I am a member of the Melbourne Bicycle Touring Club. I have been a member of the Salamanca Cycle Touring Club in Hobart, Australia. I imagine they are very similar to other touring clubs around the world. Their agendas include a large number of day tours or rides, and then a few other organised rides that are overnight or longer.

I am also a qualified tour guide. Basically, a tour can be anything that takes a person out of their famililar home environment and allows them to experience new things, whether those things be cultural or natural.

Ultimately, it does come down to what a person wants to call a tour. the mevs and nancys of this world are uber-tourists who wouldn't consider anything less than a week's ride a tour. But there are people like me (and Machka) who employ the definition I've used in my second paragraph.

And no, she didn't wale up on the wrong side of bed. Trust me on that one.