Loire Valley self guided cycling holidays
| country: | France |
| location: | The Loire Valley |
| trip type: | Self guided, introductory cycling holidays |
| departures: | This trip can be tailor made throughout the year and can be adapted to suit your interests, budget and requirements |
| price: | From €315 - €595 (3-7 nights) per adult, and €90 - €210 per child excluding flights. Includes accommodation with breakfast, use of bikes for all ages, emergency back-up and our friendly service and local knowledge. Optional evening meals 5 nights a week. |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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the amazing things you'll be doing
Fairytale chateaux, world-renowned wines, the majestic Loire, mouth-watering food – all enjoyed at your own pace whilst cycling through a gentle landscape of lush river valleys, forests, vineyards, and fields of sunflowers.
Most cycling holidays are linear with several overnight stop-offs – to ensure you get to see a wide variety of places on your holiday. Our central location means you can do this from one base – no luggage transfer, no living out of saddle bags, and no problem if you want a day off – you don’t have to cycle to make it to your bed for the night!
Based in the St Nicolas de Bourgueil vineyards, you will stay in high quality en-suite accommodation. Your self-guided cycle rides will be easy to follow with our route packs, including large-scale maps, detailed route notes and information on places of interest along the way.
For families, our child prices are kept to a minimum, accurately reflecting the actual cost to us. You will stay in family suites so your children have their own sleeping space. We have special child friendly routes to keep them happy all day.
For variety, we can also arrange a forest experience, where you swing through the trees, a day’s canoeing or if that’s all too much, swimming in the lake or discgolf (a family activity like golf but with a Frisbee) are both local and free ways of enjoying our environment. After a day in the saddle, local wine tasting is invariably on most peoples’ agendas.
Our routes travel through the vineyards, along the Loire, past châteaux, exploring local forests, villages and historical towns - cycling at your own pace, stopping as and when you want - you will discover the area's rich heritage and warm welcome. The routes take you on quiet roads and lanes which meander through the local countryside, through villages to provide café/bar stops, or maybe a boulangerie for your lunchtime provisions.
Summaries of our routes are below - including some of the highlights easily reached on a day’s ride from our base and are grouped in distance order. Of course, you can mix and match between distances or we are happy to amend any itinerary and mileage to suit your own preferences or design an entirely individual schedule just for you.
Up to 16km/10 miles:
Trips of this distance are ideal for families with young children who ride independently, newcomers to cycling unsure of their ability or guests who want to ride for a half day.
Example rides include a trip to the local market and town park; a route to a local medieval fort and a trip to the local swimming lake with its pedaloes, play area and crazy golf. You can also meander through the vineyards and visit the wine museum; take the forest route including a visit to a swimming lake or have a ride to a local riverside chateau.
Up to 32km/20 miles:
Trips of this distance are ideal for families with older children or those on bike seats/tagalongs and groups who want to explore further and like to visit attractions along the route.
Example rides include a way-marked vineyard route with opportunities to taste and buy; the river route visiting riverside villages; a round trip taking in a chateau, mushroom cave, tapped apples and wine tasting. You can also visit the Chinon vineyards with a trip through the forest on a way-marked route or take a ride to Ussé chateau, famous as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty story.
Up to 48km/30 miles:
Trips of this distance are ideal for experienced cyclists comfortable with this distance and families happy to spend a full day cycling with breaks for sight-seeing.
Examples rides include extended versions of the rides listed above; a visit to Chinon with its château, goat's cheese, wine and canoeing options or a trip to Saumur for sparkling wine and the town of Langeais with its fortified chateau, a forest adventure park or the château of Villandry with its amazing gardens.
If you like to ride further than this, we can of course provide routes to suit your fitness levels!
Logically speaking, the weather must be good, or the vines wouldn't flourish and produce such great wines! So, whilst we can't guarantee the weather during your holiday, we are confident that you will have an enjoyable time, whenever you visit.
Most cycling holidays are linear with several overnight stop-offs – to ensure you get to see a wide variety of places on your holiday. Our central location means you can do this from one base – no luggage transfer, no living out of saddle bags, and no problem if you want a day off – you don’t have to cycle to make it to your bed for the night!
