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Planning: gravel travel articles

36 articles on planning.

Booking Your First Gravel Cycling Trip Abroad: What to Expect

Insurance, flights, a group of strangers who turn out to speak the same language you do — here's what actually happens between booking and the first pedal stroke.

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Algarve

Sagres and the end of the known world: the final stage of gravel cycling in Portugal

For centuries, mapmakers simply stopped here. The last stage of our Algarve crossing rides you to the edge they drew.

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Scotland

What to Pack for Gravel Cycling in Scotland: Layering for Wind, Rain and Wet Tracks

Scotland doesn't have a packing list so much as a packing system — five things, worn in shifting combinations, that work whether the wind is coming off the Atlantic or the North Sea.

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Pyrenees

Crossing Two Countries in a Day: Gravel Cycling the France-Spain Border

A road that starts in Spain, touches France for a few kilometres, and returns to Spain before lunch — the second riding day of the Trans Pyrenees crossing.

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Alps

What to Pack for the Alps: Dressing for a 2,758-Metre Descent

Five to twenty-five degrees, in one day, on one bike. The Alps don't ask you to pack for a season — they ask you to pack for a single stage that moves through several.

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How Much Training Does a Gravel Holiday After 50 Really Need?

Not more training. Different training — and three benchmark rides that answer the question better than any number of weekly hours.

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Tuscany

Off the Bike in Tuscany: Wine, Trattorias and the Evenings Between Riding Days

You sleep inside Florence, above Siena and in Brunello country. Four of the seven dinners are unbooked on purpose — this is the piece about those evenings.

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South Africa

Training for South Africa: Preparing for Back-to-Back 100 km Days

Seven stages, not five. The Western Cape does not ask for your best climb — it asks for the same solid day, six times running.

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How Luggage Transfer Works on a Hotel-to-Hotel Gravel Tour

One bag goes ahead, one small load stays with you. Getting the split right is the difference between riding a light bike and carrying a rucksack you did not need.

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Scotland

Glen Builg: Where Gravel Cycling in Scotland Turns Genuinely Wild

Up the River Avon out of Scotland's highest village, into a glen with no road through it. The stage riders talk about afterwards.

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Scotland

When to Ride Scotland: Reading the Highland Weather Window

There is no dry season here. There is only a set of trade-offs — light against midges, warmth against wind — and September wins more of them than people expect.

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What the Support Vehicle Actually Does on a Gravel Cycling Holiday

Not a broom wagon, not a taxi. The van is a workshop, a wardrobe and a lunch stop that happens to move — and knowing that changes how you pack.

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Scotland

General Wade's Military Road: The Wildest Stage of an Atlantic to North Sea Crossing

A road built to move soldiers, three centuries before anyone thought of riding it for pleasure. The day the Highlands stop being scenery.

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Alps

Training for the Alps: Building Climbing Legs for 10,000 Metres of Gravel

Five stages, four countries and up to 10,500 metres of climbing. The training that matters is not the long ride — it is the day after it.

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Gravel Cycling for Experienced Riders: Which of Our Routes Demands the Most

Metres of climbing per kilometre is the number that actually separates our routes. Here is how all seven rank, and what the ranking hides.

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Alps

Hotel to Hotel Across the Alps: A Night-by-Night Look at the Week

Six beds, four countries, one crossing. The Alps read differently when you arrive somewhere new each evening and never carry a bag to get there.

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South Africa

What to Pack for Gravel Cycling in South Africa: Heat, Dust and Long Days

Sun that arrives early, dust that gets into everything, and thorns that end tubed tyres. A Western Cape packing list built around what actually goes wrong.

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Gravel Cycling Holidays Over 50: What Actually Changes, and What Doesn't

Most of our riders are between 45 and 65. Here is what a week of gravel actually asks of you — and the three things worth changing before you go.

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Flying With a Gravel Bike: How to Pack a Bike for a Flight

The bike almost always arrives fine. The riders who packed carefully are simply the ones not fixing a bent hanger in a hotel car park on day zero.

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Gravel Cycling Nutrition: Fuelling a Multi-Day Tour

The riders who fade on a week-long tour rarely run out of fitness. They run out of fuel. Here's how to eat and drink across back-to-back gravel days.

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Which Gravel Cycling Tour Is Right for You? Our Seven Routes Compared

Seven crossings, one week each. A route-by-route gravel tour comparison — difficulty, climbing, season and who each one suits — to help you choose.

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South Africa

Cape Gravel: Cycling South Africa's Western Cape

Three landscapes in nine days — the Klein Karoo, the Overberg and the Cape Winelands — over the Victorian Swartberg Pass on some of the quietest gravel anywhere. A full guide.

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The Best Gravel Cycling Destinations in Europe

Six of the best gravel cycling destinations in Europe — plus one beyond it — each a true coast-to-coast or country crossing, ridden hotel-to-hotel with the support van carrying the rest.

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Supported Gravel Tour vs Bikepacking: an Honest Comparison

Bikepacking, credit-card touring, or a fully supported hotel-to-hotel week — an even-handed comparison of what each really costs you in load, planning, risk and money, and which suits your kind of rider.

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Guided vs Self-Guided Gravel Tours: Which Is Right for You

Guided or self-guided? Both run the same routes, the same hotels and the same support van — the real choice is about navigation, pace and company. An honest comparison.

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GPS Routes and Navigation on a Self-Guided Gravel Tour

What you actually get, and do, when you ride one of our routes self-guided: the GPX files, the devices, offline maps, what happens at a missed turn, and the support van still behind you.

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When to Go: the Best Time of Year for a Gravel Tour

A season-by-season planning guide to our gravel tours — which destination rides best when, and why: weather, daylight, trail conditions, crowds and midges, mapped to the right week.

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How to Prepare for a Gravel Cycling Tour

Everything that turns a week of hard riding from a survival exercise into the best holiday you've had — fitness, bike, kit, logistics and a realistic countdown.

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Training for a Multi-Day Gravel Tour: Building the Fitness You Need

How to build the endurance for mountain passes, long valley crossings, and the unexpected — so you're strong on day eight, not just day one.

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What Gravel Bike and Tyres for a Multi-Day Tour

The bike that finishes a week of strade bianche, alpine military road and Highland estate track has nothing flash about it. Here's what actually matters — and what to stop overthinking.

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What to Pack for a Multi-Day Gravel Tour: A Practical Guide

On a supported gravel tour the vehicle carries your bags. That is not a reason to fill them. What to bring, what to leave, and what you'll wish you had.

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Why Ride With a Family-Run Gravel Tour Company

Big-operator polish or do-it-yourself freedom — there's a third option. Here's what changes when the people who scouted the route are the people who answer your email.

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How to Choose a Supported Gravel Tour: Finding the Right Adventure for Your Skills and Goals

Guided versus self-guided, supported logistics, route difficulty, and what actually matters when you're deciding whether to join a gravel tour.

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What a week of hotel-to-hotel gravel actually involves

Luggage moved each morning, a hotel waiting each evening, a vehicle on the road if you need it. Here's how a supported gravel week really runs.

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What's Included in a Supported Gravel Cycling Holiday

Guides, GPS routes, daily luggage transfer, a support van, hotels and food — and the things you still arrange yourself. The full included-versus-not list, stated plainly.

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What Is a Supported Gravel Tour? A Complete Guide

Hotels booked, luggage moved, a van behind you and the route sorted — here's exactly what a supported gravel tour is, what's included, and how it compares to going it alone.

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