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Bicycle Touring
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Bicycle touring
is where you ride a bicycle to explore a city or the
countryside for enjoyment.
It is
also referred to as
bicycle tours
and
bicycle vacations. People
who do bicycle touring are called bicycle tourists
or simply riders. The distance covered in a
day will typically vary from 30 to 100 miles
depending on fitness, speed and the number of stops.
Wikipedia
has a good article on bicycle touring.
There are many websites with personal travelogues
(also called travelogs) of
someone's bicycling adventures in the world and such
travelogues are also part of many bicycling touring
websites. See our
World Bike Tours chart at the bottom of the
page. many online and print travel guides have
a section on bicycle touring for the destination
they cover.
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There are many types
of bicycle touring and no standard set of terms. Here is the way it
has been generally categorized. For more details see the
Touring Cyclist and
Wikipedia articles. (Ken Keifer's website has a different
list
of types
that is also worth reading): |
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Day touring / Day tours. This is the simplest form of
bike touring. This is either a one-day tour you
take on a weekend or holiday or you go on a
bicycle vacation somewhere and you return to your starting
place
each day such as your home, a camp ground, or
lodging in some city or village. You carry just
enough gear for the weather, a small repair tool
kit for minor bike repairs, and some food and
drink. You usually eat at restaurants along the
way.
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Supported / fully
supported / SAG touring.
This involves multi-day
tours and you do not return to your starting
point each day. A luggage van carries your
luggage to the next place where you will be
staying overnight. At the end of the day you’ll
find the luggage van waiting for you at a
designated location or it may already be left in
your hostel, hotel or B&B room. This may be part
of a guided bicycle tours, including pre-paid
lodging, luggage transfers, route planning and
often some meals and the use of rental bikes are
part of the package. SAG = Support and
Gear
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Credit card touring. This refers to
multi-day tours where you travel alone or in an
independent group with all your belongings
(i.e., there is no luggage van to carry your
luggage to the next location where you will be
staying overnight.) You eat at
restaurants and stay in a youth hostel, hotel or
B&B overnight. This is popular form of bike
touring in Europe.
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Self Sufficient / fully
loaded touring.
This is hard core bicycle
touring where you carry all your gear with you
including food and camping equipment and you
sleep in a tent or just a sleeping bag. It
is like going backpacking but riding a bicycle
instead of walking. If you are traveling
extensively in a developing country, this is
sometimes referred to as expedition touring.
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Search The Web |
Sometimes the fastest way to find specific bicycle tours is
just to do a web search. We suggest
the following:
Note: Using either tour or touring will give
you the same results. You can narrow your search by including
the type of bicycle touring in your search. Where there
are two or more terms used to describe the same type of touring,
you may need to try each one to get full coverage of tour
possibilities. bicycle tours and bicycle touring
are the most common terms used whereas Bicycle vacations
and cycling vacations are not commonly used. You
should also search for some bicycle travelogues (or
travelogs) for your destination to get advice on it from
others. |
Of course, you can also add schedule, price, cost, a date
such as August 2008 etc. to your search to try and narrow it
down.
Include the country if a city name may have a duplicate or if you
get a city in a different country or state/province than what you wanted
to find.
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Bicycle Tours
Country or city name |
Bicycle Tours Japan |
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Bicycle Tours in
Country or city name |
Bicycle tour of Paris France |
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Bicycle Vacation
Country or city name |
Berlin to Munich Germany Bus service |
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Bike rides in
country or state/province/city |
Bike rides in Scottish highlands |
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Cycling in Hawaii
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Bicycle supported
touring Country |
Bicycle supported touring Germany
Bicycle SAG tours Germany
Bicycle fully supported tours Germany |
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Bicycle Credit
card touring
Country region |
Bicycle Credit card touring Danube |
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Bicycle travelogue
Vietnam |
Bicycle travelogue Vietnam |
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Here are some good websites with information
about bicycle touring.
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Comprehensive
Bicycle Touring Websites
These are websites that
have extensive information on all aspects of bicycles and bicycle touring
for beginners, as well as, experienced riders. |
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About.com
- Bicycling
An excellent website with a lot of information on bicycling. They cover
bike events including touring.
Their
Bicycling
In Europe covers everything about bicycling in European countries.
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Biycletour.us
For beginners. Just brief, one page
summaries with practical advice for those new to bicycle touring. There is a
separate page on what bicycle touring is all about, and one on selecting a
bike, planning your tour and finally a page listing some popular bike
touring companies.
