(text got lost when I posted photos somehow) We recently completed a tour of the Delmarva peninsula, and wanted to share some details with you all since there were limited reports on this board previously. My wife and I did a little over 350 miles over 7 days of cycling in mid-April, starting and finishing in Wilmington, DE. Easy access from East Coast cities is a plus point for this area. We rode the train with our bikes 6 hours from Boston, a relaxed, stress-free (and affordable) way of getting there, and from Wilmington train station you exit onto a bike-path right beside the river.
We did about 60% of the ride on the ACA route, going down the Chesapeake option as far as Centerville, then cutting across to Fenwick Island and back up the main route on the Delaware river side. Much of the Chesapeake option follows busy roads, which have a wide shoulder but can be unpleasant, with 50 mph speed limits. The bridge over the canal at Chesapeake City is particularly dangerous – we chose to walk on the narrow sidewalk. I would recommend maybe searching out alternatives to Rte. 213 if you can find them, as we definitely found quieter roads as we headed across the peninsula and later on the ACA route also. The section on Rte 9 was very enjoyable and quiet.
Terrain was fairly flat (but scenic) farmland for much of the ride – good for 7 days but maybe a little monotonous for a longer tour – with some coastal scenery and marshlands on the second part of the ride. So no hills to deal with, but the big open fields do leave you susceptible to headwinds, which really slowed us on a couple days.
Camping and lodging options are there, but spaced out, and we had to plan our route around the state campgrounds a little, with a couple AirBnB’s thrown in. As you might expect, in April there was no problem getting camping spots, but in summer it would be a different proposition.
Overall, we really enjoyed the tour. It was a shake-out for a month-long West Coast tour this summer and we came back full of enthusiasm for getting out there again!
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(text got lost when I posted photos somehow) We recently completed a tour of the Delmarva peninsula, and wanted to share some details with you all since there were limited reports on this board previously. My wife and I did a little over 350 miles over 7 days of cycling in mid-April, starting and finishing in Wilmington, DE. Easy access from East Coast cities is a plus point for this area. We rode the train with our bikes 6 hours from Boston, a relaxed, stress-free (and affordable) way of getting there, and from Wilmington train station you exit onto a bike-path right beside the river.
We did about 60% of the ride on the ACA route, going down the Chesapeake option as far as Centerville, then cutting across to Fenwick Island and back up the main route on the Delaware river side. Much of the Chesapeake option follows busy roads, which have a wide shoulder but can be unpleasant, with 50 mph speed limits. The bridge over the canal at Chesapeake City is particularly dangerous – we chose to walk on the narrow sidewalk. I would recommend maybe searching out alternatives to Rte. 213 if you can find them, as we definitely found quieter roads as we headed across the peninsula and later on the ACA route also. The section on Rte 9 was very enjoyable and quiet.
Terrain was fairly flat (but scenic) farmland for much of the ride – good for 7 days but maybe a little monotonous for a longer tour – with some coastal scenery and marshlands on the second part of the ride. So no hills to deal with, but the big open fields do leave you susceptible to headwinds, which really slowed us on a couple days.
Camping and lodging options are there, but spaced out, and we had to plan our route around the state campgrounds a little, with a couple AirBnB’s thrown in. As you might expect, in April there was no problem getting camping spots, but in summer it would be a different proposition.
Overall, we really enjoyed the tour. It was a shake-out for a month-long West Coast tour this summer and we came back full of enthusiasm for getting out there again!
Happy to answer any questions.