Five Myths about Bike Tours

Published by USA TODAY | By Everett Potter

Thinking of taking an organized bike trip this summer or fall? There are dozens of tour companies out there, at a variety of price points, ready to take you to Croatia, Cuba or California on two wheels. But how about fitness, distance and bringing your family along? Here are five myths about bike tours.

1. Bike trips are only for hardcore riders.

Sure, there are companies that are geared to hardcore bike riders. But they’re in the minority. The vast majority of bike touring companies offer a range of tours for riders of varying abilities. These are active trips, but the idea is to use the bike as a way to see the destination from a different vantage point.

That’s the approach pioneered by a Toronto-based company, Butterfield & Robinson (B&R), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Company president and CEO Norm Howe says that “I like to think that the biking is really just an elaborate excuse to allow our travelers to sit down to enjoy the delights of the dinner table with a clear conscience, feeling virtuous for having earned their desserts … for B&R, the bike is really just a catalyst to deliver our travelers into the middle of a foreign landscape, to immerse them in the sensory richness of a region, to help them slow down and savor local life.”

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