LEJOG - Planning

What I would also say, is that meticulous planning is needed as far as spares and tools are concerned if you are not using a support vehicle, after all you could be as far as 50 miles away from a local bike shop.
It is also notoriously difficult in some areas to get a signal to call for help, so also think about some bandages and other first aid equipment. Also some of the roads in Scotland are pretty bad, even by the rest of the UK's standards.
But on the positive side, it's a true adventure and some of the scenery, like the other posters have commented on, is truly beautiful.
Hope you go ahead with it and enjoy yourself though. I did when I went and it rained solidly for 11 of the 14 days I was out.

Indeed, Cornwall = non-stop interval training...

Other people have said it, but don't underestimate Cornwall's hills. The problem there is that you are always going up or down, but neither for very long (with a few exceptions). You end up going into the red to 'just get over the next hill' or to keep your momentum. Eventually that becomes inefficient and you'll likely bonk. I did and an Olympic athlete did too. People have already pointed out what is effectively the most straight-forward route.

Heading North-West from Inverness to get to the North shore of Scotland is a good idea as you will a) see magnificent breath-taking scenery, and 2) typically get great coastal winds blowing you up to your final destination.

Also, ride 23mm or higher tyres in Scotland. The roads are generally awful. You may want to try and avoid Glencoe. The tourist coaches could not give a f£&@ about cyclists. I also had on coming traffic trying to overtake coming at me. It's quite busy through there and they just don't want to wait.

We did it on a minimum of planning, basing our route on things we wanted to see or ride over / through. We decided on stops based on the location of travelodge type accommodation, as they were excellent at allowing bikes in the rooms, so less panic about having our bikes stolen.

We avoided the A30 in cornwall, although as it was august, we would have probably have been the fastest things on the road!

I found that having a vague plan, and seeing how the day panned out worked well, if you saw something you liked the look of, you went that way, and if you were tired, you took the shorter, flatter route.

If you go through glasgow, it is well worth finding the cycle path from Hamilton - about 50km of cycle tracks all the way to loch lomond, which was awesome.

Oh, and make use of Greggs. Can't beat them for calories per pound. (and if you get the cycle path in Glasgow, you go past a factory outlet!)

We did about 930 miles in 9 and a bit days.

I would definitely definitely say that you MUST cycle through the Wye valley.
Chepstow to Monmouth.
Visually stunning. Ace riding.
Hands down my favourite day. Riding down the Wye valley, wandering around Tintern Abbey, crossing the Severn bridge and then the Clifton suspension bridge.
Following morning, we got to ride through the Cheddar Gorge.
One of (if not THE) best 24hrs of cycling I have done.
If you have watched any of the, quite frankly hilaroiusly brilliant, GCN videos on youtube, they do a fair bit of filming in this neck of the woods.

You plan it for how you want to ride it.
If you have support and are an iron man athlete, plan it for 7 days along A roads riding your Specialised Shiv.
If you have 2 months to do it, dont take your nice comfortable bike on an A road.
We had 13 days available. x1 day travelling either end, gave us 11 days to ride. So i planned a route that would take us 11 days. Would have preferred to do it in 13 days, to stop more often and see more places on the way. But we had 11 days, end of.
Plus we didnt even do it for charity! We did it because we wanted to!

We (2 of us) did a JoGLE, 11 days (av.120km per day with ~1300m of ascent each day), unsupported, b&b's mostly with a few travel lodges/prem inns/friends houses etc, on carbon road bikes with a lightweight rack and a small drybag strapped to the top. Done.
Honestly,,,,,the hardest bit was the planning of it.
Get a map and cut our little island up into whatever length of days you want!
I chose to have relatively shorter days in Cornwall and Devon as these were our last ones so prob would be tired, and also the up and down makes them harder days than just constantly up ones.

I have my plotted strava routes if you want.
Also a list of accomodations, with costs/addresses etc.

If you go relatively short days like we did, the cycling is never desperately difficult, if you have put some training hills/miles in, and also you finish each day pretty early-ish, so there is time to explore where you are staying or stop on the way to give your ass some 'off the saddle time.'

Brilliant experience though. Even for a relative newby/numpty like myself.
Pretty jealous actually. Would be good to do again. But the the Alps are calling me this year!
Just ask if you want anything,,,,,
Enjoy your plotting and eventual riding.
If you are thinking about doing it, then just put your waterproofs on (as it WILL rian) and do it. You will love it!

