News

We were really excited to see that this week, the UK Restaurant Awards named The Sportsman in Whitstable, Kent the Best Restaurant in the UK. Our excitement was not only because we think it's well deserved and we love the story of this special eatery, but also because anyone who cycles one of our Kent bicycle holidays rides directly past its front door! Reservations are required months in advance, but if you're organised and book your holidays in good time, then there's no reason that you couldn't be stopping off en route to enjoy some seriously good food on your cycling jolly around the Garden of England.

With typical English dry wit, The Sportsman's Twitter page describes the restaurant as 'a grotty seaside pub'. It's located next to a run-down caravan site, in a building that used to be a hotel. The owner and head chef Stephen Harris is himself not your average pretentious Michelin starred chef - he used to work in the City, is self-taught, and once played in a punk band with his younger brother. It was this same brother's untimely death by drowning in 1994 that inspired Stephen to leave his job and pursue a career as a chef and restaurateur. He purchased The Sportsman, a hotel he used to play next to as a child, in 1999 and did it up over a week with a group of friends on a budget of £30,000. By 2008, the word was out about the quality of the food and Michelin awarded him a star.

It's all about local produce at The Sportsman, with most of the meat and vegetables coming from Kent, and the fish and seafood from the local fishermen. The offering changes daily, with both a la carte and tasting menu options. We particularly loved the home-made bread and the Whitstable oysters, which are served inventively: you can choose between poached oysters with rhubarb and seaweed, oysters with pickled cucumber and avruga caviar or rock oysters with hot chorizo!

Book any one of our Kent cycling holidays and experience The Sportsman for yourself - it's well worth the trip!

There's nothing quite like cycling over a viaduct or underneath an aqueduct. There's something ancient and epic about their scale that's really quite exhilarating. We'll never forget a recce trip we took to Scotland, to research routes and scout out special hotels, in the middle of March last year. The weather was naturally... challenging. In fact at the time we visited there was a full-on snow blizzard, which made navigation particularly interesting! Although markedly different from the lush summertime landscapes, there's something about Scotland's scenery in bleak mid-winter that's very magnetic. Shades of grey, purple and dull green, and plenty of cloud, create an almost mythical atmosphere. It was on one of those days that we were investigating a section of the route which crossed the Glen Ogle viaduct. As we jumped out of the car and onto our bikes, the clouds parted to reveal a slither of bright blue sky, and our rides across the viaduct were bathed in a rare moment of bright sunshine. It was magical!

In honour of such exhilarating cycle rides, we share our top 3 aqueduct / viaducts to see by bicycle:

1. Meldon Viaduct

Featuring on our fabulous Coastal adventures in Devon and Cornwall not-so-gentle cycling holiday, the Meldon Viaduct is a former railway bridge built in 1871 to carry the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) across the West Okement River at Meldon on Dartmoor in Devon. It is unusual in that the trusses of the bridge are supported on wrought iron lattice piers. It is one of only two such railway bridges remaining in the United Kingdom. Today the bridge is a cycle track known as 'The Granite Way' and it offers fantastic views of the surrounding countryside.

2. Aqueduct of Segovia

The Aqueduct of Segovia is a Roman aqueduct and one of the most significant and best-preserved ancient monuments left on the Iberian Peninsula. It is located in the historic town of Segovia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the start point for our Medieval heart of Spain gentle cycling holiday. Built by the Emperor Domitian (AD 81-96), the aqueduct transported water from the Rio Frio river, situated in mountains 17 km (11 mi) from the city in the La Acebeda region - right up until the mid 19th century. Its 36 semi-circular arches are really quite spectacular.

3. Glen Ogle Viaduct

The scene of our magical moment in Scotland last March, cycling across this viaduct is as fun to cycle as it looks from the road down below. Find it on our Lochs and glens to Edinburgh self-guided bicycle tour. Set high on the side of a dramatic Scottish mountain, the Glen Ogle Viaduct comprised part of an ambitious cross-country line connecting Callander with the coastal port of Oban, some 72 miles distant. The western half of the route is still operational, but the section the viaduct is part of is now the Glen Ogle Way. The viaduct's remote setting ensures it remains an iconic structure, with the classic view of it looking down towards Lochearnhead, the nearest community two miles to the south-east.

We're really excited to be adding Edinburgh to our ever-expanding list of exciting cities you can now visit on a Carter Company cycling holiday. Whilst the capital of Scotland was an 'optional added extra' on our 'In the footsteps of famous writers' walking tour, we now offer a fantastic cycling holiday which finishes in the city: 'Lochs and glens to Edinburgh'. You can choose between a fast paced 6 night version and a more leisurely 8 night version, depending on your need for/enjoyment of speed!

In celebration of this news and to whet the appetite, we're sharing our highlights of Edinburgh with you: our favourite places and things to do in the city.

1. Visit the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. Our favourite way to get there is to walk along the canal from the lovely Stockbridge area to the gallery. Join the canal next to Pizza Express and start the walk from there. If you have the good fortune of doing so on a Sunday, we recommend pottering around Stockbridge market too!

