I just took off on a coast to coast 4244 mile (73 day) tour right off. I had done a lot of cycling and had camped a lot when backpacking, canoe camping, and a bunch of other outdoor activities so I had a pretty good idea what to expect.

Not knocking shakedown tours, but I have no regrets about not doing any myself. I am just not inclined to do tours shorter than 10 days and really prefer to go for a month or more at a time. For whatever reason weekend tours, S24O tours, and the like have zero appeal to me.

That said if you haven't done much camping or much riding they would probably be highly advisable. I would caution that you just might find that you like may like one type of tour and not the other. So hating or loving a short tour may not predict how you will feel about a longer tour.