Leading bike hire scheme Bike & Go, which has bike hire facilities at Southport, Ainsdale and Formby train stations, is celebrating the region’s best ‘off the beaten track’ cycle rides in a new free publication.



Bike & Go’s Quirky Bike Rides Guide is being published to coincide with English Tourism Week, which runs from March 17-25, and has been compiled with the help of cyclists who responded to an appeal by the bike hire scheme for people to submit their favourite alternative routes.



The guide, which can be downloaded free of charge from www.bikeandgo.co.uk from March 17, celebrates the best ‘off the beaten track’ places to cycle across Southport, Liverpool, Wirral and beyond.



Even those without bikes can try out one of the routes in the guide by simply hiring a Bike & Go bike from any of the 21 participating train stations across the region, including Liverpool Central, Moorfields, Aigburth, Ormskirk and West Kirby.



David O’Leary, Director of Bike & Go said: “English Tourism Week comes at the start of the cycling season, and provides a great opportunity for people to take to two wheels and see their own towns and cities from a brand new perspective.



“I would like to thank the cycling community who have been really keen to get on board with this and help encourage those who rarely use a bike to have some fun with cycling, and we hope that people will enjoy trying out their suggested routes.”



Bike & Go offers bike hire facilities from 70 participating train stations across much of the North West, North East and Yorkshire, East and South East of England, and Scotland.

In 2016 the scheme was praised by a UK division of the travel giant TripAdvisor when it was included in a list of the top seven bicycle hire companies drawn up by its subsidiary rental company Holiday Lettings.

To hire a Bike & Go bike, users simply need to register their card details online, which they can do via smart phones, tablets, or at home, and pay the annual £10 subscription fee. They will then receive a user number via email which will allow immediate bike hire – usually charged at just £3.80 per 24 hours up to a maximum of 72 hours - while they wait for their Bike & Go membership card.



The bike can then be returned to any one of the participating train stations across the country.