This week's column was going to be devoted to both cycling and horse-riding on holiday - but the range and quality of the websites devoted to the former is so great that the equine sites will just have to wait for next week.
First, three top recommendations: for basic information about cycling in a particular country, www-math.science.unitn.it/Bike/, and for advice on biking and camping, saddle bags, reading roadmaps with an eye for the best cycling routes, and solar-powered laptops, kenkifer.com/bikepages/touring/. The logistics of transporting your bike by rail and coach are dealt with at gFarnsworth.com/BikeAccess/default.cfm.
In Britain
The cycling section of the much improved VisitBritain site ( visitbritain.com/uk/outdoorbritain/get_active/cycling.htm) is a good place to start if you haven't settled on an area. There's a particularly good guide to Northern Ireland. It also provides a list of links to the dozens of specialist tour operators who will organise a holiday for you; there are too many to list individually here. Bike routes.org.uk suggests routes in south-east Scotland and north-east England. You can use many of the national byway routes for cycling (nationalbyway.org). See also the East of England tourist board (eastofenglandtouristboard.com), Mbwales.com, bike-express.co.uk and cycling.visit scotland.com. Sustrans has a guide to the national cycle network, which is especially useful for urban cycling ( sustrans.org.uk/webcode/home.asp).
In Europe
The Low Countries, as you might expect, have some really excellent sites. The Dutch tourist board's all-round guide (www2.holland.com/global/discover/active/cycling/) and penwarden.co.nz/Cycling/Europe/ both stand out, as does (penwarden.co.nz/Cycling/Europe/) - which also has a section on Venezuela. But the most impressive has to be Visit Germany's (germany-tourism.de/bikin).
In the rest of the world
Pedaling.com is a decent starting-point for US trips; note the single l in the address. Cycling along disused railway lines is popular in the US, for three reasons: first, you aren't bothered by motor traffic; second, navigation is easier; and third, there are plenty of obvious places to rest, eat or spend the night en route. Rails to Trails (traillink.com) has a searchable database. Use the advanced search. States compile their own, more detailed guides (links at traillink.com/TL_Active_Pages/CoolLinks/default.asp). Try Canada Trails (canadatrails.ca/biking) for an overview of the country's routes.
sa-cycling.com suggests routes in South Africa. More adventurously, ibike.org/bikeafrica offers tips and advice for cycling all over the rest of the continent.
