Why waste your ride of a lifetime on an uninspiring slog? This Land’s End to John O’Groats route takes in great tourist sights – Gloucester, Stratford, York, the glorious Northumbria coast, and Edinburgh – while minimising climbing.
In fact, we reckon this is the flattest route possible on quiet roads. It has 25% less climbing than the most popular LEJOG route, and only three climbs over 300m (vs a more typical 11). We’ve designed it for a three-week ride, with overnight stops in towns where there’s something to see. It’s almost all on country lanes or traffic-free paths, but it occasionally ducks onto busier roads to save a long detour.
We’ve planned this as a three-week route – or more specifically, 20 days, including a very short final day to John O’Groats so you have time to get the train home. If you’re used to long days in the saddle then you could polish it off in a fortnight.
We’ve designed this route expressly to be approachable by riders without thousands of miles in their legs. LEJOG should never be your first multiday tour: we’d always recommend you get used to the concept of 60-mile days before setting out on a tour like this. But you certainly don’t need to be a whippet-thin athlete to tackle this route.
Most LEJOG cyclists choose B&Bs and the occasional larger hotel. Some choose to book their entire itinerary in advance, though a fixed schedule can rapidly go to pot in case of mechanical trouble or inclement weather. Others may choose to book just a few days or hours before turning up, or even just arrive on spec – though we wouldn’t recommend that in the summer months.
Of course, you can camp as well; but if you’ve not done it before, bear in mind that a tent and camping gear will slow you down considerably. Youth hostels can be a great money-saver compared to B&Bs, though many have closed in recent years.
The great majority of this route is on-road (78%). There are a few unpaved trails – railway paths, canal towpaths and the like – but nothing that a laden tourer or a road bike with decent tyres can’t cope with. If you’re on thinner tyres, you can generally divert away from the unpaved sections, sometimes at the cost of more traffic. The most important thing is to choose a bike which will enable your daily mileage without tiring yourself out.
No, because there’s no single LEJOG route. That said, many miles of this route follow the National Cycle Network, and there’ll be entire days when you can just follow the little blue signs for a stress-free navigational experience. Still, we’d recommend you load a Garmin or smartphone with the route.
Probably thousands of LEJOG routes have been ridden through the years. Here’s a few starting points if you’d like to consider alternative routes:
Land’s End to John O’Groats (LEJOG) is the most popular route, but some people ride it in reverse (JOGLE). In fact, our research trip for the southern half of this route was done in reverse! So yes, you can take this route and reverse it – use the ‘reverse’ button on our route-planner/map.
Two things to beware of. On occasion, we’ve chosen a long, slow ascent followed by a fast, steep descent. You’ll want to adapt the route here, unless you really want to climb the 16% hill out of Newlyn (hint: you don’t). Second, and more significantly, you’ll be against the prevailing wind. You won’t notice this much in the Midlands, but on the flat, near-coastal route from Gloucester to Taunton, a headwind can seriously slow your progress.
The nearest railway station to Land’s End is Penzance, 12 miles away. Services to Penzance are operated by GWR and CrossCountry, both of which now have pitiful accommodation for bikes in upright-hanging cupboards. Book as far in advance as possible, including a bike space. Not all train booking websites have a facility to book a bike space, though GWR’s does. But we would strongly recommend going to your nearest staffed station if you can – booking office staff can sometimes find a bike space when the online systems are saying “no”.
See if you can get a reserved seat near to the bike compartment so you can keep an eye on your bike. When on the train, you’ll need to take your panniers off when hanging the bike up.
Consider too the Night Riviera service, GWR’s sleeper train from London Paddington to Penzance, which has space for four bikes.
By train: John O’Groats is 16 miles from Wick station or 20 from Thurso. Services are run by ScotRail. The bike space is a little less parsimonious than on the Penzance trains, but you’ll still need to book as far in advance as possible.
Train services on the ‘Far North Line’ are infrequent and slow! In practice, this means that getting to England in one day from Wick or Thurso (changing at Inverness and Glasgow/Edinburgh) requires catching a train around 8am. One alternative is the Caledonian Sleeper from Inverness.
If you do want to try for the 8am train from Thurso or Wick, we’d recommend changing your last few days’ stopping points: Tain (not Cromarty) at 965mi, Bettyhill (not the Crask Inn) at 1035mi, then the next day, reach John O’Groats at 1090mi, and backtrack to Thurso or Wick for your overnight accommodation.
By taxi: You can also consider a courier service from John O’Groats to Inverness. This is, surprisingly, quicker than the train and can help you make a daytime connection. Here’s one such service.
By ferry: This might sound counter-intuitive, but it’s definitely the most fun, and can be the quickest. Take the ferry to Orkney either from John O’Groats itself, or from nearby Gills Bay (a short ride back along the coast). Each ferry runs two or three times a day. Then ride across Orkney for 15-20 easy miles to Kirkwall. Take the overnight ferry from Kirkwall to Aberdeen, which runs around three times a week. You’ll arrive early morning in Aberdeen, ready to catch your train home.
Made in the Cotswolds. Published by Éditions Système D Ltd.
