Cycling Vacations?

[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.