🚴 Cycling around the city early morning, best routes anyone can recommend

Started cycling early mornings a couple of months ago now, mostly to actually get some regular exercise in before work starts each day without needing to deal with the genuinely heavy traffic that makes cycling considerably more stressful and dangerous later during the actual day once regular traffic properly picks up. Have mostly stuck to one familiar specific route near my own house so far, purely out of simple habit and general familiarity rather than any genuine deliberate choice, but I am genuinely looking to actually explore a bit more now that I have built up enough real basic fitness and confidence to comfortably handle slightly longer, more varied specific rides than what I originally started with. A colleague mentioned a particular route near one of the city's larger parks that apparently has genuinely minimal traffic even once the sun properly comes up fully, plus some decently scenic stretches along the way that make the actual ride itself feel considerably less purely like exercise and more like a genuinely enjoyable way to actually start the day off right. What I have noticed most since actually starting this specific routine is how differently the city genuinely feels at that particular early hour, considerably quieter, noticeably cooler, and populated mostly by other early risers, walkers, fellow cyclists, the occasional dedicated vendor already setting up for the day ahead, all of it creates a genuinely different overall atmosphere compared to the same exact streets later in the day. Safety obviously matters a lot too, sticking to genuinely well lit, reasonably busy stretches even at that early hour, avoiding anywhere too isolated or poorly maintained regardless of how much shorter a particular specific route might otherwise actually be for me. Does anyone have genuinely good early morning cycling routes to actually recommend around the city, particularly ones that manage to stay reasonably scenic while also genuinely avoiding the heavier traffic that tends to build up later once the day properly gets going?

Found a longer loop through the old cantonment area recently that stays shaded almost the entire way through, considerably cooler than my usual route even by seven in the morning during the worst of the summer months here. Worth the slightly longer detour purely for not arriving at work already fully drenched in sweat before the actual day even starts properly, week after week.

Cycling before six along the lake road here beats any gym session for clearing my head completely, empty quiet roads and just enough soft morning light to see properly without heavy traffic making everything unpleasant the way it always does even one single hour later on that exact same familiar stretch most weekday mornings all through this year so far.