lortman

Last Friday I called VBT (Vermont Bicycle Tours) to sign up for their Bordeaux trip in May. We've traveled with VBT years ago before we started riding a tandem. Everything was going great until they asked which bikes we wanted and I told them we'd be bringing our tandem.

It seems they've changed trailers and can no longer accommodate tandems. This was a show stopper. I got my deposit back and even emailed the president (not Obama, the president of VBT. Bottom line, we won't be traveling with them.

So, if not VBT, who? I must say my previous experience with VBT was terrific

Help!

akexpress 

We just completed an awesome tandem trip to Turkey with Nichols Expeditions . Chuck and Judy the owners always ride a tandem on all their trips. We had 5 tandems plus them for a twelve day trip and they did a great trip. We are already planning a trip with them to the Tuscany area and everyone of the couples committed . We have also traveled with Santana on a number of trips and they also do a great trip although a little different in that they have more guests on each of their trips. With a little searching you can find a number of tandem friendly companys.

Chris_W

Consider coming to Switzerland! I've done some guiding for Bike Switzerland, and we've had a few tandems without any problems. The company is based in Switzerland, but is run by an American and about 70% of the clients are American (and almost 100% from English-speaking countries - US, UK, Canada, Oz). The guides are normally American or British.

scycheng

Why not do it yourself? France is very civilized for credit card touring and there is a hotel in just about every village of any size. No need to book ahead of time except for arrival and departure.

For Bordeaux, either exit the city along the Canal du Midi toward Toulouse or take a short train ride to St Emillion (the place with very nice wine) which is the first stop outside of Bordeaux if you want to head up the Dordogne.

cyclezealot

Our French tours were to let the non cyclist spouses drive a car and meet us where ever. Worked out just fine..
Bordeaux. Great wine. Sort of flat country. Be sure and head out to nearby Gers region with its nice rolling hills and Stop by Sauternes for its scenery and semi sweet wines.
Want to get your bike blessed , stop by Eglise Notre Dame des Cyclistes east of Mont de Marsan..
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ap-Suggestions
.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhn...rmagnac_webcam

lortman

Thank you for all the quick responses. I did neglect to add one piece of information, we'll be going as a group and most will be riding singles and will not be bringing their own bikes. While I like the Switzerland idea (I have Swiss heritage), May is really the time this group needs to travel due to work restrictions. We've done a "do it yourself" tour in Italy by renting a villa and planning day trips (it was great). Maybe we'd consider a self-guided tour with an operator moving luggage, planning hotels and providing bikes. I'd love to "discover" some companies that this group has used. I always find great ideas on this forum.

merlinextraligh

Take a look at Backroads. They are starting to offer tandems as an option on some trips. So they may be more accomodating to tandems.

Also, since you're traveling as a group, Backroads wiill do private trips for your group. I would think they could accomodate tandems on a private trip tailered for your group.

And having done both Backroads, and VBT trips, I'd give a slight edge to Backroads.

Tom Spohn

Erickson tours are popular in our part of the world. Also the Santana tours get good reviews.
https://www.ecycletours.com/

Chris_W

Doing an independent, but pre-planned tour is one of the options with Bike Switzerland - they'll give you bikes (single bikes only, but you're welcome to bring your own), book the hotels along the route, give you maps and GPS, and coordinate with another company that specializes in bag transfers between hotels (this is actually big business in Switzerland with all the cyclists and hikers). You can do this at any time of year. The only time you need to move the bikes when not riding them is when returning at the very end of the trip to Geneva, but for this you'd be using the amazingly efficient Swiss train system, on a line that has trains that are very easy to take a complete tandem in (my wife and I do it all the time with our bike - we have no car).

Artmo 

Beautiful country, Switzerland, but VERY expensive if you are changing from $$ to Swiss Francs. The current exchange rate is about 1:1. Gone are the days when we lived in Geneva in the late '60s-early '70s, when the GB pound to SFr rate was about 1:11; now it's 1:1.5!

2frmMI

We are repeat customers of Erickson Cycle Tours- Provence (2x), Tuscany, Spain, Dordogne. Great company, tandem friendly (after all, Glenn Erickson built a lot of fine tandems, including ours), and a great value compared to some of the other operators. Link is already given above, so I won't repeat it.

scycheng

Switzerland is not THAT expensive outside of the cities just like France is not very expensive outside Paris and the other major cities. We hiked the Tour de Mont Blanc and the Haute Route a while ago. Lovely countryside and my wife loved the cows up in the alpine pastures. France however has much better food and wine.

Artmo 

During that "while ago" I think you will find that exchange rates have changed dramatically.