Cycling Vacations?

[aggiecorgi]

My husband and I want to take a cycling vacation this year. We're looking to spend $3000 -$4000 (or under!). I don't think we need sag support, but wouldn't mind doing a group trip. We're also up to doing an individual trip, staying at different places and riding then traveling to the next place. We're looking to stay in the US.

Any suggestions?

[SouthernBelle]

Ride Natchez Trace.

Check out Adventure Cycling's website.

[chickwhorips]

i vote for alaska, then again i always vote for alaska.

i think adventure cycling has an event.

here http://www.alaskabike.com/ or mountain bike: http://www.mountainbikealaska.com/

[Thorn]

No doubt I travel more pampered than you but my favorites:

University of Stevens Point (no, you don't need to be an alum or even from Wisconsin). They are low key and attract the best people--easy going, fun to be with. Ask me if you want more info--when we're planning, they're always first on the list.

Rondonee. Semi-self catering. You won't be alone, but you won't be with a group, per se. They haul your luggage and give you a route.

Timberline. Price is now increasing, but you're still in the low-key, "we want to bike" realm. The owners are great fun and lead a large percentage of the trips themselves.

We've also travelled with Experience Plus, but now you're getting rather pricey. They treat you well, they rent you really nice bikes, but you're really entering the pampered range (but still not in the Backroads level of pampering--even I couldn't live with that)

[Duck on Wheels]

I went to a travel expo Sunday. Kinda silly to pay a ticket to get in and collect lots of brochures that you'd have tossed in the fireplace unread if they'd been stuffed in your mailbox. But I did find one keeper in the bunch. A company called "Merlot Reiser" (=merlot tours in Norwegian) that does biking and hiking tours in Central and Southern Europe. One that looked nice is an 8-day self-guided bike tour of Veneto (Venice and environs). Well ... not this year for me. I'll be going to CA to watch Trek and UK do the AIDS ride. But maybe next year. Anybody want to come along?

[Lifesgreat]

I just got a catalog for Bicycle Adventures (link) and their trips looked VERY nice. I have never been on one of their trips, so I can't speak from experience. My friend went on one of BA's San Juan Island trips and LOVED it, though.

[Aint Doody]

I've been on 2 Bicycle Adventure trips. They are 1st class all the way. I would highly recommend them. One caveat--you might want more mileage each day.

[Triskeliongirl]

It will cost you less, but we had a great tour with Bike Mexico. We road with Los Pinguinos from Chiapis to Guatemala a couple years back. They are real cyclists, no sag, everyone carries their stuff but we had a bed every night. http://www.bikemexico.com/tours.html

[aggiecorgi]

SouthernBelle: Can you tell me more about Natchez Trace? Is it self supported, or groups? What time of year did you ride it?

[Bluetree]

A friend of mine just did Natchez Trace... alone! He took a touring bike and had a great time. He sent some awesome pics... let me see if I can dig them up.

[Lenusik]

Try http://www.trektravel.com/
My DH and I took a vacation with them for our Honeymoon. It was super great! You can take CA wine country trip for just $1,200 - $1,500. It covers everything, your accomodations, bike, sags if you need them, tours, food. Everything except to your travel to CA. I highly recommend it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

[Rakekay]

I've been hankering to take one of those California winery biking vacations too. Here's the group I'm looking at. Now if I could just convince DH to start riding so we could do this trip for our next vacation!

http://www.napavalleybiketours.com/index.php

[Kathi]

The Natchez Trace is a great place to ride. We did it as part of BRAT (Bicycle Ride Across Tennessee). A local told me that it is not a great place in the summer, to hot, no shade but spring and fall are great.

There are lots of bicycle tours, almost every state has them, that aren't expensive and are sagged. Some you can camp or stay in lodging others are just camping.

One of my favorites is TRIRI. It's in Indiana, sponsored by the Bloomington bicycle club and the organizers are great. You tour the Indiana State Parks, get fed at the lodges or by a local restaurant. The summer tour is mostly camping because some of the parks don't have lodges but the fall tour is lodging or camping, whichever your prefer. Warning it is hilly!

Another good fall trip is Bicycle North Carolina, it starts in the mountains and goes to the sea. The first couple of days are hilly but then flattens the closer you get to the ocean.

The are also some neat tours in Michigan and New York (around the fingerlakes).

[Kathi]

We did a lot of riding on our own in Spokane and Coeurdalene, Wa. Also, the San Juan Islands in Washington you can stay on one island and take ferries to the other islands to ride.

[aggiecorgi]

We're looking at doing this one in California now:

http://www.bikeandthelike.com/california.html

only problem is that the need all funds in cash, and within 75 days of the trip. That means we need to have it all available by March 3rd We have around $1200 available in cash now, but we're going to have a hard time getting another $1000 together that quick. We planned on paying the majority of any trip on a credit card, then paying it off over about 6 months.