There are many different types of accommodation you can stay at during your tour. And in most parts of the country you will have plenty of choice:

• • tent – This is probably the cheapest form of accommodation but does mean carrying extra stuff.  You should consider the availability of sites, especially in peak season, and whether they will allow single night stays.  If you are intending to do a spot of guerilla camping behind the nearest sheltered hedge, make sure you check for the presence of cows – and bulls – before pitching!
  • B&B – If your budget is tight it is worth organising this in advance, even if this only means taking a list of the cheaper ones at strategic points on your route, because prices and standards very enormously (and not always proportionately!).  I booked ahead and found the cheapest in each area and even then I had a range of £19 – £35.  And note that whilst the second B – breakfast – is a very useful thing to the long distance cyclist it’s not much use if you are up and gone before breakfast is served! To help enhance this area of the website I conducted some reviews of the B&B accommodation I used on my two subsequent end to end cycles. 
  • motels – These are convenient, especially if you are doing a main road route.  They’re also good if you like your anonymity and don’t want to spend half an hour at the end of a tiring day chatting to a B&B owner about what you are doing.  They tend to be more expensive than B&Bs though.
  • hotels – Get you!  This is meant to be a challenge you know.  I hope you over sleep in that comfortable bed and have to ride double hard to catch up.
  • youth hostels – Not as cheap as they used to be.  But then, not so full of youths either.
  • park bench – The best ones are highly sought after so you may have to plan to arrive early enough to stake your claim, which could curtail your mileage

• 
  • gutter – Some thought should be given to this in advance as not all gutters are overly conducive to restful sleep.  For instance, you might like to avoid gutters outside pubs and night clubs [unless you really can’t stagger any further from the door].  If it’s raining anchor yourself down with some ballast otherwise you may wake up some distance from where you started, which can be disorientating.   The advantages of gutter accommodation are that: it is cheap, you don’t have to detour from your route to get to it, other guests won’t turn their noses up at your scruffy, sweaty appearance, there are no queues for the toilet and the heater won’t be stuck on all night with the window painted shut.  On the down side: security is a risk, there is a chance of being squashed in the night by passing lorries and you might get eaten by foxes.  Also, in some areas, spaces are limited, especially at peak times – you try finding a free gutter space in Glasgow at 3:00am on a Saturday morning.
  

  All of that is assuming that you intend to sleep at all.  You might not need to if you’re hard.

  Kickstart your Land’s End to John O’Groats planning

  

  Everything you need to know to get you started on your Lands End to John O Groats adventure is contained within these three books: a How To, a detailed account of riding the Google Map route for LEJOG and a ‘safe’ Route Book using GPX files.

  Click the image above for free samples.

  Available as electronic or paperback books from as little as £2.99 each or get all 3 for the price of 2 through this site  for only £5.98.  That’s less than an inner tube or a Costa coffee with a slice of cake.

  Where to next?

  The most popular pages on the site concern planning your End to End, including training for long distance cycling, thinking about the cycling equipment you will need, how to look after your bike, what you should be eating and drinking whilst cycling and how to create a route for Lands End to John O’Groats. Or you can read my own account of cycling End to End to get some idea of what to expect.