Organized Tours - Europe, US, Canada

I've been following the Suggestions for European Tour thread and this
leads to my question...what can anyone tell me about the major touring
groups such as TrekTravel, Circlismo Classico, Vermont Bike Tours? The
first 2 I mentioned seem to have the best itineraries and equipment but
along with that comes a steep price not including air fare overseas.
Are there other operators that are good that might be less pricey yet
still offer good road bikes and trips? Thanks for your help.

jalex wrote in news:nr-dnd06dP3oxNjYnZ2dnUVZ_r-
:
I've been following the Suggestions for European Tour thread and this
leads to my question...what can anyone tell me about the major touring
groups such as TrekTravel, Circlismo Classico, Vermont Bike Tours? The
first 2 I mentioned seem to have the best itineraries and equipment but
along with that comes a steep price not including air fare overseas.

All of the big name bike tour companies get most of their business from
repeat customers, so they must be keeping their customers happy. The more
expensive companies typically use more expensive hotels and restaurants,
often high end places in the city center. I've used VBT a few times and
thought that their service was excellent, though their hotels are often in
more rural locations. Bottom line is that you get what you pay for with the
big companies.

If budget is very important to you, there are smaller local companies that
don't spend huge amounts of money on advertising. You will have a much
smaller selection of dates and itineraries and probably less pre-trip
customer service. Since the small companies don't have as many customers as
the big companies and have often been in business for fewer years, finding
honest and comprehensive reviews will be more difficult.

jalex wrote:
I've been following the Suggestions for European Tour thread and this
leads to my question...what can anyone tell me about the major touring
groups such as TrekTravel, Circlismo Classico, Vermont Bike Tours?
The first 2 I mentioned seem to have the best itineraries and
equipment but along with that comes a steep price not including air
fare overseas. Are there other operators that are good that might be
less pricey yet still offer good road bikes and trips? Thanks for
your help.

When I went cycling with a friend in Burgundy last year, each of the two
shops from which we rented our bikes (long story, but we did not bring our
own) offered to customize an itinerary for us, including any combination of
reservations, sites to see, and even porting our bags from inn to inn for
us, all for a fee of course.

We had our own ideas and didn't take them up on this--except for wonderful
advice on route, which was invaluable (and free)--but it was clear that we
could have had our own personal tour with whatever amenities and level of
luxury we chose. Call this the a la carte approach. It might work for
you--google around and compare prices.

What we couldn't find were touring bikes, which are awfully hard to come by
in continental Europe. I fretted about this before the trip, but in
retrospect the bikes we got--basically high-quality hybrids, what the French
call VTTs--were better suited to our route, which included many cobblestones
and tow paths, than road bikes would have been. (I have to admit I never did
more than 45 miles in a day though, and usually less.)

As it happens, I know the owners of Ciclismo Classico--their son is in my
daughter's school--and when I asked them about how to rent a decent touring
bike in Europe I was told it is very hard if not impossible. So if that is
what you want, you might have to go with a bigger company that has its own
fleet.

(The Ciclismo Classico folks are very nice, whatever that is worth!)

What we couldn't find were touring bikes, which are awfully hard to come by
in continental Europe. I fretted about this before the trip, but in
retrospect the bikes we got--basically high-quality hybrids, what the French
call VTTs--were better suited to our route, which included many cobblestones
and tow paths, than road bikes would have been. (I have to admit I never did
more than 45 miles in a day though, and usually less.)

As it happens, I know the owners of Ciclismo Classico--their son is in my
daughter's school--and when I asked them about how to rent a decent touring
bike in Europe I was told it is very hard if not impossible. So if that is
what you want, you might have to go with a bigger company that has its own
fleet.

While in the smaller towns, Italian bike shop staff will look at you
like you're insane if you ask to rent a nice road bike ("who would buy
a road bike from us after it's USED?!"), some of the larger towns have
bike shops that rent road bikes.

Ciclismo Classico, before it acquired its own fleet, used to supply
bikes rented from Punto Bici in Perugia. ExperiencePlus, another tour
company, offers bikes for rent from its BikeRentalsPlus.com site (only
within 200 km of its rental center in Forli, Emilia-Romagna, or 200 km
of its center in Provence).

In a number of larger cities in France, www.holiday-bikes.com rents
bikes, including medium-quality road bikes.