Pick the Best Senior Bicycle Tour
Tips for Older Riders on Choosing Perfect Bike Vacation
May 14, 2008
You want to try an organized commercial bicycle tour this year. How do you know what a good destination is? What companies go there? Best time of year?
If you can go at any time, pick a destination first. That will determine the time, since, for example, bike trips in New Zealand take place during October through April (warm weather time in the southern hemisphere.) Europe? May through October. American or Canadian Rockies? Summer or fall.
How do you compare trips from different companies?
Look at the price, the type of accommodations (some companies such as Backroads offer different levels from camping to luxury inns. )They should have phone representatives who answer all your questions. Says Dick of Timberline Tours: “a real, live, person-to-person telephone conversation” will “determine the cycling that you are doing and have done in the past. The rep should help you choose the ”level of difficulty, as well as distances that you are comfortable with, plus “your regular exercise and activity regimen,” With that information, a representative can give you “an educated opinion as to the suitability of the tour under consideration.”
Carol of Breakaway Adventures suggests asking: “What is the pace at which you want to travel? Is this a trip for super fitness and goal oriented cycling? Or, are you more interested in relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere? Each tour company will have a philosophy about the manner of travel.”
What if you are a couple and one is a more enthusiastic/high-stamina cyclist than the other?
Most of companies offer several distances each day and a van to collect you. Holly of Backroads says: “we typically have three options: a suggested route to get in the best rides, challenges and a few fun downhills.” But beginning riders can skip a climb while strong riders can ride right to the hotel, while the beginners have already been dropped off by the van and are “poolside with a glass of wine or receiving a spa treatment.”
"We think we're in good shape but how can we be sure a trip won't be too tough for us?"
Says Timberline’s Dick: “The worst possible result would be to seduce a prospective participant to the point that he or she just is in over his or her head.” So if it is your first bike trip, experts agree: start with a “leisure” tour. Most companies, including deluxe tour outfitter Butterfield and Robinson, rate the difficulty of their trips.
For additional senior bicycle articles, click here.
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