to offer much off during our occasional ‘sales’. As you will notice if you start adding it up – our trips are already a bargain! It is honestly impossible to offer it more cheaply unless you have far larger group sizes and the dilution of the experience that comes with that.
11. Ethical – since the beginning, the importance of being light touch and not leaving a trace has been central to our sister company High Place’s ethos, and we continue this. Pedal Nation is currently in the process of developing environmental, AI and equality policies to ensure that we run our trips with the utmost social responsibility: to minimize the environmental impact of our tours, to use AI responsibly, with zero use of generative AI (for reasons of both authenticity and environmental impact – google its water consumption), and to make sure that everyone feels welcome.
12. We are fully travel industry bonded with ABTOL and a member of ABTA, which means your money is safe with us. Sadly this isn’t the case across the industry, so important to check beforehand.

Not yet convinced that you should book your next cycling holiday with us? That’s ok. Don’t worry. We won’t take it personally. We will still wave and say a friendly hello as we swoosh past. We may even donate you some stale biscuits too. Didn’t I say how lovely we are?!