2. Have afternoon tea at Henderson's, a famous old-school vegetarian restaurant in New Town and a real favourite with the locals. Try their (vegan!) chocolate and beetroot cake with peanut butter ganache - delicious.

3. Walk around the Craggs (no trip to Edinburgh is complete unless you do!), and if you’re feeling energetic, all the way up Arthur’s Seat. It’s a really beautiful and unusual bit of a landscape and you can look down across the whole of the city from the peak. On the way back, stop by at the Palace of Holyrood House.

4. Wander around the Old Town. The old cobbled streets of this area are gorgeous. Try Victoria Street, Grassmarket and Cockburn Street, and then treat yourself to dinner at The Witchery – a lavish, Gothic-style dining room in a quirky boutique hotel.

5. Go to Leith (Edinburgh’s waterside/Forth estuary) and see the former Royal Yacht moored there, potter around the waterside, explore the charming tiny streets and finish off with a walk east along the coast for a short distance to Portobello beach, where you can enjoy a paddle in the sea - if you can brave the cold!

Today we spotlight one of our favourite hidden gems: Inishbofin in Ireland.

This little island, which features on our A Jolly in Connemara cycling holiday, has just 160 inhabitants. It's small but utterly wonderful - a dreamy place to visit for anyone seeking a tranquil day or two away from the hustle and bustle of everyday mainland life. It boasts some fabulous award-winning sandy beaches, strewn with seashells, and crystal clear blue waters - so if the weather's on your side, a spot of swimming is usually in order!

The island seems to have captured Seamus Heaney's heart too (so we're in good company!) The Nobel Prize winning poet began his poem ‘Seeing Things’ with a boat ride to Inishbofin:

"Inishbofin on a Sunday Morning. Sunlight, turfsmoke, seagulls, boatslip, diesel"

He was right to spot the birds! The island is in fact a special area of conservation due to the presence of many species of bird and seals. The rarest species of bird breeding on the island at present is the corncrake. Related to moorhens and coots, the corncrake is unusual in that it lives on dry land, unlike its water-based cousins. Corncrakes are very secretive, spending most of their time hidden in tall vegetation, their presence only betrayed by their rasping call. In flight their bright chestnut wings and trailing legs are unmistakable.

For the more adventurous, the island's waters make for spectacular diving. Two of the beaches on Inishbofin have been awarded the ‘Green Coast Award’, prized for their exceptional water quality and their natural, unspoilt environment. Interestingly, the island has no trees or forests whatsoever, as any wood was cut down in centuries past and used as heating fuel. Because of the salt-enriched air, trees were never able to re-establish themselves. So these days, the islanders tend to use peat turf for fuel instead.

Don't miss this charismatic little corner of the world - hop on your bike and come cycle with us in Ireland!

We were very saddened to learn of Zaha Hadid's death yesterday - an iconic architect and inspirational female figure of her time. Her legacy is surely one that will remain relevant for a very long time to come.

To celebrate her architecture, we thought we'd share our favourite architectural gems along our walking and cycling routes. They're not all as bold or groundbreaking as Hadid's work, but they are all unique and full of intrigue!

1. Sandwich in Kent

With a feast of medieval architecture, Sandwich boasts some of the best-preserved, half-timbered houses in the country. Within the old town walls, the many period houses, with their characteristic "Kent peg" roofs, are laid out in a street plan which has changed little since the creation of the Domesday book in 1086. For those who are green-fingered, a visit to ‘The Secret Gardens of Sandwich’ may be of interest. Encircled by the old stone city walls, these serene gardens surround the Grade I-listed manor house ‘The Saluation’, designed by English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. Visit on many of our Kent cycling holidays.

2. Mont St Michel, France

With its slender spires, stout ramparts and rocky slopes rising dramatically from the sea and towering over sands laid bare by the receding tide, the stupendous abbey of Mont St-Michel is deservedly the most famous French landmark outside Paris. The abbey was first erected on an island at the very frontier of Normandy and Brittany more than a millennium ago and despite huge numbers of visitors, both the abbey and the narrow alleys below still manage to transport visitors back to the Middle Ages.

The island is almost entirely covered by medieval stone structures, encircled by defensive walls. Amazingly enough, less than a third of all visitors manage to climb high enough to reach the abbey itself at the summit! Visit on our gentle 'Brittany's Emerald Coast' cycling holiday.

3. Glenfinnan Viaduct, Scotland

The 21-arch Glenfinnan Viaduct was made famous as the location in Harry Potter films, with perhaps the most striking sequence filmed on the route of the steam-powered Jacobite Express, which follows the West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig in Scotland, as it crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct.

The single track viaduct was one of the largest engineering undertakings using concrete without reinforcement, when it was built by Sir Robert McAlpine between 1897 and 1901. A trip on the Jacobite steam train along this stunning line is a fantastic experience but must be booked in advance, or you can watch out for the train crossing the viaduct at 11.20 am or 3.00pm - a magical moment for Harry Potter fans! Visit on our guided 'Highland & Hebrides' cycling holiday.