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Cycling holidays offer a rare opportunity for genuine cultural immersion. There's something about the pace of cycling, which allows you to see more than you would than if you were walking, and the routes you take on a bike, such as quaint backroads, quiet country lanes, little-used bridleways and tranquil cycle paths, that allow you to circumvent the tourist masses, engage with the details, and experience for yourself the local culture. Great Britain is famously densely packed with interesting things to see and do and an incredibly rich history to discover, which makes it an ideal destination for those wanting an active holiday with some culture thrown into the mix. We've sought out similar regions and routes in Europe to continue this tradition of culturally immersive cycling holidays. We hope those of you who've tried our walking holidays and bike tours abroad agree!

We'd thought it would be helpful to share what we consider to be our best cultural cycling holidays, as we often get asked this question.

1. Oxford and Thames Royal Palaces

This trip offers the chance to follow the Thames, often described as England's liquid history, and visit the historic capital of London, magnificent royal residences (past and present) at Hampton Court and Windsor Castle, as well as Henley, the home of the world-famous regatta, and of course Oxford, the city of dreaming spire, which is positively beaming with culture.

2. The medieval heart of Spain

Customers always return from this tour telling us how pleasantly surprised they were to discover a different side to Spain, away from the overly populated tourist areas. The tour is around the very centre of Spain, north of Madrid. From the World Heritage city of Segovia, which boasts a Roman aqueduct, and numerous medieval villages, hill top towns and castles, discover the little-known treasures that make Spain such a historic and fascinating place.

3. Lake Constance

This is an unusual cycling holiday in that you visit a total of three countries in a single week, as you pedal the circumference of Lake Constance. There's a huge amount of history and cultural traditions to discover along the way: regal churches and castles, pre-historic stilt houses that rank amongst UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, world-famous arts and opera festivals, and even a museum dedicated to Zeppelin airships!

4. Shakespeare country and the Cotswolds

Discover Shakespeare's birthplace and residences in Stratford-upon-Avon, attend a performance at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and visit world-famous gardens, Capability Brown follies, medieval market towns, National Trust museums and the birthplace of Winston Churchill, Blenheim Palace. And we haven't even mentioned Oxford yet!

5. A Highland fling

This gentle cycling tour (yes, gentle, in Scotland - it is possible!) offers up the chance to take in a considerable amount of culture and history en route: traditional Scottish whisky distilleries, Culloden battlefield, Cawdor and Brodie castles, world-pioneering eco villages, plus a whole lot of haggis (if you're into it!)

We hope that gives you a taste of our top cultural cycling trips. If there's a specific destination you're looking at, or you have a particular interest, let us know and we will be able to advise you on the perfect trip for you!

Going on a trip somewhere and spending all your pocket money in cute ice cream parlours is our idea of a perfect day out. Ice cream and holidays obviously go hand in hand, and when you're on a cycling or walking holiday, it feels almost criminal not to stop in every town, village or city you pass through and sample the local fare. After all, you've earned it with all that huffing and puffing! Just watch out for those pesky gulls who love a little nibble of a ice cream as much as we do....

So without further ado, we list our favourite independent ice cream parlours below. They all feature on one (or more!) of our cycling and walking tours.

1. Morelli's Gelato, Broadstairs

We visited Broadstairs last week and fell in love all over again. In addition to featuring on many of our Kent tours, it's also incredibly well situated for those looking for a day trip to the seaside from London. The journey by train from St. Pancras takes around 1h 20mins, so you're there by the time you've read the paper. Morelli's ice cream parlour is a highlight among a number of hidden gems in Broadstairs. Personally we recommend heading to the fantastic family-run Wyatt & Jones restaurant for some Whitstable lobster, taking a stroll around the town - or a splash in the sea if the weather is being kind - before heading to Morelli's. They claim to serve 'The Best Ice Cream in the World!', and very well might have to agree! The Morelli family has been making ice cream for five generations to a trademark recipe which was introduced into the UK in 1907, when Giuseppe Morelli, after emigrating from Italy, started selling it from the back of his bicycle. The Morelli's ice cream parlour was opened on the seafront in Broadstairs, Kent in 1932. This iconic store still proudly serves loyal customers today and represents the very best of the Art Deco parlours from the heyday of British seaside life. Try their nocciola and coffee flavours.

