Organized Tours
 

I wonder why the organized bike tours are so expensive.
Per day cost of almost all of them are more than one would pay in a good all-inclusive resort stay of 3-4 star quality or a packaged bus tour. Bike tours do not even include airfare.
Does it really cost that much or is it just a lucrative business model?
Before arguing for the tour operators for providing support staff etc., consider that the all-inclusive resorts have to maintain a huge staff, too, for equivalent services or more. The accommodations/services provided by bike tour operators are nowhere near the exotic locations or comfort level of the all-inclusive resorts.
I live in the USA and have nothing against capitalism but why shouldn't bike touring costs at least the same if not less than equivalent tours by bus?

-- Accommodation per night
-- Meals
-- Bicycles
-- Panniers
-- Support Vehicle costs (vehicle rental, fuel, insurance)
-- Wages for Tour Leaders and Support
-- Insurance


1. Do you have a specific tour in mind when you ask this question? Some of the ones I've looked at haven't seemed outrageous.


2. If the purpose of your post is because you would like to do an organised tour, then you might consider checking what Cycletouring Clubs have to offer. Their organised tours are usually less expensive.

There may also be an economy of scale issue. There are probably fewer people on a bike tour than on a bus tour, and there are probably fewer bike tours than bus tours. We all know that the bigger the package, the lower the cost per unit. Bike tours may be more custom-fit and flexible and less cookie-cutter than bus tours, therefore more difficult to manage. I'm just guessing--I've never actually done either.

Having considered starting a touring company and therefore having looked at the number... I don't think they are getting rich due in part to the economies of scale thing.

In addition to the economy of scale thing, there's also how many times a touring company can run a tour in a year.


An all-inclusive resort can offer rooms 365 days a year. They might have peak, off-peak, and shoulder seasons with different rates, but the rooms, meals, etc. are always available.

But a cycling tour might only be run one or two times a year.



I'm still curious what tours the OP is looking at.

I don't actually know what the cost structure of touring companies are, but your question assumes cost-based pricing, which is basically where a company adds up the cost to conduct the bike tour, then tacks on a profit margin they like to arrive at a price. I suspect that the prices are high simply because, in those companies' estimation, there are enough people that are willing to pay that price. That being said, I'm sure insurance is a big cost, especially in the States. You probably have a better sense of that, staehpj1, since you've looked into starting a touring company

Organized tour prices vary a great deal of course depending on what services are offered (their costs) and what people are willing to pay, just like any other business. I toured for a week with a fine fellow who organizes and runs one of the largest and oldest organized tours out east each year and he let me in on some of the hidden costs and much of the behind the scenes work that went on. It was surprising how much went into it but that being said, it was still very profitable to say the least. A reasonable annual income was produced by his one or two events a year but it took years and years to build the numbers up and develop a reputation of quality service.

If a couple of 1 week tours produce a reasonable annual income for a person, that is a good occupation/business.

Now I'm curious: what were some of the hidden costs?

Some numbers that were tossed around at a conference that I attended a couple of weeks ago surprised me. These are taken out of context and from memory:

55% of riders at event rides, e.g., centuries, charity rides etc., were over 55 years old with incomes > $100,000. I wonder what the demographics are for people participating in organized tours. Does the price of an organized bike tour determine who participates (who can afford it) or who participates in organized tours influence the price (what the market will bear)?

While there may be exceptions, in my experience most tour operators are mom-and-pop operations. We don't have the clout or the volume to get wholesale pricing even if we do repeat business with hotels, restaurants, etc. There are some operations where the owners live where they run tours locally and own the facilities they use for guest accommodations and so can offer lower prices. Being a tour operator is not a sure-fire way to get rich. Most of us do it because we love to bike and want to share it with other cyclists who are willing to pay to have someone attend to the details instead of having to do it themselves (there are of course also people who are independent enough to plan and conduct their own bike trips—more power to them).

Of course income as much as anything is very relative, maybe I should have said a nice "ancillary income"

What tours are you looking at?

I looked up some of the Exodus tours, and the one I divided out came to $137/day ... which didn't seem all that expensive to me.

Oh let's start with liability insurance, accounting fees, taxes, vehicle costs, promotion and marketing, and return on capital... as someone who has run a small business involving bike tours, I can see how the costs mount up. Most of these things are over the heads of people unless they have run their own business, rather than have been employed for their working lives.

