5 Day Self Guided Wild Wales Tour

Four nights through mid, west and north Wales, ridden self-guided with no tour leader, on a BMW collected from the operator’s own base or on a rider’s own bike by arrangement. Bed and breakfast is included throughout.

The first leg runs to Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire, then a full day out to Abergwesyn and back, which covers the best roads in mid and west Wales. The Abergwesyn Pass is the one to look forward to: a single-track mountain road across empty moorland with a set of hairpins known as the Devil’s Staircase, laid out as a drovers’ route and still largely unfenced.

The route then crosses from mid to north Wales, from Llandeilo up to Lake Vyrnwy, a Victorian reservoir built in the 1880s to supply Liverpool, with a Gothic straining tower standing in the water and a lane running right round the shore.

A Snowdonia loop follows from Vyrnwy and back, which is the riding highlight and takes in the passes through the national park, now officially called Eryri, before the return to base. Accommodation and breakfasts are included along with the bike, with fuel and other meals separate. The price is quoted per person. Self-guided suits Wales well: the distances are short enough that a wrong turn costs nothing, the roads reward an unhurried pace, and the weather makes its own decisions about the itinerary regardless of what anyone had planned. Four nights also leaves room for a slow morning, which a guided group never quite allows, and the operator supplies the route and the beds so that nothing has to be organised beyond deciding what time to set off.