News

We love shouting about Lithuania. Mainly because when we first launched a bike tour here, we felt it was a place that deserved much more attention, and many more accolades than it had, as a superb holiday destination. Five years later, and much to our surprise, although perhaps due to political developments, Lithuania remains broadly unknown and undiscovered. We continue to sell Lithuania cycling holidays, but not in the numbers we had expected. We think this is a great shame, as there are so many fantastic reasons to visit. It's perfect for families and leisure cyclists because the terrain is flat, there are with miles and miles of traffic-free cycle paths, and it's incredibly good value compared to other European countries.

The area our self-guided cycle tour visits is also famous for its birdlife. The Curonian Spit, with its rolling sand dunes, is in fact considered to be one of the best birding areas in Northern Europe, with internationally significant populations of many species found here. There's even a book about bird watching here, 'Birds of the Curonian Spit', by Krister Castrén.

Mixed and coniferous forests cover almost 30% of Lithuania's landscape. Much of it is mature, and some of it is wet forest, which is extremely rare in Europe. Hundreds of pairs of Black Storks and Lesser-Spotted Eagles are known to nest here. Three-toed Woodpeckers are common in areas, and the White-backed Woodpecker, which is now thought to be rare in Europe, can still be found in some numbers. In fact in total there are 9 different types of Woodpecker found in Lithuania. Northern forests are famous for their owls and those in Lithuania are no exception! Ural, Tengmalm's and Pygmy Owls all breed.

Out in the meadows and pastures, Corncrakes and White Storks (considered to be Lithuania's national bird) are found in high numbers. In the open sedge fens, you'll find two extremely rare species in Europe: the Aquatic Warbler and the Great Snipe. There are only a couple of hundred pairs of each, so they are very special to see. On marshland and shorelines, you might see elusive Bitterns, Marsh Harries, Ospreys and even White-tailed Eagles - a globally threatened species.

And if your eyes start to get tired from all the squinting through those binoculars, prick up your ears and listen for the wild trumpeting call of the magnificent Crane, who abound in this gorgeous hidden gem of a country.

It really is a bird-watcher's paradise! If you're interested, check out our cycling holidays in the Baltics to find out more.

Tomorrow, the 19th of August, is World Photo Day. No doubt Instagram feeds and traditional media outlets the world over will be celebrating with some pretty spectacular photography. And no doubt many of them will be around the theme of travel.

There's nothing like taking your camera on holiday and capturing spell-binding moments to share with friends and family back home; nothing can capture the spirit and essence of an adventure like a photo does. Here at The Carter Company we love seeing pictures that customers have sent in of their cycling holidays and walking tours. Every year we run a photography competition, where the winning photo receives Wimbledon ground passes, and the runner-up receives a £100 voucher to spend on our biking tours and waking holidays. We like to think we appreciate a great image. The one above is a real favourite in the office!

What's your favourite travel image? Have you ever been inspired to travel somewhere through a picture you've spotted online? Join the conversation on our recently launched Instagram account for lots of cycling and walking pics or #travelgrams (as they're called!) from Britain, Europe and beyond. We'd love to hear your comments, and see your own travel photos too, so please tag us in your pictures. Our handle is @thecarterco. Happy World Photo Day!

We often get customers asking us: "Can we stay in a real-life castle on our holiday?" We often have to respond, tail between our legs, "Well, it's not as easy as you think. There are very few castles you can actually stay in..."

Scotland has to be the capital of castles. The iconic Eilean Donan castle (pictured, which you can't say in, but you can visit and hire out for weddings) is just one of many. Often set against dramatic landscapes, Scottish castles are the real deal; the fairytale castles you dream about living in when you're a little kid.

This year we decided that "It's really difficult" is not good enough, and that if we really put our minds to it, surely we could find some beautiful castle hotels, which were close enough together that we could make a cycling holiday out of linking them all together. Enter: Wendy, our founder and real pioneer in the gentle cycling movement. Wendy is very determined and has a knack for finding hidden gems. We entrusted the challenge to her, and lo and behold, she came back triumphant!

She has designed a fantastic bike tour around Scotland, which includes overnight stays in four stunning castles. Featured en route are Inverlochy Castle; Tulloch Castle; Mansfield Castle; and Kincraig Castle. Inverlochy is a 5 star gem of a hotel, which sits nestled in the foothills of Scotland's highest mountain - the mighty Ben Nevis - and in some of the most beautiful scenery in Scotland. Close by are the falls at Glen Nevis, the monument at Glenfinnan and the mountains of Glencoe. Inverlochy was a private residence for over 100 years until 1969, when it was converted from a family home into a castle hotel. Tulloch Castle dates from the 12th century, and offers breathtaking Highland views from its imposing position in the Scottish countryside. The rooms here are a particular favourite of ours, and are beautifully renovated. Mansfield Castle, an imposing Victorian building set in gorgeous countryside, has award-winning food and magnificent oak panelling throughout. And Kincraig, possibly our favourite among them all, is an impossibly romantic castle with fine views overlooking the Cromarty Firth. We love the cosy interiors and the staff here.

