What do you look for in a tour?

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mark

Senior Member
Location
Frisco, CO, USA
I would like to know if anyone has any bad experiences touring (with a company) and what they may be?

I spent the summer of 2001 working for a US touring company and will never get involved with commercial cycle tours again! A few of the things I learned:

1. Do not make the tour seem easier than it is, and do not let your sales staff/booking agents do so either! One lady on my first tour was told "no need to ride a bike to prepare for the tour, just use the exercise bike at the gym, you'll be fine". She was not fine. Another lady who injured her knee just before departure was told "Plenty of wives spend the whole tour in the baggage van and have just as much fun as the people who actually ride". This was not true. Don't be afraid to give refunds or credit for future tours if a genuine medical issue arises, this will pay off in good will later on.

2. Be honest about the weather your clients may encounter, and be ready to help clients cope with bad weather (advice on what to wear, fit bikes with mudguards, etc.). A day of cycling in the rain can be miserable for the unprepared fair weather cyclist, but a set of fenders/mudguards and a little advice on clothing can make riding in the rain quite pleasant (up to a point).

3. Don't try to "stretch" the tour season. By this I mean, don't offer tours so early or late in the season that you don't have a reasonable chance of good weather for the better part of the tour. Lots of tour companies of every kind do this, partly because they get such good rates from hotel owners before and after the peak season. On the first day of my first tour, we had rain mixed with snow, changing to a steady cold rain later in the day.

4. Lots of cycle tour companies like to keep the entire group together at all times, mostly for the convenience of the guide (and to make the guide feel important). Not everyone wants to cycle in a large group, and not everyone wants to eat dinner at a single table with the entire tour group (especially the newly married couple on one of my tours).

5. All of the tour guides should be capable bike mechanics who enjoy working on bikes, and should be provided with a decent set of tools. If the guides aren't already good cycle mechanics they should be eager to learn. The company I worked for provided us with a truly impressive array of tools, but none of the guides could be bothered to do more than wipe the bikes off once in a while. It was truly frustrating, both for myself and for the guests whose bikes didn't work. What made it even more frustrating was that the bikes were actually quite good.

Sorry if this seems completely obvious, but the company I worked for made all these mistakes and more.
 
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Festina_Lente

Festina_Lente

Active Member
Location
Algarve
It's been fantastic to be able to call on such a broad base knowledge. I've tweaked things a little bit in accordance with the advice and have found solutions for the problems presented. Some solutions aren't ideals, but sufficient. Others are innovative. Eventually we'll get it spot on. I really do think people will like what we provide.

It's been such a challenge, especially the bureaucratic parts. I can't wait to see it in action! Thanks!
 

samid

Veteran
Location
Toronto, Canada
I find posts saying "I'll never use a touring company" pointless in the context of this thread. It's like posting "I hate cabbage" in a thread asking for good cabbage pie recipes. Anyway, to try and provide some possibly useful content: contrary to what some have said, I for one would use a cycle touring company for an organized self-guided tour. While not as experienced as some other people on this board, I like solo touring and have done it a few times already. I also like camping and sleeping in a tent, and limiting all my stuff for a couple of weeks to what I can carry on my bike is not a problem for me. My wife on the other hand likes cycling but does not like camping, and likes to have a choice of clothes at hand in the evenings. So we decided that in a year or two we are going to do a self-guided tour with some bike tour company offering such tours so that there will be somebody to drive our luggage from hotel to hotel (and maybe rent us bike(s) too). So here's a possible scenario in which people who can ride a bike and chew gum at the same time would still use a bike touring company.
 

machew

Veteran
Maps, good maps. Not just maps of the route but include any side roads etc. The one thing that can make a good experience bad is getting lost. If you can have the gps routes available to be uploaded. Cheap charged mobile phones with contact details pre-programmed in. You will be amazed the number of people who go abroad and forget to enable roaming
 
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