Mid Wales Cycling Tour

Spend a week cycling this circular route which takes you from the book town of Hay-on-Wye through the Radnorshire Hills and the Brecon Beacons and back to Hay-on-Wye. A detailed route map and all your accommodation is sorted for you, so all you need to concentrate on is the pedal power.

Mid Wales takes in many of Wales and the border region's highlights offering abundant historic towns and quaint villages alongside the enticing prospect of the beautiful Brecon Beacon national park. The landscape is one of green valleys, rolling hills and sheep - as iconically Welsh as you can get.

This seven-day cycling trip will satisfy both countryside lovers and urbanites as there’s a good mix of sprawling greenery and pretty towns to be seen along the way. Highlights include the crumbling ruins of the ‘Abbey of the Long Valley’ at Abbey-cwm-Hir, and Gigrin Farm – a feeding station for the once-endangered Red Kite just outside Rhayader town. You’ll enjoy overnight stops in the pretty Victorian spa town of Builth Wells as well as stays in Brecon and Crickhowell, friendly market towns where you can visit a cathedral and the crumbling remnants of once magnificent castles.

The team who run this tour has graded this trip as moderate. That means, basically, you’ll need to have a decent level of fitness and if you’re planning on bringing the kids they’ll need to be confident cyclists. It’s a self-guided tour so this would make a great family trip, and as long as everyone’s happy spending most of the day on two wheels, it should go without a hitch (though we can’t vouch that there will be no bickering along the way if you’ve got teenagers in tow). You’ll cover 160 miles over seven days, which averages out at about 22 miles a day – so while it’s not too taxing, you should just about feel the burn.