Cycling Gourmand electric bike adventure

Cycling Gourmand ebike adventure

Recently, we were asked by the lovely people at the Seaview Hotel to help curate a series of bike rides which would take in some of our favourite eateries in the north-east Wight. And so the Cycling Gourmand was created.

However, these are not just any bike rides. The Seaview Hotel has a stable of electric bicycles for guest to borrow and use to explore the Island. And, with the help of the Cycling Gourmand guide, riders will know all the best places for a refreshment stop. We were delighted to be invited to try the ebike adventure for ourselves!

Staycation at Seaview Hotel

We stayed in the Seaview Hotel in order to be ready for a sprightly start to our ebike adventure. Our large and handsome room had a glorious view over the Solent. We fuelled up with a hearty breakfast – full English for Matt, salmon and eggs for Cat.

Getting ready to saddle up our ebikes!

After an induction by Brian in how to get the best out of our electric steeds ‘Nipper’ and ‘Duver’, we packed our pannier and set off!

Popping by some lovely Ryde venues

Of course, being ‘anonymous’ food reviewers meant that we won’t include any pictures of ourselves on our ebike adventure – you’ll have to make do with the bicycles. If we *had* included pictures, you will have seen broad grins as we rode with the wind in our helmets and the sun on our happy faces.

Dinner at Seaview Hotel

The ebike adventure includes dinner at the Seaview’s Hotel restaurant and, the evening before our ride, we enjoyed a rather splendid three course meal. The Green Barn goat’s cheese soufflé was particularly notable. Of course, you don’t need to be staying at the hotel to enjoy its award-winning dining; the ’28’ menu (three courses for £28), is available to non-residents too.

Quarr Abbey

The route from Seaview to Quarr is lovely; through Appley Park, and off-road on the upgraded cycle path from Ryde Golf Club. We had a delightful lunch at the abbey’s tea garden – including special sausage and chutney baguette for Matt, which we followed with a succulent slice of ‘Dark and Stormy’ ginger cake.

Going further afield

If you’ve never ridden an electric bicycle, we can’t recommend it enough. Easy to operate and giving a little boost when needed, we coped magnificently along our undulating route; hills were no trouble. In fact, we were only scheduled to go as far as Quarr but we carried on effortlessly to Newport and could easily have gone further.

Pick up a Cycling Gourmand leaflet at Seaview Hotel

There are loads of great places to eat on the Isle of Wight – we should know, we’ve been writing about them since 2005. It was hard to restrict ourselves to six featured venues for the Seaview Hotel Cycling Gourmand ebike adventure, so we sneaked a mention of loads of other places in our descriptive route text. We are happy to recommend a Cycling Gourmand ebike adventure!

We were the guests of the Seaview Hotel.

The two night Cycling Gourmand package is from £380* per couple including accommodation, e-bike hire and dinner. Find out more by visiting the hotel’s website.