Touring with Children?
 

Hi,

It's been a while since I've posted anything on this forum. You see, my wife and I love touring but we now have a son who is nearly three and another on the way. We look back fondly at our touring adventures and wonder when or if we can go again! Our son loves the bike trailer within reason, we even did an 80km ride with him in the trailer and had a great time. But generally we have become more timid of riding on the roads. Obviously we won't be touring in the next 18 months to 2 years, but we would like to do something after that. So, to give us some hope, here are two questions:

1. If you have toured with children 5 or younger, where did you tour? How far did you travel overall/per day? Did you enjoy it? Did your child/children enjoy themselves? Did you feel safe? Any ideas of good safe places to ride would be great!! We are thinking we may go to France in 2012 or 2013 but are not fixed on anything yet...

2. This one is for looking way into the future!!! Anyone got stories of touring with older children?

Check out the user nancy sv who posts here. Here's a link to her blog
www.familyonbikes.org

I never toured with young children, but did log a lot of local miles with my daughter when she was young. She rode a little bike with 12" wheels at an early age and we would ride until she was tired, lock her bike, and continue on with her in the kid seat on my bike, then on the way back she would be rested and get back on her bike. She might ride 20 miles between the two sections and we logged maybe 50-60 miles pretty often including the miles she was in the kid seat. We both had a great time.

As she got older she rode longer miles, but wasn't really primarily a cyclist until she was 21 or so.

I did tour with her but not until after graduation from college when we did the Trans America. We are just back from a tour in the Sierras and will hopefully tour together more in the future.

check out my blogroll at www.familyonbikes.org/blog for lots of families out there touring with kids! We started touring with our boys when they were 7, so I have no direct suggestions for little ones but there are plenty of families out there with them.

The pedouins (www.pedouins.com) have cycled from Kentucky to Alaska on a bicycle built for five with three small children. They are almost at their destination of Fairbanks.

One thing you will find is that you'll travel differently with kids, but it's a fantastic experience!