There’s many ways to see the planet we live on, ways that allow us to experience everything that the world has to offer from a variety of different perspectives. Some of them have gone down in legend; the helicopter tour over the Grand Canyon, scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. Whatever it is, these different methods of viewing the world and its sights are there to offer something different, something unique.
While it may not be as exciting as a helicopter ride, or as thrill inducing as a trip across the ocean with only a snorkel for company, an enduringly popular method of visiting the sights and sounds of a country is with bicycle tours. Mountain bike tours are exactly what one would expect them to be; visiting and enjoying various locations, sites of historical interest and other wonders of the world, all from the relative comfort of a push pedal bicycle.
The reason for the popularity of bike tours is easy to see. These tours are the perfect middle ground between walking tours and tours involving motorised transport, such as cars or aircraft. Walking all day may sound perfectly reasonable, but if you have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of places you want to go, you’re going to end up with sore feet – particularly if you repeat the schedule over the course of an entire holiday. On the other hand, vehicular based tours are restrictive in a completely different way; from behind a wind shield, it is hard to see, absorb and smell the place you are visiting.
Bike tours are the perfect solution to this double-edged problem. With a bicycle tour, you can cover more ground than you would be able to do on foot – but still have the opportunity to feel the wind on your skin as you peruse sights and sites of interest.
The popularity of these bicycle tours is dependent on location of holiday. Ideal as they are, only the most proficient of cyclists would consider visiting the heart of a bustling city upon a bicycle. It may be best for the enjoyment of your city break to keep the concept of touring the sights and sounds of a city to motorised transport. Instead, bicycle tours have found their niche wherever one can find forestation, open fields and ready-made routes: the countryside.
You may be able to spend a day leisurely walking through hills and valleys, enjoying the sense of being at one with nature, but by switching plans to incorporate bicycle tours, you can see so much more. Find the most stunning panoramas atop a hill with only half the effort to climb it – and of course, getting back down is a breeze, as you simply freewheel the effort away.
Bicycle tours have captured the countryside roaming market. You can either tour with a group or tour guide, or rent a bicycle and a specifically configured bicycle-friendly map and tour yourself. This freedom, flexibility and ease of us is one of the primary reasons why these tours have become so popular – and will continue to be so for a long time yet.
