The Western Cape South Africa

Below Cape Town, the South African coast swells into the rolling, vine-clad hills of the winelands and the rugged beaches of the Western Cape. It’s a classic bicycle route – wide, flat roads snaking alongside the tumultuous ocean; blue skies; rows of leafy vines and beaches made for picnicking upon.

Base yourself in Cape Town and you can cycle a variety of routes around the area. Bike the rugged terrain of Table Mountain (be prepared to sweat and wear a helmet – it’s a steep uphill climb and a rough, gravelly track on the downhill) or freewheel through the vineyards of Stellenbosch. The many private farm roads in this gorgeously green region lead to small wineries making world-class wines. Avontuur (avontuurestate.co.za) is notable both for its cabernet sauvignon and its restaurant with views of Table Mountain and the vines.

Alternatively, you could join an 11-day guided journey along the Garden Route stretching from Heidelberg in the Western Cape to Storms River. There are 10 nature parks along the way, as well as marine reserves housing seals and the endangered southern right whale, which comes here to calve between July and December. Catch a few off-road trails in the Harkerville National Forest and Nature’s Valley and spend time in Knysna Elephant Park. The final days take in Cape Agulhas, Africa’s southernmost point, and Hermanus – also famed for its whale watching.

Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi Vietnam

Years ago it would have been unthinkable to cycle through Vietnam. Now the country has emerged, gradually, as a place for tourists to discover. A cycling tour here is, for this reason, as culturally rewarding as it is physically challenging.

The most sensible way to cycle in Vietnam is to join an escorted tour, taking away the hassle of constant map reading, and giving you the benefit of a guide who can translate. You’ll find being on a bike only gets you closer to life here. The outgoing Vietnamese share our love affair with the bicycle and you’ll meet passing cyclists who wave and chatter enthusiastically at the sight of a visitor on two wheels.

The route begins in the streets of Ho Chi Minh, where bicycles and lorries weave their way among ramshackle markets selling silk and spices, sleek skyscrapers and shopping malls. After the rush of the city, it’s a relief to hit the backroads through peaceful tropical fruit and rubber plantations to Mui Ne, where you can jump into the waves and watch the sun set over the South China Sea. Make sure you taste the bun thit nuong, rice vermicelli with grilled meats – or go straight to dessert and the coconut ice cream.

Cycling on towards Dalat, a pretty hill station once known as Le Petit Paris by the colonial French, the road undulates past coffee and tea plantations, flower gardens and pine forests. Stopping to visit the emperor’s tombs at Hue, another town with interesting colonial architecture on the Perfume River, you’ll arrive in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, where you can join locals for a sip of bia hoi (beer) or try t’ai chi at dawn on the shores of the Hoan Kiem Lake.

The Jutland Coast Denmark

Denmark’s northernmost tip is everything a (leisurely) cyclist could dream of – empty roads curling through miles of windswept sand dunes; a landscape scattered with yellow and red clapboard villages and a special clarity of light that artists flock here to paint. The paved cycle paths snaking through this peninsula lead you past beaches, marshland and pine forest, perfect for gentle day trips in the saddle, punctuated by lunches of Denmark’s ubiquitous herring.

The best place to base yourself is Skagen, a fishing town encircled by sweeping beaches of fine pale sand beneath big baby-blue skies. Yellow houses with white picket fences line the quiet streets, populated mainly by cyclists on oldfashioned black bicycles. A movement of artists called The Skagen Painters lived here in the 1880s and their enchanting impressionistic Denmark paintings of local life – fishermen, strolls along the beach in long, flowing pastel-coloured skirts and garden lunch parties – are on show at the Skagen museum. You can hire bikes by the day or week from the bicycle hire centre in the middle of town.

Around Skagen, the landscape is an open, uninhabited wilderness of big, drifting dunes which are gradually moving inland. Grenen, a sandy point just a few kilometres north of town where the seas of Skagerrak and Kattegat meet, is an easy pedal away. Restaurant De 2 Have, hidden in the dunes, serves locally-caught prawns and herring (restaurantde2have.dk).

Puglia Italy

There’s nothing better, really, than cycling through the countryside, working up an appetite, then tucking in to some delicious food. And if there’s anywhere to do this, it’s Italy.

Puglia, on Italy’s sunny southern heel, is all about blue seas, golden sands and olive groves (the region produces some 70 per cent of Italy’s olive oil) and there are ample opportunities for setting off in bicicletta to discover the countryside, the food and the wine. Masseria Torre Coccaro is a gorgeous country house on an estate overlooking the sea. It organises special gourmet bicycle tours – you’ll be guided along the coast through groves of beautiful 1,000-year-old olives and along small roads lined with almond, pistachio and hazelnut trees. On the way, you’ll stop at a farmhouse to see how locals make mozzarella, burrata and ricotta cheeses before visiting an olive oil producer to taste some Apulian oils. Next, cycle to the local fishing village of Savelletri, to lunch on fresh fish carpaccio, scampi, sea urchins and prawns.

Alternatively, a self-guided cycle tour gives you the freedom to spend a few days nosing around independently. Hooked on Cycling runs a seven-day itinerary through the Puglia region, arranging hotels along the way and allowing you to make your way to each town every day. Pedal through countryside sweet with the aroma of roadside mint, stopping to enjoy the little towns of Putignano and Noci, with their characteristic roughly whitewashed houses and narrow alleyways.

Nova Scotia Canada

The famous Cabot Trail along Nova Scotia’s coast is a ride many cyclists have on their ‘must-do’ list. It’s an 185-mile loop around the northern tip of Cape Breton that takes around six days to ride and includes a variety of terrains. And because the trail is paved, it’s easy to cruise along and appreciate the startling beauty of this eastern region of Canada.

Highlights include the Margaree River and its tiny trails tumbling through beech woods to salmon pools. Here, spot the salmon leaping on their way upstream and swim beneath sparkling waterfalls. Spot moose browsing the hedgerows, seals playing in the ocean and eagles soaring above in the great Canadian skies; all the while enjoying the ascents and descents of Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Start in the town of Baddeck and ride over the 500ft Hunter’s Mountain. Then, continue along the Middle River Valley for a leisurely picnic at Lake O’Law, where you can choose to fish or swim – or simply meander along the charming little trails on your bicycle.

Your route will take you riding down the east side of Margaree River valley to the ocean, then follow the shoreline through the Acadian region to Cheticamp. Here you can go hiking or off-road biking, before a day tackling the cycling challenge of the national park, where you’ll climb two ‘mountains’ of around 1,400 feet in one day – the ascents are long but the descents will make it all worth while. After this adrenaline rush, the route between Cape North and Neil’s Harbour is somewhat gentler, taking in the spectacular White Point, where you stand a good chance of spotting whales. Work up a sweat cycling over the 900ft Cape Smokey, before the long, undulating downhill along the east coast, finishing back in Baddeck.