I’m looking into taking a road cycling vacation in Europe, but undecided between which country- Belgium, France or Italy (been there but on a normal family vacation). The objective is to have a good time in a group environment, cover 60-ish miles per day at a good clip and ideally hit some of the stages of various classics. It doesn’t have to be a ‘hard-core’ cycling vacation, meaning there can be a day during the week of non-cycling so I can check out the local amenities. Has anyone had really good luck with touring companies who you would recommend? I’m starting from scratch. If you can post your recommendations with any links to the sites of those you’d recommend, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!
Search the forum, this has come up many times before.
I did a Trek Travel tour and had a great time. Friendly people, excellent hotels, nice, well maintained bikes. We did Provence, which was awesome. I’m doing another one of their tours next year in Tuscany.
Check out our friends at Pyrenees Multisport. http://www.pyreneesmultisport.com/
They are right in the middle of some classic Tour de France stages and have gotten some great reviews.
I highly recommend the Butterfield & Robinson Tuscany tour. Yes, it’s expensive, but worth every penny. It’s exactly what you want to do. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll give you the run down. My wife and I did it in October 2001. Half the group didn’t show up though b/c of 9/11, so we may have had a much better time of it than you would otherwise. It was just fabulous. I’ve also heard their Sardinia trip is great.
Thanks. Do you have a web link for them?
www.butterfield.com Their catalogue is something else.
Eurocycler (eurocycler.com) - Richard Debrot (triswiss here on SlowTwitch) runs the tours. Richard really puts on a first class event. His tours are geared more towards cyclists than “tourers.” Check out the website. Different crowd, likely, than Butterfield & Robinson. There is a right client for each; I’m not sure which you are.
I just got back from three weeks in Europe. What an amazing part of the world. I hope you have a really great trip and be prepared as it can get pricey. I know it is not one of your choices but out of all the cities I visited I liked Amsterdam the best and Holland is great for touring by bike (bike commuting is such a part of their culture). Check out the bike and barge tours. My folks did one a couple of years back and said it was fantastic.
My second choice for a bike tour would be southern France and depending on what time you go there is obviously the Tour happening… Also the city of Brugge in Belgium was a very cool little town as well…not for a bike tour but just a place I would recomend seeing.
Have an awsome time.
Check out Andy Hampsten’s outfit: Cinghaile tours. Centered in Italy, plus you get to meet one very cool ex-cycling pro.
A cautionary word about Butterfield, tho, given Rappstar’s post. I think our group was self-selecting – no one wanted to travel overseas in October 2001 except those that were hard-core fired up about a bike tour of Tuscany. There were 22 signed up to go, and 11 of us showed up. We had a young 30-something group (with a few exceptions), and I took Rappstar to suggest that Butterfield – because of its cost – sometimes ends up with the 45-year-old lawyer/doctor crowd. (Our 45-year-old doctor, though, lived in Boulder and could have smoked us flatlanders on the bike, but he was cool about it.) I suspect that crowd generically has its downsides at times. Several of the days have “extensions,” or options to do a longer route, and there was always someone on our trip opting for that route if you wanted to join them. We had two great guides, Allison (US) and Ricardo (from Italy), which made a big difference.
i second this. i went to girona this year, it was awesome.
I would recommend either of the following.