anybody have any experiences with noofunteers?

[lauraelmore1033]

the locations, routs, mileage and proposed lodging all sound fabulous to me. Maybe too fabulous. My husband is afraid they could just be some fly by night outfit and will just take the money and run. It is worrying that I can't seem to find much info on them. It might be moot anyway. I'm beginning to suspect that my husband would really rather just go to hawaii (when it's cold here) and lounge around in the sun drinking frilly drinks. He just confessed to me that his push ten years ago to finish the STP ride in one day pretty much burned him out on cycling forever . My idea of the perfect vacation would maybe be hell for him ?

[ace]

I haven't heard of them. I did a lot of research on bike tours a few months ago (I'm going to Tuscany on a bike tour with ciclismo classico in May). Here are some centralized websites I found useful. The Bicycling World site is a huge database of tours all over the world, including the U.S.:

http://www.bicyclingworld.com/templates/default.aspx
http://www.biketour-reviews.com/

[lauraelmore1033]

I haven't heard of them. I did a lot of research on bike tours a few months ago (I'm going to Tuscany on a bike tour with ciclismo classico in May). Here are some centralized websites I found useful. The Bicycling World site is a huge database of tours all over the world, including the U.S.:

http://www.bicyclingworld.com/templates/default.aspx
http://www.biketour-reviews.com/

wonderful! Thanks!

[Thorn]

ace -- thanks for posting the review link. Awesome! I've bookmarked so hopefully I'll remember next time. I just looked up the group I'm travelling to Italy with and it gets rave reviews there! Whew!

Hope your trip goes well in May (still looking forward to your post trip report!)

[ace]

Which company are you going with Thorn?

Yeah, I hope to god my knee is better soon. My pre-trip training is stalled because of my injury. I got a cortisone shot yesterday, so am hoping that will get me back to a pain-free place....

[Thorn]

We're using CycleItalia--a small company out of Iowa. Given a toss up between companies, I tend to support the smaller business. We're taking one of their mid-level trips (100K/day and only hills, not mountains ). I am a flat-lander tortoise!

Hope your knee gets better. But since I started travelling, I took the attitude to focus on what you do on a trip, not what you didn't do. If your cycling distances get clipped due to an uncooperative knee, focus on what you can still do. There is no better way to absorb a culture than to sit back in a cafe sipping your favorite beverage and watching the world go by.

But, hopefully, you'll be riding pain-free and seeing the views from the saddle of your bike!

[ace]

That is really, really good advice, Thorn. I am so competitive, it's hard for me to be sidelined, but I've decided I'm going on this trip no matter what, so I better enjoy the parts I can do!

It will be fun to trade experiences when we get home