Newport to St Davids off-road(ish)?

[Charliecres]

Got a family holiday in St Davids coming up and I thought I'd dodge the driving and ride the Welsh part of the journey instead.

Newport's fairly easy to get to by train from home so I was thinking of that as a starting point. I'd like to do as much as possible off road but that looks like it might be a) complicated and b) circuitous and slow.

Can anyone help with planning some off-road sections?

Ta

Charlie

[slarge]

Is that Newport near Cardiff or Newport just east of Fishguard?

In reality there isn't much around St David's, but if it's Newport near Fishguard there's some good trails over the Preselis and Carneddau hills. Get it wrong though and it's death march.

[Charliecres]

Thanks slarge, it's Newport near Cardiff.

I know Pembrokeshire pretty well so I'm expecting back roads for the last section of the ride. I'm really wondering if there's are any bits of off-road I could incorporate into the eastern bit of the journey. Trouble is, all the valleys run north-south and so do the obvious tracks, it seems.

[Dusza]

You can definitely catch some nice riding between Pontypridd and Neath - mostly gravel but there's a mtb park with single tracks somewhere in the area if i'm not mistaken.

Then you could try connecting bits and pieces of the coastal trail between Milford Haven and St. Davids, Some of it is bike friendly, some quite the opposite. Then again it's not really allowed to cycle these trails...

The views from the Castlemartin shooting range are stunning, if you don't mind the added miles you can catch some gravel there. Better check beforehand if there's no shooting on the day you intend to ride.

[Charliecres]

Thanks Dusza. Hadn't thought of hugging the coast. I'll take a look at the map

[Bearbonesnorm]

A few years ago I rode from home to St Davids ... lots of little tracks, BW and quiet lanes until I got into Pembrokeshire. If you discount the Preseli hills (worth riding) then there's not very much off road to be had although it's still nice riding on the lanes.

I recall stopping at a cross roads to check my map when an old boy in a Landrover pulled up.

Him: Are you lost?

Me: No, just deciding which way to go.

Him: Where you going?

Me: St davids.

Him: I wouldn't go there.

Me: Why not?

Him: It's a long way.

Me: I know but that's where I'm going.

Him: Yeah but there's places much nearer you could ride to.

Hard to fault his logic.