Category Archives: Biking Tours

The Ins and Outs of Bicycle Touring

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Bicycle touring can be a wonderful way to see various parts of the world. However, there are some ins and outs of bicycle touring. By knowing what these ins and outs are you can determine if bicycle tours are for you.

There are bicycle tours all around the world. You can bike through the Himalayas, Yosemite National Park or Vietnam. The destinations are endless and the sights unbelievable. On paper bicycle tours look wonderful and for those that are suited for them they do not disappoint. However, one should examine the ins and outs of bicycling tours without knowing what they are in for.

The first choice one needs to make is to choose a place. Bicycle tours are cheap and plentiful in both Europe and Asia. They tend to be more expensive in the states. The plus of biking tours in the states is that there is no language barrier. European and Asian biking tours are often in the language of the host country.

Another issue is the riding styles of biking tours. In European the trend seems to be that people in the tour ride with the guide in a cluster. The ability and endurance of the rider can also be an issue. Self guided tours do not have an alternative way to make it to the destination. Guided tours have supportive measures that work to help riders who can not make it to the next resting point.

In the case of a problem with your cycle, specific bicycle tours handle flat tires or other cycle issues differently. Generally self guided tours do not give any support to riders with flats. Be prepared to fix the flat yourself on self guided tours.

Biking tours can be a great deal of fun. Since tours in distant lands are low priced biking tours are wonderful ways to see the world. However, weather can be unpredictable and riders with low stamina may find themselves exhausted at some points during the ride. Before embarking on a biking tour, take lone trips at home. Find some varied terrain at a park and spend a weekend biking. Try out your legs before taking a full length biking tour.

Another thing to remember about biking tours is that there are both long and short ones. A day biking tour might be enough to fill the biking appetite. A week long biking tour may be the exciting adventure that a hardcore biker has been waiting for.

Biking tours that are tailored made to bike skill levels and enthusiasm can be found. No matter what the intensity level of biking that is desired, there is a biking tour out there. Of course, there are some people who bike at home but so not enjoy vacation biking tours. If complete leisure is desired, biking tours are not the way to go.

One major plus of a biking tour vacation is that is can help fight the typical pounds many people gain when they are on vacation. Return from your trip fit and trim by taking a biking tour.

There are a few last minute tips for those that decide to take biking tours. Take your helmet with you. While bikes can be rented, helmets are usually not available. If you have gloves, bring those to.

Biking tours are either guided or self guided. A self guided biking tour is one that does not have a guide. Bikers get information about the tour and ride through the course without a guide to lead them. If one is taking a self guided tour in a foreign land, be aware that the instructions and pamphlets may be hard to interpret.

Smart Ideas in Preparing for your Mountain Bike Tour

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A mountain bike tour can be a great adventure for any bicyclist. Off-road and regular road trips with the mountain bike can be fun. But there are several things that you have to consider as well as things that you need to make sure you pack when going on a mountain bike trip. Mountain bikes have been popular in the last ten years and their popularity has not declined so far. Many companies offer anything from cheaper mountain bikes all the way up to high end very expensive mountain bikes.

When preparing for a mountain biking trip and you either do not own a mountain bike yet or your mountain bike is too old and you need a new model, it is important to consider the price tag of the new bike. Buying the cheapest available will most likely not give you a great quality bike with great durability. This does not mean that you have to buy the most expensive bike to have a quality purchase, but some research and time invested in trying out different mountain bikes is a great investment in a new bike.

Besides taking your own bike onto a biking vacation or tour, you always have the option to rent a bicycle at the location of your tour. Sometimes renting a bicycle can save you a lot of hassles. If you do not have a mountain bike, maybe just a comfort bike for your trip to the office, a rental can give you the opportunity to try out a MTB.