First thing to do is head over to the CTC Forum where there's a specific LEJOG/JOGLE sub-forum:
http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewforum.php?f=22

It's not a fixed route, you can ride any which way you want. Most direct (but also least pleasant in terms of roads) is about 780, or you can stretch it out to well over 1000 if you include some island hopping round the West Coast of Scotland en route.

Places to stay: have a look on the CTC pages, loads of recommendations there based on various factors like planned distance per day etc.

I've done it twice, both times in 9 days. You can go quicker but then you lose the ability to stop & sightsee. You can go slower but after about 2 weeks, the idea of getting up and riding a bike all day somehow loses its appeal...

Try to avoid July, it's peak holiday time and also peak midge season in Scotland! May or September would be my preferences, you tend to get decent weather then too. Both my rides were September, last one we didn't get any rain at all!

One final point: do not, under any circumstances, consider the A9 in Scotland up to JOG. Use the Deloitte RAB route from Bonar Bridge, it is infinitely superior.

Good luck!

there's no "official" route. Preferred direction is starting from Lands end to hopefully catch any prevailing winds.

The rest depends on how long you want to take, and how scenic you want it to be.

I've organised and ridden it twice staying in youth hostels and B&Bs where possible. Route length was about 1000ml
My route was
Land's End (B&B)
Tintagel (YH)
Taunton (B&B)
Chepstow (B&B)
Northwich (B&B)
Kendal (YH)
Lockerbie (B&B)
Kilmarnock (B&B)
Inveraray (YH)
Fort William (YH)
Inverness (YH)
Helmsdale (YH)
John O Groats (YH)

We pushed the miles through England partly to enjoy the North, and partly as Scottish stops are not always available at convenient distances.

We also bumped into a number of people in the two weeks who were also riding LE-JOG and met up with a few of them at JOG which was lovely.

Main points are:
Avoid the A30 though Cornwall & Devon. It has always been terrible.
The bit though the NW corridor between Liverpool & Manchester is busy as hell. I barely remember the stretch between Northwich and Lancaster as we basically just time trialled it
I planned the west coast to avoid the A9 though the Grampians. Headed though Glen orchy & Glencoe which was magnificent
Cornwall is hilly & can be hell on the legs. Devon can be even worse. Very hard days as you are crossing river valleys, not travelling along them.

I do want to do it again and if I can get three weeks, I will head up the NW coast from Fort William and along the N coast to John O Groats.

Have a look at the Alzheimers Society website. They organise (through a partner company) various rides including LEJOG.

A work colleague of mine rode with them a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I did half of it many years ago before I injured myself about halfway through. As a group we started in John 'O' Groats and went south.The others continued on and said that the 2nd half of the route, especially through Somerset, Devon & Cornwall was particularly difficult. Think this was a case of headwinds, weather, tiredness and up & down gradients. Seem to remember we did it late spring early summer so weather conditions may be "erratic". Definitely worth considering though. Despite me not finishing it, I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the descent down Shap Fell towards Kendal. I started last, barely pedalled and shot a past the other 3 without trying. I can still hear the sound of my campag freewheel rhythmically ticking over, seemingly getting faster and faster and louder. I do know it ticked the others off royally. Happy days!

Me and my friend did it last April. Just the 2 of us with our wives meeting up with us a certain places for food, etc. We did 920 miles in 8 days and it was bloody hard. Especially day 7 which was 140miles from just north of Glasgow to Inverness. We had the luxury of hotels for our stays each night. Would def recommend using the straighter route through Cornwall as its hilly as hell. Think we did around 10,000 ft of climbing on Day 1 which killed us!
If you want to read our experience, you can do here - https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6196955657969037982#allposts

Good luck, it must just be the hardest thing you will ever do, depeneding on how long it takes you!

I did it as part of the Deloitte RAB, 9 days but totally supported.
Route wise it was
Lands End
Okehampton
Bath
Ludlow
Manchester
Penrith
Glasgow
Fort William
Bonar Bridge
John O'Groats

Bit different to how youre planning as these were all large campsites or uni halls, but could give you an idea of route, I may even have the gpx files somewhere if they'll be any use?

There isn't any fixed "official" route, is it whatever you want, Starting at Lands End and finishing in John O'Groats.

The total distance can be anything from 830 to 1000 miles depending on which way you want to go.

No idea on places to stay, BUT, what I would say is. Have a look at making the route something different, that makes yours unique to others, so many people now take on charity rides doing LEJOG that trying to get sponsorship is harder.

I would even say, consider something like a Coast to Coast.