London to Paris Bike Ride Charity - Information Request

[Gloves1980]

Hello all,

I am looking into doing the London to Paris bike ride in 2016 and was wondering if anyone on here had done it, had any advice or recommendations of companies to use?

I have been looking online and most of the firms charge in excess of 1,500 GBP, and suggest you use your charity donations to fund it.

This seems an awful lot of money for a ferry crossing and three B&B's! Also, I don't like the idea of getting charity donations to fund it.

Thank you in advance for the help!

James.

Ps. I love the New Cherry Tree, loathe loud, unruly children in pubs and look forward to seeing the new M&S.

[Horsebox]

Gloves, I looked into this a couple of years ago but circumstances conspired to prevent me from doing it.

Is there any reason you need a company to arrange it for you? Why not just book ferry, accommodation etc yourself? It would be a fraction of the cost.

The route(s)to Paris are well established and there are lots of blogs and cycling resources online to help you plan.

You can still ask for sponsorship and not feel like you're getting ripped off.

[Gloves1980]

Horsebox,

Cheers, that was my sort of thought process.

Gloves.

[deeofdulwich]

Hi

How many days are looking to take to complete the journey? If you are an experienced cyclist, you can cover more ground more quickly and therefore require less bookings/money.

And do you have a group to ride with already? If you do, then I also recommend arranging your own trip if you want to keep costs down, as it really does not need to cost anywhere near ?1500! A lady I know called Charlie Watson who writes "therunnersbeans" blog did this earlier this year and wrote a couple of good blog entries on it. If you google her website, it should come up. And if you get in touch with her, I'm sure she'd be happy to let you know what they did in terms of accommodation (as don't think all details on that front are covered in her blog).

And, if you're up for an even tougher challenge, someone I know runs a London 2 Paris in 24 hours ride in May - PM if you'd like further details!

D