Other ideas and tips when planning and preparing a mountain bike tour include making yourself a list with all the necessities for the trip, deciding whether it is going to be a guided or self-guided tour and talking to other mountain bikers. A list for the trip is one of the most important things, because if you are somewhere in the middle of nowhere, far off the road with your mountain bike and you realize you forgot something, especially in bicycle brake down or repair situation can be very rough and ruin your bicycle trip. Some of the better travel and biking guides as well as some pages on the Internet provide such list detailing the major things needed on a bicycling tour or vacation.

One of the most important things you should have with you is water and a repair kit. Water being essential for the body, is increasingly needed when doing sports. Water is not always available, especially in remote areas, where off-road biking tours will take place and even if there is a stream or river, the water might not be safe and clean enough to drink.

A repair kit, that can quickly fix minor repairs can safe your trip. A small hole in the tire, loose nuts and bolts and tightening of brakes and other equipment can be essential for a successful fun filled mountain biking tour. A loose saddle or a small hole in your tire is in general fixed within a few minutes, but they can stop you from continuing your tour and therefore also stop other participants, since they do need and want to help you.

Should you be planning a one day bicycling trip on a mountain bike, the equipment needed is just a small amount and might reduce itself to less than half a backpack. But for tours that will be going on several days with possibly stays in the wilderness, there are a lot more things necessary to be taken along, such as tents, sleeping bags, biking outfit for any weather and road condition, food for a few days and many more things that are also necessary on other vacation.

Self-Guided vs. Guided – The Best Biking Tour Option for You

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When planning a biking vacation for yourself, family or friends, one of the first questions that you will have to ask yourself involve the where to go and the guided versus self-guided question. Many of the more famous areas and spots for bicycling will offer guided bicycling trips and tours. Some travel agencies even specialize in long distance guided bicycling tours. When you are planning your vacation, you need to figure out which one is the best option for you.

After finding the location you want to make your bicycling trip to, you need to decide on guide or no guide.

A guide can be a great addition for your trip. In general, the guide will be very well versed with the area you are bicycling in and have lots of information for you that you might have never found out about without a guide. A guide safes you the trouble you might have by reading signs along the biking path, special bicycling maps and keeping on your path without getting lost when traveling. Bicycling maps are available for almost every route and paths that there is on the planet, but just as with a regular map, a certain skill is needed to read the maps as well as knowledge of signage used in bicycling areas. With a guide you will most likely never get lost or get of the proper path.

When booking a guided tour, the hassle of finding over night stays is usually falling away. Guided tours are preplanned and all the hotels, motels, inns and hostels are already booked for you and your group. Besides all the added benefits, the guide probably will show you important historic and others important sites for the area and should be able to tell you about their history and other background information. Also good to know is that when you do d3ecide to have a guided tour, the worries about your baggage are not worries any longer. Guided tours often offer an accompanying vehicle that will transport all your baggage from one place to the next and is also available to help in case of emergency such as a blown tire, a fall or sudden exhaustion of one of the group members.

So after you heard of all these benefits, you might be asking why anybody would ever choose to do a self-guided tour.

Well, there are just as many reasons for self-guided tours as there are for guided tours. The first major reason might be money. Money rules the world and guided tours are more expensive than a self-guided tour. The money that gets added for guided tours pays the salary of the guide, fees for the company that plans and offers the tours as well as other added fees. Choosing a self-guided tour saves you the fees for the company that planned the tour, but therefore you will have to reserve all the hotels and pick the places you want to stay overnight on your tour. There is also no salary for the guide that has to be paid. You will need just yourself, a map and maybe a travel guidebook. If you never had problems finding a place using a map, you will be able to guide your own tour.

Some people prefer not to have a guide and enjoy the ride without people they do not know. Sometimes you just wan to be with friend or family.

Another very good reason why you might want to plan your own self-guided bicycling vacation is the places and sights that you want to see on your tour can be chosen by you. Guided tours are preplanned and some sights might not be included in the one that you chose. Self-guided can bring you to a place you chose to see and it also means you do not have to adhere to a planned schedule. You make your own schedule and pace as you cycle along.

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