England

Challenging and invigorating rides, wonderful guides, scenery par excellence, wonders everywhere added to a great trip. VBT does it again!

This tour was a good combination of beauty and history. Our leaders, Jago Hartwell and Daniel Guest, plus Callum Fallows (in training) provided great orientation, including historical context, and lots of cultural information about the Lakes District, the Pennines and the Scottish border. They each went out of their way to show us great courtesy and excellent service. There’s a lot of riding on this trip, more than others we’ve been on with VBT. Most of the riding was on quiet country roads and dedicated bike paths, which was great. The scenery includes lovely mountains and lakes, and lots of open pasture land crisscrossed by ancient Stone walls. We learned a lot about land management of these open rugged spaces. The accommodations were very nice and the food was varied and consistently good. I highly recommend spending an extra few days in Edinburgh, as it is a city of great history and beauty. We also passed through many small English villages, each of which had its own charm. Along the way we saw beautiful farms and many, many grazing animals.

We had great hotels and guides and interesting cities and towns to explore. The big negative is that the roads and country lanes had roads covered in potholes, loose gravel at the bottom of the hills and drivers who at high-speed drove by leaving not much room. We had 15 riders and eleven falls of the bikes. I had one when a person knocked me off my bike by putting his elbow out to hit my mirror when I rode by with no room to move over. All the other trips I have rode on had safer roads. The biggest complaint we had was when we landed at Heathrow, Terminal 2, we saw no driver to pick us up. We came out from baggage claim and no one with a VBT sign. We looked around for 15 minutes and then went to The Currency Exchange Kiosk as noted in our travel paperwork. After 10 minutes standing there, a man offered his help and called the Company on our paperwork. They said someone was on the way and to stay there. It took them a couple minutes to recognize our name and pickup information. After 30 more minutes waiting at the Kiosk, my wife walked around again and spotted a man holding a VBT sign and he told us that he had been there for 50 minutes. We knew that wasn't true and we both had searched for anyone with a VBT sign. The second incident with ground transportation came when we were scheduled to leave our hotel in Dublin. We were supposed to be picked up at 11:00am for a two-hour ride to Heathrow. At 11:10, our hotel desk person called APL Cars London and they said they would be there at 11:20am. At 11:30, the desk lady called again for up and they Company told her the driver was almost there and not to worry as our plane was taking off late. Our desk person to her that she checked, and our flight was on time, so we knew the ride person was lying. Our ride finally showed up at 11:50 am, 50 minutes late. We did get to the airport in time for our flight nut we were nervous with the rushed ride, worrying about checking in our bag, and finding our gate. We would have been more comfortable if we had started on time. VBT should reconsider using this ride company and they were late both coming and going on our trip.

Everything about this trip was what I expected --magnificent countryside, small picturesque villages, nice bike lanes/paths with almost no traffic. The group that we were with was very compatible and most were strong bikers and very adventurous. The guides were perfect, which has been our experience with each of out 13 VBT trips. The lodging was lovely, but kind of warm since the weather was warmer than normal this June. I am a landscape designer so I particularly appreciated seeing Hidcote Manor Garden. And exploring Bath was a highlight

My husband and I did this self-guided tour in early September and absolutely loved it. Country Walkers did an impeccable job taking care of every detail--booking hotels, moving our suitcases between hotels, and, best of all, the "route notes" book was so detailed and had everything we needed from step-by-step directions and restaurant suggestions to history and ideas for things to do. It felt like a wonderful adventure following the famous paths through sheep pastures and little forest thickets, past gardens and ancient churches, and climbing over or around all the different gates. It was often overcast and misty in the mornings, but the mid-day sun burned it all away. Our highlights are choosing to stop for an hour to check out the Hailes Abbey Museum and rubbing elbows with some locals at the only pub in a tiny village. So many great memories! We liked the intimate experience of doing a self-guided trip and the independence (without the planning!) that it provided. We spent some extra days in London at the end of our trip...that was just icing on the cake.

What a fantastic trip this was. This was my 6th time going to England, but my first for the Cotswold region and what an extraordinary time it was. The food was fantastic, everywhere you looked the views were spectacular. It was fantastic trip which I would do again in a heart beat.