Our Story

About Halcyon Cycling Holidays

Halcyon Cycling Holidays started life back in 2019 as a social cycling group, made up of friends cycling together in South Yorkshire, led by Andrew Mcloughlin, a British Cycling trained ride leader, with forty years travel and tour operation experience. Other people in the group also guided rides. Socialising with others is an important part of the cycling group dynamic, and what cyclists liked about the group is the shared experience; and this has helped shape the holidays offered on this website. This is one of our founding brand values, and an important part of the holiday programme we have designed and offer today.

As the group grew, cycling trips further afield were organised and the group travelled to Southwest France to stay with Mark and Jess Fitz for a week at Lamamotte Gite in Lot et Garonne. The trip was a huge success, and from there other group social cycling trips were organised to include a couple of trips cycling Way of the Roses C2C, Ride of the Falling Rain on Islay, subsequent return trips to Islay and Jura, the stunning Hebridean Way in the Outer Hebrides, North Norfolk a few times cycling around the area adjacent to Burnham Market and Wells-next-the-Sea and most recently Mull & Iona in the Inner Hebrides, The Rebellion Way in Norfolk and North Yorkshire. Feedback from these trips has been invaluable and helped in developing the holidays offered in the cycling holidays section.

The social cycling group started a few years ago has now flourished into a highly successful small cycling business we know today. With cyclists at the centre of every decision the business makes, and with our passion for cycling and constant focus on ‘designed by cyclists for cyclists’; all our trips strive to offer superb value, quality and the very best customer service excellence.

The brand values at the core of our business shape and govern our behaviour and how we manage the way we deal and interact with our customers, staff, suppliers and wider stakeholders. These have been shaped, reshaped and changed over time to reflect the demands on our business and the changing environment. Our core values are:

To be social – we work hard and strive to foster a great social dynamic where everyone enjoys a fantastic cycling trip with like minded people, at a steady pace and in an atmosphere where everyone is welcome and belongs.

To be responsible – all our decisions we make in the business are taken and our activities are done so responsibly, and our focus is to offer holidays that have least impact on the planet, are sustainable and consider all of our futures.

To care – we are passionate about everything we do in our business, about our people, customers, stakeholders and communities we serve and interact with. We have a reputation for being a caring brand and this is something we will always do now and in the future.

To explore – all our holidays we offer have an element of exploration in the design and our customers can explore local places of interest, to pause and enjoy a beautiful vista or the opportunity to talk to locals as part of their holiday. We focus on enriching our customers lives by the holidays we choose to design and deliver, and this is included in all of our itineraries.

To use local – we try and use as many local businesses as possible in our holiday programme as we believe it adds to a sense of ‘authentic’ and to the overall holiday experience we offer, such as working with local guides, restaurants, cafes, pubs and local attractions and activities, as we want to put money back into local communities and help them enjoy some positive economic impact and flourish now and in the future.

To offer exceptional value – all our holidays offer exceptional value and are affordable and always will be competitively priced. Cycling holidays offered by many other businesses can be very expensive but Halcyon will always offer great prices now and in the future.

To be safe – all our holidays are risk assessed and are planned, shaped, organised and comply to current UK health and safety legislation (or equivalent if overseas). Be assured as a business we do not take risks and try to minimise these as much as possible.

To be professional - all our staff we employ are highly trained professional ride leaders, support staff or mechanics and work to the highest standards delivering great customer service and add ‘that extra’ customers are looking for these days. We also try and employ local staff wherever possible to deliver great service on our trips and bring local knowledge adding authenticity and great storytelling into the holiday mix!