I was looking at REI Travel http://www.rei.com/adventures/trips/namer/zbc.html averaging $500+/day.
Exodus tours are quite attractively priced. Thx.

Supply and demand ... and if you want to take an organised tour, it pays to shop around a bit.

Look at rides like CANDISC and BRAN. They are not expensive.

Some organized tour have a fundraising component, like Cycle Oregon and Adventure Cycling Association tours.

REI tours cater to people who want a "high-end" experience. Check out Backroads. Very pricey.

As Rowan points out, there are costs you are not considering. The comparison to an all-inclusive vacation resort is not appropriate for obvious reasons.

I've only ever done organised tours with the Elbow Valley Cycle Club, and I've done this tour twice (enjoyed it!):

http://www.elbowvalleycc.org/events/...p?eventid=1500

It's a 3-day Golden Triangle tour in the Canadian Rockies, and the price is $265/person, or $88.33/day which includes camping on a long weekend in the mountains, all your meals and snacks (and they do feed their riders well!), SAG support including carrying most of the gear, medical and mechanical support, T-shirt, and a chance of winning several prizes.

If you were to do the same 3-day tour in the Canadian Rockies on that long weekend, you'd be looking at a minimum of $30/night for accommodation (quite possibly as high as $40), plus about $10/meal = $30/day, plus $5 or $10 for snacks/day ... add that up and you're looking at $65 - $80/day. So $88.33/day for a supported tour isn't bad at all.


Like I said earlier, if you're looking for an organised tour, check out Cycletouring clubs and see what they've got on their schedule.

Yes, backroads are expensive, too and their web ad keeps popping up everywhere.

I've been looking at adventure cycling trips. Their prices seem OK for a supported camping trip; they seem to run $200 a day for a supported camping trip. I imagine the food is pretty good as it the support but you are camping.

I did their Cycle Vermont trip back in 2010 when our plans for a self-contained tour fell through. Back then, that trip was camping. Now it's an inn-to-inn tour.

The staff was a pleasant group and supportive. We even got one of them to stop off on the way to camp to pick us up a bottle of wine after she broke down the rest stop she was running. The quality of the food was good. However, the particular caterer they used that year was new. Way to much meat and not enough carbs. I think that was an anomoly. The other thing I found lacking was lunch. You made sandwiches in the morning, bagged them up and put them in a cooler. They were then transported to the lunch stop, where there were some other items like potato chips and usually some fruit. The sandwich fixings were not that filling so we found ourselves buying heartier lunches on a couple of hard days. Note that tips were solicited the night befoe the last day of riding.

While I believe it's sold out this year, if next year ACA uses the same route for Cycle Montana that it's using this year, I highly recommend it. I did much of it during a self-contained tour a few years ago. Very nice.

$200/day is high compared to something like Cycle Oregon, which is a higher-end, supported camping event. That runs about $950 for the entire week and includes meals (usually pretty good) and mechanical support (parts extra). But there are reasons for the price difference, including the fact that many of the workers on Cycle Oregon are volunteers and there and economies of scale.

And Cycle Oregon, last sold out, online, almost as soon as applications were taken , about an Hour, was It?

Ride the Rockies runs $500. There are a number of state wide camping tours which are very reasonable compared to the prices for Adventure Cycling. Still AC has a lot of rides in some neat areas; I would certainly consider doing them.

In 2012 it sold out in less than 30 min. It did not sell out quickly this year. In fact, there are still some spots for this year. One problem is that they used a different company to handle on-line registration. The company's servers got overwhelmed from the start. Some people simply gave up and decided not to participate.

Last summer I took the Erie canal tour and it was inexpenisive and well done. I think it was about $ 600 for whole week, including most meals. It also had a very relaxed riding schedule (about 40 to 60 miles per day) and there was also lots to see and do. This did include a SAG wagon and fruit stops.

I've run the gamut of tours, from the bike-club-camp-or-stay-in-student-residences to the luxury-hotel-we-can't-do-too-much-for-you tour, and all I can say is you do, to a certain extent, get what you pay for. On a high-end tour the ride leaders will have the authority to spend extra money if they need to to keep the paying customer happy, and they may be more flexible in terms of riding distances or changing the plans. I think I've done 20 tours, probably more. Each one is different.

