The world of private biking trips is booming. Offered by the same high-end boutique tour operators with a published roster of scheduled group trips, these custom trips offer the chance to go to Tuscany or Napa or Provence with your family and friends – and only your family and friends – on a luxury biking trip. The number of travelers of all stripes seeking a private group trip has grown so much that many adventure travel companies now derive a substantial portion of their business from private groups and have separate divisions with dedicated trip planners to make it happen.
Why Private Rocks
While a scheduled tour is plug-and-play and offers you the chance to meet fellow travelers, it also means that you have less control over the planning and itinerary for the tour. With a private tour you have the advantage of steering the trip and deciding what you get to see and do, as well as a say in accommodations. You’re also working directly with the guides. For some people this is worth any extra cost.
The fact is that while these trips may skew more expensive than scheduled trips, depending upon the size of your private group, there are other advantages to choosing a private departure, whether it’s for a significant birthday, anniversary, or just a much-needed getaway.
Choice & Flexibility
Private trips offer maximum choice and flexibility. You go with your personal agenda, not someone else’s fixed itinerary. Given that it’s a private trip, it’s not one size fits all. You’ll have some flexibility over accommodation level and dining choices. With some companies, opting for a private trip mean literally taking over a scheduled departure and booking it for your friends or your family. Or taking a planned itinerary and finding the dates that make it work for you. Or simply having a tour company create an itinerary on dates that work you and your group, an entirely bespoke trip, with hotels, menus and routes customized for you.
They Do the Work, You Bike (& Eat & Drink)
Working with an established luxury boutique bike tour company offers the kind of one-stop-shopping that time-pressed travelers crave. These companies employ and train trip designers, guides, bike mechanics and a guest services team, and naturally have support vehicles whether your group consists of two travelers or 16. They have long-term relationships with hotels, which not only helps with price, but often gets you better service. In short, they handle all the logistics.
Detailed Days (& Nights)
Chances are that you and your group will have a choice of several expertly designed routes each day, with detailed directions and a route rating system. If it’s a family group spanning generations, accommodating travelers of different ages, abilities and taste turns out to be pretty much the point of private bike trips. With any active group tour there is always an element of balancing different abilities and levels of fitness and levels of willingness and it’s generally easier to do this on a private tour. Here are four top companies that offer private luxury biking trips:
DuVine Cycling + Adventure Co.
