Let's Talk Bike Travel

Beautiful Tuscany with my wife Courtney and then 14 year old Niko. This was an amazing self-guided adventure that we still talk and laugh about!

Adventure travel has been on my mind lately. Well...of course it has. It's summer, Victoria (my BABBs Co-CEO) is still off enjoying the beauty of Oregon and her family, and I am dreaming about what's next.

Maybe a trip to Brazil in 2027 to bike and watch the USWNT pursue their next world championship?

Maybe we'll check off that bucket-list item of doing the Seattle to Portland Ride (it just concluded this past week btw)?

Or maybe we'll have our first group adventure ready for all of you - we're headed up to Washington State next week to check out their section of the Great American Rail Trail, a network of trails that, in the next decade, will run (almost) continuously from Washington DC to the Washington State Coastline.

Yep, there are very few things I love more than loading up a bike and heading somewhere I've never been before. Over the past several years, I've been lucky enough to ride through Tuscany, explore Mallorca, pedal across the Netherlands, and, most recently, spend a few unforgettable days crossing Switzerland with my 16-year-old. I've also squeezed in day rides through Paris and Cambridge.

If you're thinking about a bike adventure of your own, here are a few lessons I've picked up along the way.

Find the biking experience that's right for you and your budget.

Not every bike trip has to be an all inclusive, guided, week-long cycling vacation (although, I often wish they were). There's a lot of options for creating the cycling vacation you need and can afford. Here are three types to consider:

The Shorty. One of my favorite ways to explore a new city is on a guided bike tour. In fact, I often try to book one on the first day of a trip. It's a much more fun way to get your bearings than following a guide's umbrella or hopping on a tour bus. By the end of the ride, I usually know which neighborhoods I want to return to, where I'd like to linger, and I've almost always picked up a few local recommendations that I'd never find in a guidebook. These trips generally take 2-4 hours, and cater to all types of riders.

The Self-Guided Saver. I've become a huge fan of self-guided tours. The company handles the bikes, routes, hotels, luggage transfers, and recommendations, but you ride entirely at your own pace. There are many benefits to these trips. They tend to be more flexible in terms of length, and offer a great range of locations. With a self-guided trip, you can often customize and tailor it around your group's vision. And, these trips are also considerably less expensive than fully guided trips. 

The Splurge. That said, if you're celebrating something special—or simply want to splurge—a guided trip can be unforgettable. One of my all-time favorites was a Backroads multi-sport trip to Mallorca for my 50th birthday. Incredible bikes. Fantastic guides. Beautiful hotels. Great food. And perhaps best of all, wonderful people. During the day, riders naturally found others who matched their pace, while hikers found their own adventures. Then everyone came back together over dinner to swap stories.

Choose your travel company carefully.

A great travel company can make your trip. A bad one can absolutely break it.

I'm actually still dealing with one that was unresponsive before our trip, failed to deliver our bikes on the first day, and has done very little to make things right. Looking back, the warning signs were there all along. Their communication before we even got on the plane wasn't great, and when things went sideways, they handled it exactly the same way.Thankfully, that's been the exception.

More often than not, I've been lucky to work with companies that answered every question before we left home, worked to find us the bikes that worked best for us, checked in with us throughout self-guided rides, and solved problems before they became disasters. One guide swapped out my bike on day two because it just wasn't comfortable. Another company rerouted our entire trip after a near-hurricane derailed our first day and delivered our bikes to a completely different city. And one savior with a cargo van shuttled us past a monster climb that we had zero interest in tackling that afternoon (by the way, in Tuscany, they build their cities on hills, so almost every ride ended with some elevation).

Service matters a lot, and I;ve found that you often get a sense of what you'll experience simply from the way they work with you on the front end. If they are responsive, flexible, and communicative while you are making your plans, its a pretty good indicator of what you'll experience when you arrive.

Mix point-to-point rides with loops.

I've learned that my favorite trips usually include a healthy mix of both. My advice is to ride somewhere one day, but then spend another two to three days doing shorter loops and easier coffee (or vineyard) rides.

Point-to-point routes let you cover more ground and experience changing landscapes. Loop rides give you a chance to unpack, slow down, wander a little, and really get to know a place. They also mean you're not packing and unpacking every single morning.

Don't be afraid of an e-bike.

As I've grown...ahem...a little more "experienced" I've come to embrace the fun and flexibility that an e-bike can bring to a travel experience.

I rented one for our recent Switzerland trip, and it turned out to be exactly the right decision. Europe was in the middle of a heat wave, and that little bit of pedal assist meant we could ride farther, explore more, and still have enough energy to jump in a lake, wander through villages, stop for ice cream, and simply enjoy the experience.

Not every ride has to be an epic suffer-fest. We don't always have to prove something. Sometimes the best adventure is simply the one that leaves you smiling at the end of the day.

Thinking about a bike trip? Let's talk!

If adventure travel is something you are looking to do in the coming year(s), let's talk! V and I obviously love active adventures when we travel. But we are also interested in hearing about some of the places you'd like to visit.

Maybe we can plan a trip together...wouldn't it be fun to ride somewhere new with your favorite BABBs???

Tuscany with fellow BABBs Melissa and my wife Courtney.