Having said that, I'm happiest with the small-group mid-price tour where you stay in B+Bs and eat good food rather than the ones with luxury hotels and fancy food. Depending on where someone wants to go, I'm happy to pass on tour company recommendations (or non recommendations) by pm.

I may have mentioned this organized event before, run by the biking organization Velo Quebec, here in Montreal.
Its called Le Grand Tour, is generally 7 days cycling, sag vehicles, meals provided, tech support. Usually about 1200-1800 people do it each year, vast majority go with the "sleep in your own tent" option, they carry your stuff to each days destination. This year the cost for this option is $835, so roughly 120 Can. per day.
You figure camping will cost X per day anyway, food Y per day, so the extra is for all the infrastructure setup and all the details others mentioned.
Ive done this with my wife a few times simply because my wife doesnt want to do loaded touring, so this means we can do a biking thing together. Le Grand Tour is also a huge social event, the average age is over 45, so in general its middle aged folks (many single) who enjoy meeting other people and biking. Its perfect for those who have no interest or experience planning a trip on their own, so having a route set up clearly for you, on-road bikers to help with any problems (incl fixing a flat), sag vehicles available if you cant make the days distance, not having to think of where you will stay, not having to think about food....plus meeting lots of people, its a model for organized trips that is very successful.
I believe this year is the 20th year, and I have to say, its pretty well organized.

I think it was pretty smart of Velo Quebec (the bike organization I mentioned that runs it) to set it up this way, it attracts people exactly like my wife (so gets people out biking, which is always good in my opinion), keeps the costs down, and each year they change the destination (nearly always in Quebec, or at least within a 3, 4, 5 hour car distance) so this is great for repeat "customers" as the area changes each year.

They offer limited hotel room options, and have even started another option where for a fee, they set up a tent for you each day (again, trying to attract folks who dont want to even take 5 mins to put up and take down a tent each day) It must be successful, as they are still offering it this year.

Like others have said, organized trips can be all costs, but its great to see that this approach of keeping the costs down can be done successfully. Obviously smaller companies have a different feel with less people, this one really is quite an event just in terms of numbers. Field full of tents etc.

The first bike tour I did was with Bicycle Adventures. It is a high end tour with nice hotels and sit down meals. Personally, I wouldn't do another one.

The main reason for this is that it is a van-based bike tour. We started each day (after breakfast) piling into a van and driving to the starting point. Some people would start there, others were driven further. We ended each day in the van getting driven back to our hotel for the night.

As it turned out, I did this tour the weekend after 9/11 and only half the participants were there. Still, the van felt crowded and the driving time was not enjoyable. If all the people signed up were there, it would have been unpleasant.

If you do decide to do a supported tour, make sure exactly how much time you will spend on the bike and how much time in the van.

Good point on the van. I look for vacations where I ride from hotel to hotel -- it's much more fun that way.

Some companies, especially in Europe, also do self-guided tours. They provide bikes, maps, and a cue sheet and each morning you have breakfast in the hotel and then leave your luggage at the front desk. And you set off at your own pace, stopping to look at the sights, or to have lunch, coffee or cakes. Come evening, when you arrive by bike at your new destination, your luggage is in your room.

Heh. I did it. Think it was in '08. Started at the ski hill in Tingwick. It was the year of the rain. It rained every day. And much of the time it was a hard rain. The only day it did not rain when people were on the road was the first day. People who got to the start late and had to park in the farm field had to have their cars towed out by tractors because they had sunk into the mud. Since I went up the day before and camped before the start, I got there earlier to enough to find a spot on the gravel lot.

That aside, it was a nice event. Well organized. The food was terrific. Fresh fruit and other goodies for breakfast. The boxed lunches were filling and tasty. Real iced tea, not that stuff made from a mix. Real juice. Dinner was equally good. We even had duck one night. Wine bar where you could choose from a pretty wide selection by the bottle or glass. There was also entertainment, like disco night.

The riding was, for the most part, very pretty, although some of the roads we used were banged up in places. One thing that struck me was how well the farms were maintained. You didn't see things like junked cars littering the landscape. Probably the oddest cultural difference riding-wise that I noticed was that guys didn't bother to go off into the woods for nature break. They would simply go on the grassy berm without bothering to go into the trees. Women would ride by and either not bat an eyelash or would say things to the guys with smiles. I didn't spaek French, but I could tell they were not offended.