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BiyclingTouring101.com. A comprehensive website for both beginners and
experienced riders.
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BicycleUniverse.com. Covers everything from
A to Z. Very helpful if you are a beginner. They also have a section with
extensive
tips on touring.
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Crazyguyonabike.com. A place for
bicycle tourist and their journals. Here is their
Touring - How To section.
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DMOZ Open Directory -
Sports/Cycling/Travel. This is their directory of bicycle travel
websites.
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Ken Keifer's Bike
Pages
A good website of interest to anyone who wants to do bike tours.
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The
Touring Cyclist. A good website with comprehensive information.
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TourVelo.org. This is a
Do It Yourself Bicycle Touring website by Norma
D. Ford who has biked throughout the world. he offers practical advice if
you are going it alone.
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Wikitravel - Tips
for Cycle Trips. This article provides basic information for
bicycle touring.
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Some Bicycle Touring
Operators |
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BikeTourReview.com -
Europe. This website reviews various bike touring companies that
have Supported / fully supported / SAG tours of Europe and let's you
comparison shop. |
Australian and
International Cycling Tours and Travel Logs. This is an Australian
website with worldwide coverage.
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Bicycle Tours - World
Wide Bicycle Tour Directory This is a comprehensive
directory of commercial and non-profit bicycle tours and events. Bike
touring companies or event directors input their information directly into
their database.
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Cycle Events They
have a collection of interesting bicycle tours for some of the continents
offered by various companies.
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DMOZ
Open Directory - Sports/Cycling/Travel/Tour Operators. This is their
list of bicycling tour operators worldwide. We also take you directly to
each region or country they cover below in our World Bike Tour Websites box
below.
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Experienceplus.com They
have been leading
bicycle tours for over 30 years. They specialize in traveling quiet country roads throughout the world. You stay in
small inns in the heart of a town or village. A beautiful website with
good selection criteria choices for picking one of their bicycling tours. They
have tours for a few countries on all the continents.
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London Bicycle Tour Company They
offer bike hires and tours of London.
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Specialty
Travel Index - Bicycling Touring An excellent site covering a wide range of
outdoor activities. We drop you off at their Bicycle touring page with a
list of all their bicycle tours. From here, you can use the pull-down menu
to select a Destination
and they select Bicycle
Touring in the pull-down
Activity
menu to narrow your search.
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The Touring Cyclist - Bike Tours. This is
their Bike Tour section with worldwide tours.
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VBT Bicycling
Vacations They have been in business since 1971 and have worldwide
coverage, except for South America and most of Asia the last time we
checked. They offer deluxe bicycling tours.
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Yahoo! Bicycle Tour Operators Directory. This is their list of
bicycle tour operators worldwide. |
World |
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World Bike Tours |
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Region |
Websites |
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Australia |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
Select Australia from the list.
Cycle
Events Tours are listed in
alphabetically order by country. Australia is part of their
South Pacific tours. |
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Africa |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
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Asia |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
Cycle Events
Asia tours are listed in alphabetically order by country.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
Select a country in Asia from the list. |
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Canada |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
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Caribbean |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
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Central America |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
They only had a bicycle tour in Costa Rica the last time we
checked. |
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Europe |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
BikeTourReview.com - Europe
This website reviews various companies that offer Supported /
fully supported / SAG tours of Europe and let's you comparison
shop.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
Select a country in Europe from the list.
Cycle
Events
European tours are listed in alphabetically order by country. |
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Mexico |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
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Middle East |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the website may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
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New Zealand |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
Select New Zealand from the list.
Cycle
Events
Tours are listed in alphabetically order by country. New Zealand
is in their South Pacific section. |
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North America |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
Select USA from the list. This is the only North American
country they offer. |
Oceania
South
Pacific islands |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. They only listed Australia and
New Zealand the last time we checked but they may have added
some South Pacific islands since the, Some of the websites may
have a general bicycling guide for the region or specific
countries within the region.
Cycle
Events
Tours are listed in alphabetically order by country. |
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South America |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
Select a country from the list for Latin America. |
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United States |
DMOZ
Bicycle Tour Operators.
This is their list of bicycling
tour operators in this region. Some of the websites may have a
general bicycling guide for the region or specific countries
within the region.
Experienceplus
- Destinations
Select USA from the list.
Cycle
Events
They only had several tours in Alaska the last time we checked. |
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