I always wanted to go in a guided cycling vacations. The real problem is that most packages are very expensive in most cycling companies, particulary in Europe. Do you have any tip for a great riding for a reasonable price in Europe or USA? Thanks.
Could you get some sort of DIY thing going?
I don’t think it’s be that hard - get another 4-5 riders, rent a van. Each day, one person drives the van while the others ride.
Just a thought.
It’s something I wish I’d done when the dollar was stronger.
Head to Orlando / Cleremont.
Cheap hotels…Tri Training Center…lots of great roads (and hill too…ask anyone has has done GFT)…and lots of Tri folks there.
A friend of mine did the TDF tour and a tour in the Canadian Rockies in eastern British Columbia around the Banff/Lake Louise/Golden areas. He says both were great. Obviously the TDF is a really tough act to follow but the CDN trip was a heck of a lot cheaper and a lot of fun. As I understand it the CDN tour is just a bunch of cyclists getting together and riding in the mountains every year. AFAIK, they even camp and bring along a van to carry the gear. Low key and nothing fancy like the TDF organization he did. He’s in Arizona for the winter, but when he comes back I’ll find out more about the Rockies tour if you’re interested.
I have not done this so I’m not sure how good it is, but if you google bike hotels in Italy you get a bunch of hotels that rent nice bikes to you and have routes to ride from. Seems like a much cheaper alternative to a guided tour, you still get to go to Europe and you don’t have to take your own bike. I’m going to try it one of these years.
I have been thinking about this too for a European trip. Since gear transport is likely to be an issue for a small party, I have kind of been thinking of a “hub and spoke” model. Find a hotel located near what you’d like to see and take the train to it with bike and (light) luggage. Ride out from there on a day trip or two, or maybe even an overnight out and back. Then put everything on the train again and head off to the next base. Repeat as appropriate.
RAGBRAI…bare bones but very inexpensive and a complete blast.
You may want to consider Hellweek:
http://www.hellweek.com/index.html
The Texas Hellweek is pretty inexpensive, I did it in '05, lots of good riding, all levels show up.
Hey,
You can check out www.gocyclingmaui.com for a neat road cycling vacation in Hawaii. It’s kind of nice because you can choose how many days of cycling you want, so you don’t have to spend a full week of cycling on the tour.
Let us know if you end up going anywhere; good luck!
Carl
For overseas, I wouldn’t head to Europe. In general it’s expensive, and the current weak dollar just makes it worse. My choice for cycling and culture would be Japan. I love visiting there (been 16-18 times for work, once for pleasure) and riding there (ridden on several trips now). My wife has been 6+ times with me since she fell in love with it too. Took my parents there and they thought it was great. Wonderful people, completely different culture than America, and beautiful landscape. The dollar has been relatively consistent with the yen over the years, so the cost for touring isn’t too bad. When I go for work I’m usually in Tsukuba, which is about 30 miles north of Tokyo, and there are mountains north and west of Tokyo. My hotel is a whopping $80/night which includes breakfast. Food is cheap too. I can eat myself silly for $5-6 for lunch and a few more for dinner. If you go in the summer, yes it will be hot. It’s humid there. But the nice thing is you can get up when the sun rises at 430 AM, go ride, come back for breakfast, and have a full day left for sightseeing. I absolutely love Japan for cycling. Out in the country there’s hardly any traffic. One of the biggest things to consider, especially if it’s a self-supported trip, is provisions. Japan has a ton of 24 hour convenience stores. You’ll never be without food or beverage on a ride. Language can be a barrier, but a good prefectural map and a GPS (like a Garmin Forerunner) is all you need to stay not lost. More and more road signs are bilingual.
2 weeks ago I was in France for work. Stayed at a comprable to lesser hotel for around $170/night. If I wanted breakfast that was another $15-20. To be fair, I have stayed at a cheaper place that was around $90/night, but it was a total dive (about the equivalent of a Motel 6). And these places were 20-25 miles west of Paris. This Yveliines area is a great place to ride. Stunning scenery and great roads. France is great in the summer - sun sets after 10 PM. My main complaints about Europe (I’ve ridden in Italy and France) is the lack of grocery or convenience stores that are open. Last year while in France I did a 100 mile ride on a Saturday. I was running out of water and there was absolutely nowhere to buy some. The small towns were like ghost towns. Nothing was open. I was fortunate enough to randomly find a public park that had a water source.
This year it ends in St. Simons which is nice, close to Savannah too.
Here is one I did not so long ago.It was way too much fun.
I agree that Europe (at least Western Europe) is super expensive right now. In France, the combination of the weak dollar and the inflation brought on by the switch to the Euro has caused food and lodging to nearly double for Americans in the past 7 years. That being said, I’ve spent a year in Montpellier and a year in Pau, and both places have accessible cycling for tourists on a do-it-yourself cycling trip. Find a relatively cheap place to stay and you can’t pick a bad ride out of town. Both have vineyards to ride through (and to stop for tastings), and Pau has epic climbing. Plus, the French drivers treat cyclists (usually) with respect.
