When we head off on a city break, or somewhere we’ve not been before – particularly somewhere with lots of sights (e.g. Barcelona or Paris) – we always have a look for a bike tour as a brilliant way to learn our way around and see what’s what.
We did our first bike tour in Barcelona, and have done them in Paris and Venice since, and will be doing ones in Rome and San Francisco later this year too!
I’d always recommend trying to get one booked as soon as possible on your break as you’ll get to see all the main sights and learn your way around the city. At around 3 hours per tour you obviously don’t get a huge amount of time at each location you visit, but we use them as a way to work out what we want to come back and visit in a bit more detail, or to box off some of the sights that can be done fairly speedily with a quick photo stop!
Fat Tire Tours
In both Paris and Barcelona, we used a company called Fat Tire Bike Tours and we were not disappointed. Our guides were international students who’d started as a way to make some more money. They really knew their stuff and their experience of the cities really told as they took us to the main sites and reeled off reams of information and interesting facts.
In each city we’ve done a tour, we tend to just do a basic daytime city tour, at around £25 they offer great value too! There are also so many variations offered now that all offer something a little different.
They’re definitely not the only company out there, and I’d imagine wherever you go there are a few companies offering bike tours, so get on google and have a look, I can’t recommend them enough!
Finally – don’t worry if you’re not in Tour de France fitness, the tours we’ve done have been really easy going and nice leisurely routes, the guides will wait for everyone to catch up before giving out information at different sights so you won’t miss out, and the bike saddles tend to be comfy!
Hidden Gem Travels 