The trips are designed for people who usually travel with their partner or with a small group of friends, or individuals who like travelling alone, and who have toured before. We provide you with complete route details and book all the accommodation for you along the way, but you need to be independent as you are not part of a group and there is no support vehicle to carry your luggage or offer assistance.

A Route Information Pack is provided for all the Independent Holidays. Included is information on each day's ride, notes on the terrain and places of interest, as well as a laminated route card for each day' ride with easy to follow route instructions and distances.

One Route Information Pack is provided for each booking. If there are four or more people in a group then two Packs will be included.

Accommodation on all the trips is in B&Bs, guest houses, or small hotels. These are privately owned and run, and as such do vary, but they have all been carefully chosen by us for their location, facilities and the helpfulness of their owners. Some are in the centre of towns or villages, others are in small hamlets or farms with limited local facilities.

On our French and European holidays most of the accommodation we use has somebody who speaks English, so you should have no problems with the language, but still have a chance to enjoy the local way of life.

Couples will generally be booked into a double room unless we are told you would prefer a twin room. Groups of singles will be booked into a mixture of single, twin or family rooms (three or very occasionally four beds) as available. There is no additional charge for use of a single room for odd numbered groups as long as you are prepared to accept some nights in family rooms if necessary. However if you are booking a trip by yourself, or if you are part of a group and want a single room each night for the entire trip, there is an additional supplement of £17.50 per night. In most establishments en-suite facilities are standard. However due to the wide variety of the accommodation used this cannot be guaranteed and you should expect to get shared facilities some of the time.

Breakfast is provided at the accommodation, but no other meals or drinks are included in the cost of the trip. Accommodation is chosen to ensure that there is a suitable restaurant (or pub in the UK) nearby for an evening meal. Details are provided in the route information that comes with each trip. Evening meals are provided at some guest houses, mainly on our French trips, and payment for these is made directly to your hosts.

You can choose the dates that are most suitable for you. Just give us the date that you wish to start your holiday and we will do the rest. There are however a few limitations (for example we cannot accept any bookings for France in August as this is the main holiday period and many hotels are closed), and these are noted for each holiday.

As many of the properties we use for these trips are quite small, there is also a maximum number of people that can be accommodated in any one group, and this is also noted for each holiday.

The details for each tour give the grade of the trip, the total number of days, the number of cycling days, and the average daily mileage. You can then add to this the number of non-cycling days (Rest Days) that you would like, to give your ideal holiday. We recommend that you add at least one rest day for each weeks riding, but many people like to add a few extra for a more relaxing trip. Rest days are charged at an additional £35.00 per day (shared twin room).

Our Independent Holidays are graded in the same manner as our Fully Supported Holidays (click on the "Key to Symbols" on the trip page), but on these trips it is very important that you are sure a holiday is within your capabilities as you are responsible for ensuring that you reach the accommodation at the end of the day.