2. Minghella's ice-cream, Isle of Wight

For the past 30 years, Bill has been serving Minghella's ice creams from his old-school van at the top of Brading Down on the Isle of Wight, which affords wonderful views of the chalk grassland down to the sea. Try his stem ginger and borage honey flavour. Perfect for our 'Isles, Coast and the New Forest' cycling holiday.

3. Queens Cafe, Glasgow

This place has a pretty extraordinary retro vibe and gorgeous nostalgic menus to boot. A proper British greasy spoon cafe, but with a difference: they make their own versions of "white" ice-cream – the Scottish cousin to Italy's fior di latte. Well worth it! Visit after completing our epic 'Scotland's Grand Tour cycling holiday. You'll need it after that, trust us.

4. Henley Ice Cream, Henley-in-Arden

This is a local favourite. House in a half-timbered little shop on Henley-in-Arden's high street. You'll find all the classic flavours like vanilla, rum & raisin, and mint choc chip, but also some more unusual choices such as kirsch cherry or lime & ginger. A perfect pit stop for anyone on our 'Thames Path from Source to Henley' walking holiday.

5. Fortnum and Mason's, London

The foodhall at Fortnum's is a mouth-watering foodie mecca. It also happens to feature a retro-style ice cream parlour, with an amazing array of ice creams. Apparently, this was where the Knickerbocker Glory was invented in 1955... which may or may not be true, but with a claim to fame like that, it more than warrants a visit. So does the very kitsch decor and classic American-style OTT sundaes. We hear the 'Ultimate White Chocolate Gold' is a winner: composed of salted caramel and white chocolate ice cream, honeycomb, dark chocolate sauce and gold leaf with baerii caviar. It should be at £35!

If you've never been to the Edinburgh Fringe, then it's high time you thought about going! The largest - and, according to many, the best - arts festival in the world takes place every August in the Scottish capital. This year it runs from the 7th to the 31st. We think it's the perfect way to round off our cultural walking holiday, 'In the footsteps of famous writers'. What better end to a fortnight of literary exploration in the countryside than an arts festival in the city?

Tell me more about the Fringe, you say

Ok, well here are some interesting facts...
- The festival has taken place every year since 1947
- Last year, an estimated 2,183,591 tickets were issued for shows from a whopping 51 countries in 299 venues
- This year's programme features over 3,000 events
- Fringe 2015 shows include cabaret and variety; children's shows; comedy; dance; physical theatre and circus; events; exhibitions; music; musicals and opera; spoken word; and theatre

The Fringe is an unjuried festival with no selection committee, and therefore any type of performance may participate. It has therefore often showcased experimental works that might not be invited to a more conservative arts festival.

It has also spawned many notable original shows and helped establish the careers of many writers and performers. In 1960, Alan Bennett, Dudley Moore, Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller performed at the Royal Lyceum theatre in Beyond the Fringe, introducing a new wave of British satire and heralding a change in attitudes towards politicians and the establishment. Ironically, this show was put together by the Edinburgh International Festival as a rebuff to the emerging Fringe. But its title alone helped publicise "the Fringe", especially when it went on to London's West End and New York's Broadway for the next 12 months!

The perfect Fringe warm-up

So, now we've convinced you that the Edinburgh Fringe is awesome, perhaps you'd be interested in warming up for the festival with our 'In the footsteps of famous writers' walking holiday. You can pick and choose which parts of the tour you want to do, or sign up for the whole lot as detailed in the sample itinerary. We've suggested beginning in London and the gentle hamlets of southern England, and then slowly making your way all the way up the country to reach Edinburgh, where the tour concludes. Along the way, you'll have the chance to discover the landscapes, people and places that inspired some of Britain's greatest literary talents, such as Jane Austen (Hampshire), Thomas Hardy (Dorchester), Tolkien, CS Lewis & Lewis Carroll (Oxford), Shakespeare (Stratford), the Bronte sisters (Yorkshire), Beatrix Potter & Wordsworth (Lake District) and Dylan Thomas (Laugharne, Wales). It's the perfect warm-up for the Edinburgh Fringe!

