Tips 4 Touring
Getting There in the submenu provides some guidance on narrowing down the type of bike touring you would like to do. Which ever company you end up using, a few tips to help you are:
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Determine where their home base is.
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Make sure you know the currency the tour price is offered in. This can help to avoid price shock later on. e.g the $ symbol may be referring to US$, AUD or $CAN.
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If you want a guided tour, make sure that guided is offered for the tour(s) you are interested in, as well as the additional cost. Also make sure that you find out the additional costs of extras such as hiring regular or ebikes bikes, helmets and accommodation choice.
And When You Do, What Next? in the submenu covers a range of topics associated with preparing for your cycle tour, though to the mundane day to day activities of getting you lunch or buying a coffee.
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Cycle Tour Facilitators and/or Operators :
The following logos belong to companies (facilitators) that we have enjoyed travelling with over the last 14 years (the addition of company logos is a work in progress). You can click on the logos and you will be taken to the Company's web page. Their sites are easy to navigate and you will probably find that you need to check multiple sites to get a real feel for the options available. Sometimes you will find that multiple sites will offer the same tour from a third party provider, albeit some of the sites may sometimes have their own particular name for the tour, albeit dates and locations match other offerings. In addition, some facilitators may have pre-booked a number of places on a tour with a third party provider leaving only a small number of unbooked places, so even if one facilitator says its booked out you may find places with another facilitator.
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Companies like Road Bike Tour Italy, French Cycling Holidays, Girolibero and Trek Travel are only, in my experience, operators, but some of them do allow other companies like Rad + Reisen to book places on their tours. It will give you a clue as to the make up of the group you might join. For example you should check on the languages that the tour guides will be using and the likely language make up of the tour group. If, say, you don't speak German and you will be the only English speaker you need to think about what this might mean for day to day communications, noting that many Europeans register with their native language and speak multiple languages including English.