Vince and friendscompleted the route from Whitehaven to Tynemouth over three days in April. based on their C2C experiences they have a few recommendations to fellow "C2Cers" as below:


Brooklands Guest House, Penrith - Truly outstanding quality accommodation, excellent value for money and a very warm welcome. Brooklands has been awarded a rating of four "red diamonds" by the AA - which apparently puts it in the top 10% of B&Bs throughout the country - and it is easy to see why. I regularly travel on business for work and would rate the rooms at Brooklands amongst the best that I have stayed in (and a lot cheaper than many!). If you're in Penrith for any reason I would recommend staying at the Brooklands. Incidentally, Leon (one of the proprietors of the Brooklands) pointed us in the direction of the Indiagate Restaurant (five minutes walk away). We would thoroughly recommend this too if you are partial to Indian cuisine - good food, great ambiance, soft comfortable chairs(!!) and good beer (Cobra) - although as one of our riders discovered, it's probably best to steer clear of the hotter curries, especially with Hartside and Black Hill to tackle the following day.

Rookhope Inn, Rookhope - The warmth of the welcome and the hospitality shown to us at the Rookhope was one of the highlights of our trip. The showers were pretty good too - especially at the end of a hard days cycling (well OK - with a bit of walking thrown in too!). We stayed last Saturday night and were delighted to be presented with the proceeds of the evenings raffle for our nominated charity (Diabetes UK). I must admit to probably over-indulging a little during the evening's festivities, but then the Rookhope Incline is an excellent hangover cure!

Greystoke Cycle Cafe - We have to recommend the Greystoke Cycle Cafe on the basis of the quality of service provided out of hours. This may sound a bit daft, but thanks to a couple of punctures and a complete tyre blow-out coming over Whinlatter, we arrived in Greystoke rather later than planned, at about 8:00pm on Friday evening, and a couple of hours after the cafe had shut. We were delighted to find that the stamp had been left out for passing C2Cers, so that we could stamp our C2C cards as planned, and there were even a couple of large jugs of juice left out for thirsty C2Cers, although we were still carrying plenty of refreshment so didn't take advantage of this generosity this time, but it was a nice touch. We will certainly be paying the Greystoke Cycle Cafe a visit the next time we are passing through during opening hours.

Sherpa Van - Our bags were transferred exactly as required and with quiet efficiency. The efficiency was possibly a little too quiet as our first hotel (The Waverley Hotel in Whitehaven) didn't seem to know very much about bag transfers (although they perhaps should have as bags are apparently regularly collected from them), but the service itself was faultless and again very good value for money.

Whinlatter Visitor Centre Cafe - Great food and with the opportunity to watch the Ospreys on Bassenthwaite lake via the video link (if you're into such things).

Hartside Cafe - Just for being there really, but also for good value for money and good hearty food (just when its needed!).

The Bike-Man of Braithwaite - Sadly we can give you no more details than that - you may know our saviour better. As already mentioned, having had a tyre blow-out on the descent from Whinlatter, one of our riders was dispatched to Keswick to purchase a replacement tyre (we were carrying - and had already used - spare inner tubes, but not tyres). On passing through Braithwaite, he noticed a house with a small number of bikes outside apparently for sale and stopped to investigate. It turned out that the gent who lived there was either about to retire or had just retired (we weren't too sure which) from running a bike shop and had a garage full of spares, including a tyre that was not quite the right size but that was close enough for us to fit and continue our onward journey (and indeed complete the C2C).



Doug Ridgway has been regarding his patch of Hadrians Cycleway and C2C in the North East:
to say that he has placed details of how works in that area will affect HCW & C2C riders finishing at Tynemouth - see Doug's excellent Hadrians Cycleway Advice Page for more details -
http://www.cycle-routes.org/hadrianscycleway/general/advice.html


The Gidney and Howe families (two dads and four lads) rode the C2C have a few recommendations:

Kirkstile Inn - a few miles before Whinlatter, just off the route - excellent locally brewed beer and good food, plus a warm fire on a cold Bank Holiday Monday!

Greystoke Cycle Café - we arrived when the café was officially closed, but we still had a warm welcome and the owner opened up for us and another group of C2Cers - there are now hot drinks and cakes available on a honesty box basis when officially closed.

Mark the bike man at Nenthead - he is based on the off-road route (phone details on the Nenthead page of this site) - he managed to find a wheel nut for our 10 year old's bike and adjusted a few other things for us.

Alston Youth Hostel - welcoming and really good home cooked food.

Martyn Phillips from Sutton Coldfield rode the route in early June 2007 and offers the following tips:

Very pleased with "Fellfoot independent hostel in Penrith with lovely rooms and suberb value at £21.50 B&B the owners were obviously bikers themselves and would also recommend Parkead Station just past Stanhope alse for B&B.



I get asked a lot about riding the C2C on road bikes and Clive Arion has this bit of advice form his own experience of the route:
We tried the Waskerly Way but two of us got off at the first opportunity as we felt it was asking for trouble. We found an easy on road alternative that got us to Consett ten minutes ahead of the rest of our group who confirmed we had made the right decision as the track got worse after we left it.
Obviously the guys also avoided the proper off-road sections!



Anthony from Durham rode the route in August and has this accommodation tip for you:
Crookbank Cottage - Nenthead: A lovely couple(Russell and Pam) who were very welcoming. A great location about 1 mile short of Nenthead from Alston. The cottage is very warm, the room was terrific and the food was excellent. A very secure lock-up for bikes too. The ideal place to stay after the rigours of Hartside and the Garrigill climb, and before the long haul to the sea. If you are staying in Nenthead you should stay here.