Places to Bike to in the UK

Snowball

My sister lives and works over in Scotland so I have been over there a few times on the bike.
She returns to Ireland at the end of the month and I don't think she'll be going back. Problem is that I loved Scotland. Its an amazing place to drive through. When I was over there the first time we went for a drive for a few days on the bike and we drove from Pitlochry up to Inverness and then back down to Fort William. From there we went back to Pitlochry.
The quality of roads, the scenery, the people, the towns; all of it, it was great.
But since my sister is no longer going to be there I won't really have any place to base myself from. I suppose that’s both good and bad as I won’t have the convenience but I won't be stuck in one area.

So here comes the point of the thread

Where have you been in the UK that you loved? Places you think that getting to, being there and driving out, was great. Areas where bikes can just drive.
Now, I am using Google Earth (for those of you who don't know what this is, FIND OUT NOW!!) to look for places so if you have a placemark from Google Earth it would be great (Auto Route will also do) but any kind of description would be greatly appreciated.
I want to go back soon and I wanna try and see places I have not seen yet.

Also, let us know what you did there. What it was like. Recommend restaurants, hostels, places to see and so on. Photos if you have them.

Garibaldi

I'd recommend the road from Fishguard to Portsmouth (at high speed), followed by getting on the ferry to France. It's much nicer over there.

Snowball

Garibaldi wrote:

I'd recommend the road from Fishguard to Portsmouth (at high speed), followed by getting on the ferry to France. It's much nicer over there.

lol, now now. Scotland is a very suprising place. I had seen loads of it in moves and in pictures from my sister and had no Idea what the big deal was. Looked like Ireland. But I spoke too soon.

bbbbb

Some nice roads over in Wales & only a short hop over the ferry. Did it myself for a couple of days break a couple of years ago. Roads much better condition, nice sweeping bends and v.little traffic. Hard pressed to remember now what routes I took.
This might also be of interest
http://www.motorbiketraining.net/wales.html
Haven't been on any of his tours, but got several lessons from him & found him excellent.

Garibaldi

The area around Cheddar Gorge is very nice. Some lovely little country pubs serving good food, great roads (although, there are some really scary ones where, and this'll test my powers of description, you approach what looks like a chicane that goes left-right up a hill but, when you clear the left part, you find yourself heading for a wall and hedge, where the road you were on did a 90 degree left turn, and the road you saw going up the hill was on the other side of the hedge. Now, that's scary ****. Did I mention that Aprilia Mille Rs have great brakes? ), and loads of other bikes. You need to watch out for all the pedestrian tourists wandering around the middle of the bloody road, though.

Snowball

I will try wales. Thanks for the link also. I'll be bookmarking that, sounds like fun for some training actually. The more the better.
I actually went through wales a bit and loved it. Went from Holly Head to Manchester, then onto Scotland and through Edinburgh up to Pitlochry to my sisters on my little Rebel 125cc. It was a 2000km round trip in the end. Still cant belive the bloody bike made it all the way and did not have one single problem.

Cheddar grove sounds nice, thanks Garibaldi. I'll look it up

Rippy

Wales has great biking roads, but as a consequence proportinally more bike accidents, and police forces biased against bikers. Also loads of sheep, tractors, crap on roads and dozy tourists. So enjoy it, but carefull out there!