A cheaper area of Europe is the former Yugoslavia - Croatia looks amazing in photos - but I don’t know about the cycling culture there.
Blue Ridge Parkway.
Get a group of 4-5 cyclists and a van, start at Smoky Mountains National Park, ride the Blue Ridge Parkway to Shenandoah National Park 469 miles later, not a single stoplight, no commercial traffic, plenty of gorgeous vistas, hikes, points of interest along the way as you ride up and down the mountains, map out how far you want to ride each day, get in contact w/ the campgrounds in the area and camp each night (maybe even find a couple of mountain lakes along the way to swim and soak the body in some cold water). And if 469 miles in the mountains isn’t long enough, do an out and back for total mileage of 900+ miles. Cost of van for a week: $300, average cost of campground each night: $20. Food and camping equipment not included.
Some good ride options in the US:
The South Island of N.Z is great for cycling. Plenty of inexpensive accomadation. Helps if you talk to someone who as done it so they can give you some helpful advice.
In Europe last year I rented bikes in two Austrian villages, Paris and the Lakes district in England and all were great days of cycling. The local people will let you know the best trails if you ask nicely. If you take your own all terrain bike it will be no cost for the cycling.
A few years back a work colleague told me of her cycle trip in Europe. A couple of them got together with there own bikes and followed the cycle tracks. Apparently there are specially made cycle tracks which allow you to cover all of Holland. They also said some neighbouring countries including Germany had enough cycle tracks to cover most of the country. There must be some books out there or info on the net which is easilly searchable. Mindyou most of the expensive tour companies will come up first so ask around.
For example in N.Z, here is the link to a free cycle trail(150km’s of flat compact track):
http://www.centralotagorailtrail.co.nz/
heres a link to my blog: http://www.triathlonshots.com/TriathlonandIronmanTrainingBlog.html
We are having the best Summer and have managed 2 hours of cycling everyday for the last week in great conditions(would be more but working).
I’ve been living and cycling in Slovenia for the last 6years. Due to switch to Euro and fall of the USD our prices in Slo have gone up as well, but Croatia is still cheaper than elsewhere in Europe. If you want climbing, cycling around the slovene alps is very nice, with the added option of cycling into Italy or Austria via the passes. Otherwise head down towards Istria in Croatia. Nice cycling, mostly hilly with decent roads. You can go down further south, some of the Croatian islands have nice roads and trails for MTBs.
As for the cycling culture, side-by-side riding is not allowed on our roads, so riding single file is the norm. With a big group, this obviously makes for some tough and risky passes by cars, but small groups are fine. Most of the other Euro countries allow pairs of riders. Drivers are generally nice, compared to central NJ much more respectful and aware of how to drive around a cyclist, but obviously, there’s always a few bad drivers. The more south you go, the more spread the habit of honking before passing a cyclist- so if you are cycling in Croatia, get used to being honked at all day! In all, pretty safe to cycle here, nice views, lovely country, better roads than most of US, not too expensive, everyone speaks English… only bad parts are that most roads don’t have a shoulder, and having to avoid the busy roads during the week (but that’s true of most places…)
I did a trip with Cycle America a couple years ago. If you camp and not stay in the hotels it was pretty inexpensive. It’s not the cadillac of tours when it comes to food, etc. But it was a great trip. The people you go with make the trip as well.
Also, I second the Blue Ridge. Great place to ride.
Also look into Cycle NC. Mountains to the coast ride. Different course every year.
The real problem is that most packages are very expensive in most cycling companies, particulary in Europe.
Define expensive? Wife and I have vactationed in Oregon with Bicycle Adventures in 2006 and cycled in Vermon with Peace Of Mind Guaranteed (POMG) last year and both trips were reasonably priced for a 6-day trip: Cycle Vermont 6-Day/5-Night Tour - great climate, friendly people, scenic, lots of hills and a few mountains with prices ranging from $1195-$1335 depending on the time of year (http://www.pomgbike.com/tours/cycle_vt.html) Bicyle Adventures Oregon Coast Budget tour - also great climate (we went first week in July), very scenic coastlines, lots of hills but daily mileage was on the low side so we did our own add ons - price is $1674 (http://bicycleadventures.com/where/oregon/coast-budget.php)
If you want to minimize the costs in France stay in chambre d’hotes (b&b) or gites (weekly apartment rentals).
http://www.gites-de-france.com/gites/uk/rural_gites
Way cheaper than hotels and generally much nicer.
Good areas are provence or the south west.
Despite living in France I would actually recommend Italy - Umbria is amazing for cycling - beautiful landscape, friendly people and lots of picturesque towns and villages (and better food than France 
)
You could stay in one place in either the south of France or middle Italy for a couple of weeks and do a different ride every day.