Alternatives to the organised cycle tour?

Alain Quay

Organised cycle tours on the continent typically cost £800-£1,500 for a week, because of the need for a support vehicle, providing food en route, etc. I'm looking for something less expensive.

Apart from organising a tour yourself, are there any well regarded companies based on the continent that offer their hotel/house as base from which to cycle each day? I know of Velo Ventoux in Provence, but are there others that are recommended?

Thanks

insella

www.asolobiketours.com is from one location on the edge of the Dolomites. There is no support car, except in emergencies, and we have kept the cost to less than you quote; as we are a co-operative not a company there are advantages to simplicity (and quality of course!) and cycling for the love of cycling for a bit of summer pin money as we would be out and about anyway. Sometimes we go with our club or friends along the route. Well-regarded? The odd group and friends so far (recently established). Good feedback. Please excuse the yarn and self-promotion but what's a cyclist to do?

andymiller

Italy has lots of 'bike hotels' - hotels that offer guided tours plus other bits and bobs for cyclists. Best known are the hotels in Riccione on the Adriatic Coast (but with the Apennines within easy reach) :

http://www.riccionebikehotels.it/en/

or there's Bormio, Livigno etc

http://www.altarezia.eu/bike-hotels.html

And quite a few others. Just search 'bike hotel' plus the area you're interested in and you'll almost certainly find lots of choices.

The northern Veneto would be a pretty good choice too.

bigjim

You are looking at the new face of cycling. Cycling used to be a very cheap but immensely enjoyable holiday. I don't think it is seen as this anymore. The "cool" people have moved in. It's either tied up with the wanabee TDF crowd or the easy riding, "rather than do Greece this year darling" types.
The travel stained fit, tanned, strong Touring Cyclist is neither wanted, or recognised as a money earner within the tourist trade.
Just look at the beautiful accommodation offered and the superb meals. Very nice if thats your bag, but you will have to pay for it. Even the CTC are at it with their touring holidays. Tied into routes by your guide leader and stopping at "preferred" bar, restaurants etc. It must be what people want as they usually sell out.
The brilliant days, IMO, of taking off Youth Hostelling or camping on your bike are well gone. I ride out with two CTC clubs. Don't know why they call it that, as neither of them ever tour.

whoof

Go to Majorca in March/April or September. You can find a cheap hotel or if there are a number of you an apartment. You can hire a bike for about £70 from these people. You can then also go out on daily rides with them for a fee 10 euros a day or there are loads of popular routes you can do on your own.

http://www.bicycle-holidays.com/en/

bigjim

whoof wrote:

Go to Majorca in March/April or September. You can find a cheap hotel or if there are a number of you an apartment. You can hire a bike for about £70 from these people. You can then also go out on daily rides with them for a fee 10 euros a day or there are loads of popular routes you can do on your own.

http://www.bicycle-holidays.com/en/

What do you get for €10?

whoof

bigjim wrote:

whoof wrote:

Go to Majorca in March/April or September. You can find a cheap hotel or if there are a number of you an apartment. You can hire a bike for about £70 from these people. You can then also go out on daily rides with them for a fee 10 euros a day or there are loads of popular routes you can do on your own.

http://www.bicycle-holidays.com/en/

What do you get for €10?

Not a lot, just to ride with a group and a guide.
http://www.bicycle-holidays.com/en/cycl ... upleaders/

Personally I wouldn''t consider it but the original poster asked about guided tours. My suggestion means you don't have to ride with the group every (or any) day and relative to other organised cycling holidays it's a lot cheaper.

bigjim

I do Mallorca at least once a year. last time my all inclusive hotel cost me £280 for ten days. Bike hire €100 for a week. Which I have found to be the norm. I usually go alone, but there are always a few cyclists staying at the hotel so never lonely or short of a group to ride with, if I wish. My thoughts on Mallorca are on my blog.

insella

bigjim wrote:

You are looking at the new face of cycling. Cycling used to be a very cheap but immensely enjoyable holiday. I don't think it is seen as this anymore. The "cool" people have moved in. It's either tied up with the wanabee TDF crowd or the easy riding, "rather than do Greece this year darling" types.
The travel stained fit, tanned, strong Touring Cyclist is neither wanted, or recognised as a money earner within the tourist trade.
Just look at the beautiful accommodation offered and the superb meals. Very nice if thats your bag, but you will have to pay for it. Even the CTC are at it with their touring holidays. Tied into routes by your guide leader and stopping at "preferred" bar, restaurants etc. It must be what people want as they usually sell out.
The brilliant days, IMO, of taking off Youth Hostelling or camping on your bike are well gone. I ride out with two CTC clubs. Don't know why they call it that, as neither of them ever tour.