As enthusiastic proponents of family-friendly cycling holidays, we have organised a fair few trips in our time that cater for both the old (thank you electric bikes!) and the young (thank you tagalongs and trailers!) Trailers were affectionately known as "brat-mobiles" amongst the Carter clan due to the tantrums they sparked when a young family member was told their time was up on the tagalong, and it was their turn to sit in the trailer - which is a lot less fun! They are actually pretty great though, allowing families with children as young as two or three to take a cycling holiday all together. We provide them on a number of our holidays, and they work well on diverse terrains such as cycle paths, bridle ways, towpaths, and roads.

A new star is emerging on the urban cycling scene: the cargo bike. And if you're only going to be cycling on roads, then the cargo bike is a real winner! It's a lot more enjoyable for both small passengers, who can sit up front and see what's going on, and drivers/cyclists, as the structural design of these bikes is specifically geared towards cargo. They are surprisingly light both to lift and to handle on the road. In fact, we tested one only the other week at London Green Cycles.

It's the first specialist cargo bike shop in London, and the guys there really know their stuff about cargo bikes. They told us that the gold standard at the moment in the cargo bike world is the Christiana. These bikes originate from Copenhagen in Denmark, where of course cargo bikes have been part of the lifestyle for years. The idea for these bikes came from a mother in the Christiana community, who wanted a bicycle that could transport her kids to school. Someone got busy building, and these bikes were the result. The standard size can fit four small children in it - amazing!

Whilst we've been a bit slower to catch on here in London, partly because safety and road provision for cyclists just isn't what it should be (but that's another story for another day...), we are starting to see increasing numbers of cargo bikes on the streets. And not just for transporting children - businesses are using them as delivery bikes for everything from flowers to croissants. Check out the London Cycling Campaign's 2015 Cycling Awards, which has a whole category this year for 'business by bike'. Nominees include courier service Deliveroo and E8 Bakehouse. We hope to see more and more cargo bikes on the streets of Britain in the years to come!

Visit England are busy promoting National Walking Month on social media at the moment. Of course we are in full support, so we thought we'd do a little blog post on all things walking related.

Whilst The Carter Company started out as a cycling holiday specialist, over the years we've spent so much time out in the field exploring and designing routes, that we realised we were perfectly placed to offer walking holidays too. Our extensive local knowledge, from secret paths to ancient churches, to the best cafe in the Cotswolds for traditional afternoon tea, could easily translate to walking holidays. And so it began!

Walking holidays are just like cycling holidays in that they are all about cultivating the art of slow travel. It's an ethos that's close to our heart here at The Carter Company. Butterfield & Robinson talk about 'slowing down to see the world', and if you've ever taken a cycling or walking holiday, you'll no doubt understand why slow travel is so fantastic. Often on holiday we have a tendency to rush about from place to place 'box ticking', without actually stopping to absorb our surroundings and soak up the local atmosphere. Travelling by bike or on foot does facilitate the more 'authentic travel experience' we talk about in our tagline, because it slows you down and encourages you to engage with the detail. And it's the detail that you tend to remember at the end of a trip: the chitchat you had with a local on the Thames Path, the little kiosk selling freshly baked croissants on the Camel Trail cycle path in Cornwall, the rare bird you saw wading on the Isle of Wight's nature reserve.

Walking has so many benefits. Apart from discovering hidden treasures and local gems you wouldn't otherwise have stumbled upon, it's also a great way to get get some fresh air, it's much greener than taking a car or a coach, and it's good for the soul! In Buddhism, walking meditation is a principal method of meditation, and one that has enjoyed a popular revival recently thanks to the Mindfulness movement.

So whether it's a lunchtime stroll with your dog in tow, or a walking holiday you're thinking of, we encourage you to pull on your walking boots and head into the great outdoors for adventures aplenty! If you're in need of some inspiration for longer walking trips, check out our page dedicated to walking holidays in the UK. Our favourite trips include 'An amble around London and the Cotswolds', 'Ceredigion Coast', 'Hadrian's' Wall' and 'The Thames Path from source to London'. Enjoy!