EXCLUSIVE We're cycling through 30 countries in a year - there's a Brit holiday hotspot that's as magical as the Northern Lights and Grand Canyon
The father and son duo, from Norfolk, are currently on a mission to circumnavigate the entire globe on two wheels.
Their epic 30,000km route will take them through 30 countries across four continents over the course of a year, and they're aiming to pick up the Guinness World Record as the first father and son to complete the challenge.
And along the way, they're raising money for two charities; UNICEF and Bicycle Links, a local Norwich charity that provides bikes to children in need.
Speaking to MailOnline from their 15th country, Kyrgyzstan, 56-year-old George says: 'A few years ago we'd decided to cycle across America and then a couple of years later Joshua came up with the idea to cycle home from Singapore. And then we thought "if we're going to do that, we may as well do the whole thing".
'When we looked into it we realised that's nobody done it before as a father and son. So all of a sudden we've got Guinness World Records on board.'
The pair will travel through Europe, Asia, Australia and South America in their attempt but so far, it's Turkey that's stood out.
Joshua, 22, reveals: 'Turkey was probably my favourite. I guess you have kind of an idea of what it's going to be like from the media.
LEFT: Josh and George in Uzbekistan which has so far been the most challenging country to cycle RIGHT: George is pictured above in very hot conditions in central Turkey
'But then it was so different in real life. The locals there were so friendly and kind. We got invited to breakfast by a shepherd and just the landscapes throughout the whole country were stunning.'
And his father agrees, saying: 'Turkey was a real eye-opener for us. We had had a few days off in in Cappadocia in Turkey, which was the most amazing place that I think I've been to in my lifetime. It's up there for me with the Northern Lights and the Grand Canyon.'
The pair's hardest cycling so far has been in Uzbekistan where they faced daily temperatures above 40 degrees.
'There was a sort of 450km stretch of single straight road through the desert,' explains Joshua. 'So we were waking up at 2am in the morning to get good distance in before the sun came up and the heat rose, but there's 50km periods without anything.
'We had to stock up on water but of course the water bottles turned hot within minutes. All you want is a cold drink and it's pretty impossible to get out there. We did have a couple of trucks stop and give us water but that was the hardest week of the trip so far.'
There have also been technical challenges, the most serious so far when a crack appeared in the frame of Joshua's bike in Turkey.
He explains: 'Our bikes are made of aluminum so you can't really weld them back together. Because of shipping and customs we couldn't get the frame sent to us in time.'
A solution eventually came in the form of Joshua's mother who flew out to Tbilisi in Georgia with the new frame.
Next stop on the journey is China which George explains is 'going to be so different to anything either of us have experienced before in terms of language, culture and scale.'
The pair aren't fazed though and are looking forward to the challenges to come.
'It's either been good, really good or incredible [so far],' reveals George. 'The people that we've met have been universally hospitable. We've had nothing but goodwill from everyone we've met.'
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17 of the best hotels with swim-up rooms in Turkey
Snooze, swim. Snooze, swim. It's the ultimate in holiday relaxation, slipping between lounger and pool, and it's never easier than when you can swim right up to your room. Turkish hoteliers are never slow to embrace new trends, and there are swim-up rooms, apartments and suites in every type of hotel, from family-friendly all-inclusives to romantic boutique hotels. Not that relaxing in this sun-drenched, spectacularly beautiful country is ever difficult; it may not have the super-slow pace of the Greek islands, but Turkish hospitality is second to none, with families particularly welcomed. Throw in crystal-clear seas, fantastic food and the sense of a culture rich in tradition and history and it's not difficult to see why so many British holidaymakers return to Turkey for a relaxing week in the sun. These are the country's best hotels with swim-up rooms. This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue £££ | SPA | POOL | 2 RESTAURANTS | Best for views The swim-up rooms at the Garcia also command the very best of the hotel's views over the lush green forests and sparkling waters of the Blue Lagoon. Each comes with a private poolside terrace, while inside you'll find rooms decorated in relaxing Mediterranean blues and natural finish wood (swim-up family suites are also available). Even if you go for one of the standard rooms you'll find plenty of swimming options, with four adult and two children's pools. And when you're ready to tear yourself away, it's just a short drive down to the beach. • Discover our full guide to Turkey £££ | SPA | POOL | 6 RESTAURANTS | Best for seclusion Most foreign tourists overlook the northern part of Turkey's Aegean coast, but it's worth a visit — the waters are bracingly cold and the temperatures less scorching than in the more southerly resorts. The high-end Paloma chain's Izmir offering is on a secluded part of the coast, right on a stretch of golden beach. Poolside rooms come with their own terrace and small tropical garden, offering maximum privacy and tranquillity. ££ | POOL | 1 RESTAURANT | Best for honeymoons The honeymoon suites at the Nautical are showstoppers: self-contained bungalows with their own private terraces and pools, set just metres back from a sparkling crystal bay that is for guests only. The emphasis at this tiny boutique hotel is on nature and relaxation: you can join meditation and yoga classes among the lemon trees in the garden, and enjoy laid-back acoustic live music events in the evenings. The cheaper rooms aren't too shabby either: individual stone houses are cleverly arranged to make you feel as though you're out in the wilderness on your own. £££ | SPA | POOL | 2 RESTAURANTS | Best for a stress-free break This luxury hotel occupies one of the best stretches of beach in Bodrum, where you can feel the soft white sand between your toes and dive into the refreshing crystal waters. The service is top notch: the hotel's personal assistant can organise everything during your stay, from restaurant bookings to excursion recommendations. Sumptuously designed rooms and restaurants stocked with high-end accessories will make you feel like one of the celebrities who frequent this part of the Turkish coast. 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The bicycle played a rich role in Ireland's past. Now it is key to our future
