Discover the UK’s best traffic-free cycle routes

Below are some of the most recent route guides, but be sure to visit the UK-wide map, showing all the route guides. All routes have a custom WillCycle map, from which you can download the GPX for the route, and where you can see the route profile in detail.

The route guides include an up-to-date weather forecast, and lots of information about the route. It even tells how how long it would take to cycle, at your preferred speed.

Featured routes

These are just some of the stunning routes I have highly-detailed guides for. Refresh the page to see more routes.

Thames Path traffic-free cycle route

Thames Path Cycle Route Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ The Thames Towpath runs through South West London for 23 miles, mostly traffic-free. Given its location, it is surprisingly secluded, well wooded and quite rural in places. Please Note: At the time of writing flood alleviation works are underway at Barnes and Putney...
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Deerness Valley Railway Path cycle route

Deerness Valley Railway Path overall cycle route rating: (Colour explanation: blue = good, yellow indicates some warning, and red indicates issues to be aware of) The Deerness Valley Railway Path is another old railway line in County Durham that was repurposed as a traffic-free cycling and walking trail, after the railway...
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Taff Trail traffic-free cycle route

The Taff Trail runs for 56.27 miles, from Cardiff Bay to Brecon. The route as shown on the map below starts at Cardiff Central train station, and there are various other train stations along the route. Because the Taff Trail officially starts in Cardiff Bay, I added a section from...
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The Shropshire Union Canal cycle route

Shropshire Union Canal cycle route overall rating: (Colour explanation: blue = good, yellow indicates some warning, and red indicates issues to be aware of) The part of the Shropshire Union Canal covered by this guide isn’t in Shropshire at all, but in Cheshire. This route stretches from Nantwich to Ellesmere...
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Marriott’s Way Traffic-free Cycle Route

Marriott’s Way is a shared path of 26 miles, linking Norwich with Aylsham via a circuitous route. As you’d expect from a trail on a disused railway in Norfolk, it’s very flat. There are sculptures or benches at every mile marker, and a bike shop inside the old signal box...
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Even more value

WillCycle Supporters gain even more value, including achievement badges, and more, as well as Strava integration.

These route guides are all made with 🚲 in Devon.

Latest from the blog

  • Why one map is never enough
    We’ve all been there: you planned a glorious route for a bike ride. You checked OS Maps and confirmed it’s a bridleway that you may legally use. You planned a 50 mile loop, using that bridleway to avoid a nasty, busy A-road. Then you arrive, and that “legal right of way” is a chest-high sea … Read more
  • Lanterne Rouge Ride
    In the Tour de France, the Lanterne Rouge is the rider who finishes dead last. They are the survivor, the tail-light in the dark, and if we’re being honest, the person who probably had the most interesting day. While the hardcore roadies are busy staring at their power meters and sweating through their Lycra to … Read more
  • The Breakfast Club
    Those of you who (like me) are of a certain age, will probably fondly remember the film The Breakfast Club. Released in 1985, it brilliantly tells the story of a bunch of teenagers doing after-school detention. This post is entirely unrelated to that movie, except for a gratuitous intro paragraph, and the same name. Cycling … Read more
  • A Time Of Birds, by Helen Moat
    The TL:DR version of this book is Moats and her 18yo son cycled across Europe, to Asia, unsupported. And to be fair, that alone should give you plenty of reason to read this book. After all, how many long-distance cycling tales of a mother and son combo have you heard of, let alone read? A … Read more