My wife and I are contemplating taking a cycling tour in Great Britain
for a week this summer.  The time would be August 14-21, 2004.  We are
interested in an Inn-to-inn type, self-guided tour, where the company
takes care of all the arrangements including transferring our lugguge
to the next place and furnishing the bicycles.  We are not hard-core
cyclists, but think that bicycling will allow us to see a little more
of the countryside than a walking tour.  We are thinking 10-20 miles a
day of moderate terrain would be good. We are not interested in nature
so much as seeing some traditional country villages, shops, gardens,
castles, estates, and absorbing some of the local culture - along with
plenty of time to stop at the pubs!  I've done some searching and have
some ideas, but I thought it might be a good idea to tap the knowledge
here.  Hopefully whoever answers this question will be familar with
England and will have spent some time vacationing there.  What I am
looking for is some suggested locations and tour operators and some
unbiased reviews / magazine articles to back up your suggestions.

Britain is not bicycle-friendly: most of the roads are designed for
motor vehicles, and cycle paths are only usually found in towns.

Consequently (in my experience), there are not many cyclists around.

Butterfield & Robinson, of Toronto, are an especially well-known tour
operator.  They -- and scads of others -- are listed in the DMOZ Open
Directory:
http://dmoz.org/Sports/Cycling/Travel/Tour_Operators/Worldwide/

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

CTC is the UK's national cyclists' organisation with over 70,000
members and supporters worldwide. They have their own holiday company
at
http://www.ctctours.co.uk/

You might also find information on their main site useful
http://www.ctc.org.uk/

There is also the newsgroup news:uk.rec.cycling

Owain

2wheeltreks.co.uk
UK Cycling holidays
Cycling holidays in UK, Sea to Sea
on Sustrans National Cycle Network
www.skedaddle.co.uk

Electric Bicycle Holidays
Cycle Tours in England and France
Guided tours on our electric bikes
www.cyclescape.co.uk

I'd say do it yourself - book a flight, buy a book of the Lake
District and go from inn to inn yourself