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Ride reports & comments
LEJOG_jun25_v5c2
1085 miles including side trips to the Lizard, Shaw, and Largs, leaving out the Lakes District; based on the Easy East Coaster
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Lejog using the 'easy east coaster'
A friend and I have just finished Lands End to John O groats using the easy east coast route. We took it leisurely aiming to do an average of just…
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Ridden this route? Write a ride report and share your experience…
We just cycled this from Taunton to Edinburgh. It is a great route. We are retirees and to begin with we had 25kg of camping equipment so our bikes were pretty loaded. We were in Taunton after cycling from London. The route to Bristol is longer than the hilly way but much easier and is charming. Then to Gloucester, again longer but “mostly” flat. Up through Stratford, Nottingham, York etc. our only challenging day was from Berwick back across to Haddington. There was an exhilarating descent but the earlier ascents were quite hard work. In general the route is well thought out we didn’t follow the timing described, each of his “days” took us at least two. We abandoned camping as far too many sites are vans only, the few that take tents were fully booked. We shipped our camping gear home as there are plenty of cheap hotels and Inns. Thank you for your hard work, I imported the gpx into Komoot and it worked really well.
Currently following this route and really enjoying it. Thanks Richard!
For anyone considering this, please note that there are currently works on the NCN 1 south of York, you may need to work out your own diversions and allow a little extra time.
Similarly, the Union chain bridge at the Tweed near Berwick is simply not there. It should be reinstated, but could take a year+
I rode the Easy East Coaster in June 2022 over 21 days on my own. I chose this because I wanted to cycle the Northumberland Coast as part of my LEJOG as this is my home county. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, it was well planned on quiet roads, I stayed in Airbnb's, Guest Houses and Hotels along the way with an aim to book the cheapest place I could find each day and this worked out well. The only section that stuck out as being an issue was the road in to Tiverton which I found really difficult due to the very busy, fast moving traffic. Route 1 up through Northumberland was fantastic however if you are considering this on a road bike then think again. I did make the mistake of visiting Eyemouth which was a whole host of climbing for very little reward. Overall a great route and change from the traditional route up the West. I did finish my LEJOG on Orkney which again I would recommend, the ferry back from Kirkwall to Aberdeen was easy and cheaper then Scotrail.
Thank you for the route! I'm currently in Kirkwall awaiting the overnight ferry to Aberdeen. I followed the suggested route for most of the way - brilliant route with a few minor 'fun' points - a couple of very narrow & bumpy bits. Thoroughly recommended.
Great route. My best friend and I did this over 17 days pedaling, averaging about 60 miles or so a day. Got back on 3.6.23. We found some great little pubs abd hotels to stay in. We have raised almost 6.5k for OvarianCancerAction. They are based at Charing Cross hospital where my 24 yr old daughter got excellent care and treatment. The route is great, with some fab cycleways, canal paths and old rail tracks. We only experienced two small issues, footbridge closed over M5 shut at Avonmouth - double backed and used Kings Weston Ln, and a rail crossing shut nr road to Lindisfarne at Beal. I think the rail crossing faux pas was googles fault, not published route, as we had drifted off piste and google directed us down 1.5 miles of bone shaking farm track to discover pedestrian rail crossing had been shut for some time. Absolutely fantastic route and resource. Thanks
I rode the Easy East Coaster in May 2025 over 20 days on my own raising money for 4 charities. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the ride, it was well planned on quiet roads using the gpx file provided by cycle.travel with Wahoo Elemnt Bolt gps which was great and easy to use. I cycled 1245 miles over 20 days (route is listed at 1085 miles), averaging 62miles/day and ascending 52,792 feet on the hill climbs. I looked at various routes over the last few years but decided on this one as I didn’t want killer hills with a loaded bike and being 71. Having said that the route was challenging and “without getting the miles in” (3,500 miles since Jan 25) it would have been very difficult, especially with headwinds. I added some extra miles going to see places (eg Eyemouth and Dunnet Head), dropping in on some friends, some slight detours at road works and places where cycle paths were closed, and getting slightly lost on a few occasions mostly at places where road works were. I’ve not listed these as they may be completed soon. Some of the roads in Devon/Cornwall were narrow lanes and although I saw very little traffic the surfaces of some lanes and some cycling paths were rough with gravel, grit etc. Although the route goes through some major cities/towns, I was surprised at how quiet/rural the route was between towns/cities.
I was blessed with 3 weeks of dry weather, cursed with northerly headwinds (apart from the stretch between North Berwick and Edinburgh), ground down by the relentless hills in places (Devon and Cornwall) and avoided the pesky midges apart from a couple that managed to bite at Altnaharra. I stayed in cheap B&B/hotels, and Youth Hostels along the way with an aim to book the cheapest place I could find each day and this worked out well. Please note that I booked these mostly around Jan 2025 and many places were unavailable even then. I know some of the prices had gone up if you booked at the last minute.
I got 3 trains from Hartford Cheshire to Penzance and only had problem on Plymouth to Penzance where despite booking myself plus my bike – the bike storage was full of luggage piled up high. The guard simply said that the train was very busy hence the luggage. My wife picked me up at JoG as she was in Scotland visiting our son.
Absolutely fantastic route and resources. Many thanks
Located directly opposite Royal Meenakshi Mall on Bannerghatta Road, South Bangalore—just 600–650 m to key landmarks including Meenakshi Temple, malls, schools, and hospitals. Located directly opposite Royal Meenakshi Mall on Bannerghatta Road, South Bangalore—just 600–650 m to key landmarks including Meenakshi Temple, malls, schools, and hospitals