If you're wondering how to get more info, this tour is currently a bespoke cycling holiday only, so please do drop us a line if you'd like to hear more!

There's been lots of talk about National Parks Week in the media over the past couple of days, so we wanted to throw our two cents in (i.e. give ourselves an excuse to get misty-eyed and wax lyrical about a few of Mother Nature's finest works). We love a National Park, and many of our walking and cycling routes travel right through some of the best of them. Europe certainly holds its own in this department, but there are many abroad we are dying to visit. Yosemite and Yellowstone for one! Perhaps one day we'll design a Carter Company holiday there... it would be the perfect excuse to visit.

In the meantime, we share some of our favourites in Europe..

1. Dartmoor National Park. Rich in antiquities and archaeology, and home to gorgeous native ponies, Dartmoor is a moorland with unique exposed granite hilltops known as 'tors', which provide important habitats for the park's flora and fauna. But Dartmoor is also famous for its myths and legends. It is supposedly home to a headless horseman, pixies, a pack of spectral hounds, and a very large black dog! It's no surprise then that many writers and artists have been inspired by Dartmoor - including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Eagle-eyed Hogwarts fans may also recognise Dartmoor as the setting for the the Quidditch World Cup final in 1994 between Ireland and Bulgaria in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. Visit on our 'Devon coast to coastl' cycling holiday.

2. The Yorkshire Dales. An upland area of the Pennines in the historic county of Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Dales have a special allure about them that keeps us going back for more. What's it like? Think heather moorland, lush green valleys, rolling hills often shrouded in a charismatic mist and upland pastures criss-crossed with old stone walls and peppered with grazing sheep. 'Dale' means 'river valley', and typically the dales in this area are named after their river i.e. "(name of river)+dale" - e.g. Swaledale. The Dales are also home to some charming towns - we particularly love Richmond. And did you know you can walk to the Lake District through the Dales on the National Trail the 'Dales Way', which our founder Wendy walked last year. She highly recommends it! Or our 'In the footsteps of famous writers' walking holiday stops for a few days in the area.

3. Monfrague National Park. Spain has 15 National Parks and Monfrague is one of its newest, located in western Spain. It is a recognised UNESCO Biosphere reserve. The landscape is made up of an magnificent mountainous ridge, which the River Tagus has cut through, and there is a rather dramatic rock face, the famous Penafalcon, which is on the western side. The eastern side boasts a castle. Monfrague has long been designated a Special Protection Area for birdlife. Species nesting here include raptors, such as the Eurasian black vulture, the Spanish imperial eagle and the golden eagle, as well as the black stork, the rare white-rumped swift and the Eurasian eagle owl. Interesting fact: there park is also home to just one (human) village, Villareal de San Carlos, which has a population of just 28. Savour the spectacular bird life on our 'Land of the Spanish Conquistadors' cycling holiday.

4. The Trossachs. Our not-so-gentle cycling holiday in this fab part of Scotland - aptly titled 'Scotland's Grand Tour' - is a great way to explore the Trossachs. It's definitely 'grand', both in terms of the luxury hotels en route and the level of physical exertion required to pedal up some of those hills (!), but we'll let you into a little secret: most of our customers who choose this holiday either start or switch to an electric bike. And there's no shame in that! Why not - it offers more of an opportunity to soak up the landscape and take in the great beauty of the Trossachs.

5. The Lake District. An all-time favourite of not one but many of our trip planners, the Lakes (see pic above) are unmissable and unrivalled (in our opinion!). It may be the wettest place in England - an annual average of 130 inches of rain falls on Borrowdale - but if you're nifty you can skirt around the bad weather: Keswick is only a short car ride away and enjoys a far dryer year with just 50 inches of rainfall. You can also sort around the crowds in summer if you know what you're doing (hopefully that's where we come in) but the landscape here is totally mind-blowing and even when it's pouring down with rain, this National Park has the ability to charm and surprise. In amongst climbing England's highest mountain - if you're feeling energetic -and boating across its deepest lake, you can also visit the houses of some of England's most famous writers who had immensely fruitful creative relationships to Lakeland, from Beatrix Potter to John Ruskin and William Wordsworth. Don't miss it! Try one of our bespoke Lake District walking holidays.

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!