I know what you mean bigjim. There was a time and there still is a time for rough and ready cyclists to forge their own way, seek out digs on the cheap, or a barn, and make the rubbed farthings go farther than they should. I see organised tours as a way for cyclists to develop their own confidence in a foreign country, then to be cut loose, and hopefully return independently with that kernel of inside knowledge.
At least in the Veneto it is not "cool", more a way of life, classless, and everyone respects this without judgement ie wheelsuckers are understood, never berated nor toyed with; the community exists for one other; no-one need prove a thing except their love for la bella fatica.
The "preferred" reststops may be true, or cynical, and I agree, it goes against the spirit of cycling: surely the guides also wish for variety, beauty and to share it and their knowledge. If by "selling out" you mean the guides then I beg to differ, but only experience with a tour will show this one way or the other.
On the whole an organised tour can take away faffing about, nerves, time lost (is it ever?), and the choice of accommodation is, well, a choice. More often than not it is a leg up over a perceived hindrance.
Ok, so you understand why I offer this up: cycling, however it is done, can only be a good thing in the end. And a good bed is worth its weight for a fatigued body.

bigjim

Ok, so you understand why I offer this up: cycling, however it is done, can only be a good thing in the end. And a good bed is worth its weight for a fatigued body.

I agree the more cyclists I see. Tourists or just out on their bike is only a good thing. I applaud the new interest in cycling. I was going to say Sport, but I hate it being seen as such.
I started to bike tour when I was 14. It was a time when basic youth hostels were everywhere. If I remember correctly they had to be within a days walking distance so 10 or 12 miles. It was IMO a wonderful time and probably the best days of my childhood.
I can now afford , these CTC etc, cycling holidays, but they don't hold an attraction for me. Being shuttled about and organised. The guides taking you to the best views and places. Well that will be the guides opinion. Not especially yours. Beauty in the eyes...., and all that.
Yes a good bed after a long day is appreciated. But it is relative. My good bed on a tour a couple of years ago was some cardboard and plastic in an abandoned building. I slept like a baby. The guides would be horrified.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Alain Quay wrote:

Organised cycle tours on the continent typically cost £800-£1,500 for a week, because of the need for a support vehicle, providing food en route, etc. I'm looking for something less expensive.

They aren't all that expensive - you can get self-guided tours for £500-600 I think - try FlexiTreks and FreedomTreks.

However, I prefer to devise my own routes, whereas these tend to offer fairly fixed itineraries (well the places you stay anyway - the route you take is up to you in a way!).

What I have always failed to find is someone who will just transport your gear from one place to the next. Guess it just doesn't make financial sense.

Most enjoyable bike touring I have done is with panniers, with a vague itinerary towards a definite end-point (or back to where started), taking it pretty much as it comes - easier outside of the main holidays when you might find places booked up but in the end, much more enjoyable.

insella

KnightOfTheLongTights wrote:

Alain Quay wrote:

What I have always failed to find is someone who will just transport your gear from one place to the next. Guess it just doesn't make financial sense.

Might I suggest a desperately, hopelessly in love other half. Or a tolerant, injured, patient, or silkily persuaded partner. Well, it still might end up as not making financial sense - is the long-term indemnity I make to this proposition!

Yes, I tend to tow my gear around, being a thrifty camping off-piste sort. Not that I do it often. But the chance to courier stuff from 2star hotel to b&b no strings attached, cheap and reliable while one cycles fast and light is yet to happen. As I know of. I suppose a driver would need to be engaged until some dumb waiter system can be worked out. Or drones. That kind of service probably ain't for the likes of us. ..Not yet, at any rate!

insella

bigjim wrote:

The guides taking you to the best views and places. Well that will be the guides opinion. Not especially yours. Beauty in the eyes...., and all that.
Yes a good bed after a long day is appreciated. But it is relative. My good bed on a tour a couple of years ago was some cardboard and plastic in an abandoned building. I slept like a baby. The guides would be horrified.

I suppose the guide is bound to in some ways, but as long as good knowledge makes it interesting along the way whilst understanding the perspectives of the cyclists beauty could be, and most likely is, the overarching theme of a tour. Indeed beauty is Prosecco, amongst other things in which one can lose oneself in splendour. A Pinarello. Or a .... night in an abandoned building! It is brilliant when a dump becomes a palace. What colourful frescoes. Even a chair.

Alain Quay

Thanks all for your suggestions and comments. I can see the merit in both organised and independent trips and have done both.

Organised trips

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Pros: nice places and accomm.; generally good, quiet, well thought out routes; the company of other cyclists; support means you can travel further; safe; no language problems or searching for places to eat, you don't need to think(!); etc.
Cons: expensive; if you don't like your big group dynamics it may not be fun; sometimes group members have done it all and are jaded

Independent trips

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Pros: go where you like and feel independent and not be bound by a specific route or schedule; much cheaper;
Cons: if the weather is bad or you have a mechanical, crash or other problem, you're on your own; you need
a touring bike and you need to transport it; you need to carry gear plus food.

There are a few companies that will carry your luggage from place to place e.g. Cycle Breaks
http://www.cyclebreaks.com/about-us.html Not so cheap but kind of a compromise between organised and independent.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Alain Quay wrote:

There are a few companies that will carry your luggage from place to place e.g. Cycle Breaks
http://www.cyclebreaks.com/about-us.html Not so cheap but kind of a compromise between organised and independent.

As part of a self-guided tour though? i.e., they book your accommodation, give you an itin, but you don't really see them for the whole trip? Cos several places do that, incl. the ones I mentioned.
If they offer a service that just lugs your luggage around wherever you ask them to, then that would be interesting, but I suspect expensive.