We have taken a number of these supported trips to Europe. Love them. Usually about 5-6 days but I am sure you can get longer ones. Have used Butterfield &Robinson, Duvine, and Back Roads. Been to Italy several times, Croatia, Portugal, Austria. This year it's back to Italy (Umbria) as well as Bavaria/Austria. Have met some wonderful people doing this. In fact we met many of our friends this way. Wish list includes, Slovenia, Argentina, and Chile.
Perhaps, most are already aware of many of the 'tools' for bicycle touring. But, for those who are interested and new to the options, I thought I would share some things:
- crazyguyonabike is a journal site where mostly self-contained touring is logged. If you have any interest in learning about self-contained bicycle touring, this is a good place to start.
- Adventure Cycling is a non-profit that focuses upon bicycle touring. They offer great maps, tours and if you are looking for a partner, people post on their site looking for like-minded people. AC is also a great place to start your investigation.
- Fully contained touring companies, like Backroads. These are tours that often come with guides, routing, leader support etc. They are the 'cruise ships' of bicycle touring. Adventure Cycling site provides a review
- Large (many people) supported rides - RAGBRI & SAGBRAW (or similar) is a popular ride across various states SAGBRAW is the Wisconsin ride which I road many years ago. It's a supported ride with hundreds, if not thousands, of your closest friends. Support and fellow cyclists was always good. Communities were very supportive. For those looking for an inexpensive, supported ride, this is an option. But does not offer the comfort, or expense, of the Backroad type tours.
Self Contained Tours - After our first/only Backroads tour, which was amazing, we thought we could do it ourselves, in order to save lots of money. So that is what we did. Our earlier tours were one week, with a handle bar bag. We routed hotel to hotel using Adventure Cycling maps, washed our our bike cloths for the next day, etc. Now, we go fully loaded and will do multi-month tours.
Lots of stuff here. I love bicycling and advocate for it as a healthy approach to vacationing and seeing the country at a human speed. If you want to discuss, feel free to message me.