The front pages in Ireland were splashed with yellow last week after Ben Healy became the first Irish cyclist in 38 years to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. While those who cycle sometimes make a point of separating its two forms – sport and transport – they are deeply interlinked, and bumpy streets on the island of Ireland have played a part in that. In 1888, John Boyd Dunlop developed the pneumatic tyre to help his son cycle around Belfast more comfortably. The technology was first used for racing bicycles and then manufactured in a factory in central Dublin before it was brought into widespread use. The combination of the pneumatic tyre and the safety bicycle led to a boom in cycling. This new model was the iPhone of bicycles at the time, replacing earlier bikes including the penny farthing with its impractically large front wheel. Having played a crucial role in everything from grocery deliveries to the 1916 Easter Rising that put Ireland on the path to independence, bicycles have left their mark on Irish history. One of their most significant impacts has been an increase in social connectivity and less rural isolation. At its Museum of Country Life in County Mayo, the National Museum of Ireland features an exhibition on cycling and its transformative effect on Irish life, outlining how, by the 1930s, 'bicycles became the key mode of transport in every parish in Ireland, dramatically changing the social life of ordinary people'. A number of first-hand accounts are on display, including memories of cycling tens of miles to dance halls. Peggy McLoughlin recalled: 'When the dance was over, we headed on our homeward journey on our less-than-roadworthy bicycles. Only a few of us possessed lights, the girls with flash lamps positioned themselves four abreast on the road in front, with the dark unlit beings cycling half hidden in between. At the back, you'd have your fingers crossed that you wouldn't encounter any Garda.' The long distances people cycled on country roads 70 years ago put today's cycling debates in perspective. Many claim that bicycles are not practical because of distance, even when the journeys made by car within most towns and cities are much shorter than those that many of our parents or grandparents cycled. But times changed. The Celtic Tiger years brought a different boom: car ownership and usage. By the time of the financial crash in 2008, the number of cars on Irish roads had doubled in 16 years. The impact on cycling was stark. The number of secondary-school students travelling to school daily by bicycle declined from a peak of 50,648 in 1986 to 6,592 in 2011, a fall of 87%. In the late 1980s, more than 19,000 teenage girls cycled to school. That figure had fallen to only 529 in 2011. By the time the tiger was truly dead, five times as many secondary-school girls drove themselves to school than cycled. SUVs, the high bonnets of which are a deadly threat to children, have become more common than bicycles at school. But there has been a resurgence in cycling. When I started transporting my youngest child in a cargo bike in Dublin more than a decade ago, it would always turn heads. Now, cargo bikes – which can be seen as a type of indicator species – are not just a common sight in most of Dublin but are regularly spotted in Cork, Limerick and Galway too. On-street bike sharing, which improved public access and awareness of cycling in Dublin, has now spread to towns such as Athlone, Bray, Carlow, Castlebar, Kilkenny, Mullingar, Portlaoise, Sligo, Tullamore, Westport, Wexford and Wicklow. Before Covid, cycling was already on a gradual rise in the capital, a trend that was boosted by quick-build cycle routes and the protection of some existing cycle lanes with plastic bollards, which received a mixed reception. After this, the latest census in early 2022 showed that despite a significant increase in working from home, all Irish cities recorded a rise in commuting by bike. In Dublin and its suburbs, the proportion of commuters who cycle to work or education is now 8.3%. It has clearly helped that the last government – a centrist coalition that included the Green party – pumped €360m a year into walking and cycling infrastructure between 2020 and this year. The scale of this funding can be seen in context when compared with the UK, where the government allocated £300m for active travel in England in 2025 – spending less money in a country with a far higher population (57 million versus Ireland's 5 million). But inflation means that €360m doesn't go as far as it would have done in 2020. And there were other potholes along the way, including the challenge of ramping up projects and the teams to run them around the country, and what campaigners called out as questionable metrics for success. Five years on, a number of local authorities are starting to make substantial progress on joining cycle routes together into useful networks. And despite the baseless claims made by online commenters and sometimes by politicians that cycle lanes are empty or underused, there are promising signs that more people are cycling in areas where significant improvements have been made. However, the Greens lost all but one of their seats in last year's general election. With mostly rural independent members of parliament replacing them in the governing coalition, will the momentum now be lost? Will funding already spent on planning projects be wasted? Attitudes to cycling are not as polarised in Ireland as in the UK or elsewhere, but opposition to changes on streets and roads, including bus priority and pedestrianisation, is loud. Dealing with objections is a huge part of the job that councils have. There's a greater culture shock and backlash in some smaller towns, where little has changed in decades. Exaggerated claims about the alleged destruction of the fabric of towns and cities are routine. A recent examination of entry points into Dublin city centre found that just 6% of them gained notable cycling improvements in the past decade. People who cycle – and those who try it before giving up – often complain about cycle lanes that are too narrow and disconnected. Faster delivery and more focus are needed in many areas to join up routes. Ben Healy won't be in the top spot when the Tour finishes on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday, but he has lit up the greatest bike race in the world with his energy and enthusiasm; something we would do well to carry over into everyday Irish cycling, to make it a truly mass-participation activity again. To borrow an old Irish election slogan: a lot done, more to do. Cian Ginty is editor of
