Best cycling trails in Canberra

Canberra is arguably Australia's best cycling city. The purpose-built capital's radial boulevard design, the 200km shared path network woven through the Parliamentary Triangle and around Lake Burley Griffin, and the separated cycling infrastructure that the ACT Government has invested in consistently since the 1980s create the urban cycling environment that other Australian cities are only now beginning to approximate.

Lake Burley Griffin circuit — the 35km circuit around Lake Burley Griffin is Canberra's definitive ride, combining the Parliamentary Triangle approach across Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, the National Institutions foreshore, the Bowen Park section through the inner north, and the Kingston/Barton waterfront on the south shore in a ride that takes in more national symbols per kilometre than any other urban cycling route in Australia.

Molonglo River corridor — the shared path following the Molonglo River from the Cotter to the lake provides the natural setting contrast to the urban Lake Burley Griffin circuit, with the river red gums, the wetlands, and the bird life creating the closest thing to bush cycling within Canberra's urban boundary.

Mount Stromlo descent — the sealed road climb to the Stromlo Observatory summit provides Canberra's best road cycling challenge, with the descent through the rebuilt pine plantation providing a 400-metre elevation change in a setting that changed permanently in the 2003 Canberra bushfires and is now a restored forest on a road that cyclists have reclaimed as the city's best Sunday climb.

Majura Valley road circuit — the rural road loops through the Majura Valley north of the airport provide the low-traffic country cycling that weekend riders use to escape the shared path network entirely, with the volcanic hill terrain creating modest climbing in the pastoral setting between Canberra and the NSW border.

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