May 3, 2004 - We can think of few better ways to truly experience a place than from the seat of your bike. No staring through the tinted glass of tour buses, no guide telling you what to look at (or what to think about) and no pressure to "move along." On a bicycle, you can set the pace, stopping when you want to ponder a point a little longer, resting and picnicking at your leisure. And bike-touring is eminently environmentally friendly. No fossil fuel burning here!
There's a special price exclusively to readers of this site who want to bicycle around New Hampshire in June -- a $50 savings off the regular Bike the Whites Tour (877/854-6535; www.bikethewhites.com). Instead of paying the regular price of $329 for a June trip, you can pay the regular May price of $279 per person, simply by mentioning Frommers.com when you call to book. (That works out to just $93 per person per night.)
The $279 pays for a three-day, three-night package including luxury lodging, all luggage transfers, "hearty" meals, emergency repairs, indoor bicycle storage, customized route planning, and a free water bottle. "No hidden or extra costs," they say, for this ideal-weather time for cycling in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The trip includes stays at places picked by the editor of the Yankee Travel Guide, including The Forest Inn at Intervale, The Tamworth Inn (in Tamworth), and The Snowvillage Inn (in, er, Snowville), which have joined in making this discount possible for you, our readers.
You can rent a bike if you don't want to bring your own, for $70 for the three-day tour, complete with helmet. The bikes are 2001 Trek all-terrain lightweight 24-speed Alpha aluminum models, with seat post suspension, gel seats and upright riding position. Bike the Whites has saved "many, but not unlimited" number of spots for Frommers.com readers, so book soon, they say.
To read what previous bikers have written about these trips, go to our Message Boards at www.frommers.com/cgi-bin/WebX?128@@.eebd194.
Wheels Across America, Canada, Mexico and More
A good site that lists dozens of bike tours around the US, Canada and Mexico, as well as a few to Holland and France, is www.nbtda.com, the official site of the National Bicycle Tour Directors Association. They divide the USA into eight regions, making a search fairly easy. A typical tour is the "Cycle Washington" outing, taking you along the magnificent Columbia River Gorge for seven days from August 7-13 from just $700. The cost includes catered meals, sag support, mechanic support, rest stops, T shirt and maps. The price works out to $116 per night per person. In those seven days, you'll tour by road for 450 miles, with a maximum number of 150 riders. It's sponsored by the Adventure Cycling Association (800/755-2453; fax 406/721-8754; www.adventurecycling.org), based in Missoula, MT, a non-profit, member-driven organization, whose "mission is to inspire people of all ages to use a bicycle for exploration, fun, and adventure."
You could get yourself to Europe, then join a bicycle tour organized by a new company sponsored by Discover France. The firm, Pure Adventures (800/960-2221; www.pure-adventures.com) will do outside France what the parent organization has done in that country, mainly to provide self-guided biking and walking itineraries into the heart of countries and regions, where visitors can "mix with the natives, meet local artisans" and otherwise function happily off the beaten tourist track.
Pure Adventures will operate in such places as Tuscany, the Cotswolds, Transylvania and the Swiss Alps. At first, however, they have a "Cycle Catalonia" deal of eight days and seven nights for just $815 (the price is land-only meaning you'll need to pay for transportation to get there). It operates out of Girona -- about 60 miles northeast of Barcelona -- and visits several medieval towns, such as Monells, Pals and Empuries, winding up in Figueres, the birthplace of Salvador Dali and home to the theater/museum named for him. Views of the Mediterranean from the cliffs of the Costa Brava are an optional part of the tour. Departures are available daily, all year long except from August 1 to 22. They also have a week-long Irish tour (seven nights) priced at $1299 (land only), including all breakfasts, three dinners, luggage transfer, bike rental, and more, available any time of the week, April through October. For reservations or more information, contact them at