I am contemplating doing a bicycle tour somewhere in Europe that would incorporate food and wine. I am contemplating Burgundy, Loire or Tuscany. Bordeaux looks a little lame as far as riding. I still have a busy day job so I don’t want something too extreme. #0-40 something mile days with one 60 plus day would be fine. I would appreciate suggestions of companies and locations that BB members have been happy with.
We’ve used both Backroads and VBT. Would recommend both without hesitation.
We’ve biked in Dordogne, Genoa/Italian Rivera and Tuscany.
We also used Erickson Bike Tours. I would not recommend them.
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Our family has taken 5 Backroads trips (2 Provence, Normandy/Brittany, Bordeaux and Tuscany) and one Trek (Burgundy). We loved all of the trips. All our trips have been premiere except for Tuscany which was a casual. I would say that the premium trips have been more food/wine centric which was perfect for our family. You can bike as much or as little as you want. My husband and son biked all day, my daughters and I biked in the morning and hung out in the afternoon. Our last trip my husband and son biked up Mont Ventoux!
Backroads handles everything except for the before and after travel arrangements - we had our travel agent handle all the other logistics.
On our trip to Burgundy, we met the owners of Domaine Beaumont-and they have become our friends. We have visited them 3 times since!
A wine-loving friend of mine was raving about Alsace as a bicycle holiday destination a while ago. I think they started in Strasbourg and rode from village to village.
I went to Tuscany with Ciclissmo Classico and would highly recommend it. They do some special food tours - Daniel Humm of EMP rode along on one of them and did some lectures, I believe, and Michael Romano, original chef at Union Square Cafe has also participated.
It would also depend on your preference for intense cycling terrains.
I’ve found Loire to have a fair amount of flat cycling terrain.
Burgundy will have both flat and hilly places.
Tuscany has a lot of hills.
I know that the earlier-suggested Dordogne and Italian Riviera are beautiful places to cycle around in. But the wine-activities are relatively not as intensive as Tuscany/Loire/Burgundy and in most areas, the wineries are few and far in between.