Based in the St Nicolas de Bourgueil vineyards, you will stay in high quality en-suite accommodation. Your self-guided cycle rides will be easy to follow with our route packs, including large-scale maps, detailed route notes and information on places of interest along the way.
For families, our child prices are kept to a minimum, accurately reflecting the actual cost to us. You will stay in family suites so your children have their own sleeping space. We have special child friendly routes to keep them happy all day.
For variety, we can also arrange a forest experience, where you swing through the trees, a day’s canoeing or if that’s all too much, swimming in the lake or discgolf (a family activity like golf but with a Frisbee) are both local and free ways of enjoying our environment. After a day in the saddle, local wine tasting is invariably on most peoples’ agendas.
itineraries
With our cycling holidays, we don't have standard breaks - we prefer to design a personalised, flexible holiday which suits your needs and wishes. You can stay as long as you want, from 3 nights upwards and choose how far you want to cycle each day and for how many days of your break. Our routes travel through the vineyards, along the Loire, past châteaux, exploring local forests, villages and historical towns - cycling at your own pace, stopping as and when you want - you will discover the area's rich heritage and warm welcome. The routes take you on quiet roads and lanes which meander through the local countryside, through villages to provide café/bar stops, or maybe a boulangerie for your lunchtime provisions.
Summaries of our routes are below - including some of the highlights easily reached on a day’s ride from our base and are grouped in distance order. Of course, you can mix and match between distances or we are happy to amend any itinerary and mileage to suit your own preferences or design an entirely individual schedule just for you.
Up to 16km/10 miles:
Trips of this distance are ideal for families with young children who ride independently, newcomers to cycling unsure of their ability or guests who want to ride for a half day.
Example rides include a trip to the local market and town park; a route to a local medieval fort and a trip to the local swimming lake with its pedaloes, play area and crazy golf. You can also meander through the vineyards and visit the wine museum; take the forest route including a visit to a swimming lake or have a ride to a local riverside chateau.
Up to 32km/20 miles:
Trips of this distance are ideal for families with older children or those on bike seats/tagalongs and groups who want to explore further and like to visit attractions along the route.
Example rides include a way-marked vineyard route with opportunities to taste and buy; the river route visiting riverside villages; a round trip taking in a chateau, mushroom cave, tapped apples and wine tasting. You can also visit the Chinon vineyards with a trip through the forest on a way-marked route or take a ride to Ussé chateau, famous as the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty story.
Up to 48km/30 miles:
Trips of this distance are ideal for experienced cyclists comfortable with this distance and families happy to spend a full day cycling with breaks for sight-seeing.
Examples rides include extended versions of the rides listed above; a visit to Chinon with its château, goat's cheese, wine and canoeing options or a trip to Saumur for sparkling wine and the town of Langeais with its fortified chateau, a forest adventure park or the château of Villandry with its amazing gardens.
If you like to ride further than this, we can of course provide routes to suit your fitness levels!
best time to go
We are lucky in this part of the Loire Valley to be protected to the north and south by forests, which keep away much of the extremes of weather - rain and wind. So the climate is gentle - hot (but not too hot) and sunny in the summer and mild and dry in the winter. The landscape gets its lush green colour from the many rivers that criss-cross the land. Logically speaking, the weather must be good, or the vines wouldn't flourish and produce such great wines! So, whilst we can't guarantee the weather during your holiday, we are confident that you will have an enjoyable time, whenever you visit.
travellers' tales
The pre dinner drinks and craic (good conversation) and the dinners cooked by Debbie and Mark were always something to look forward especially when the legs were tiring and the backside a little sore! (more)
travelling with a local operator
This holiday is operated by a company based in the holiday destination and they will be able to provide expert local knowledge. They will be able to tailor make your holiday to suit your requirements not only concerning the dates of travel but also typically the standard of accommodation, and thus price. It is rare for local operators to be able to help with the booking of your flights.how this holiday makes a difference
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Environment
We are a small family run business, which has been operating since 2006 and our principal aim is to provide quality breaks in the Loire Valley to meet the needs of our customers. As you will be exploring on two wheels, you will have zero negative impact on the environment, but plenty of time to look at and explore your surroundings. Our restored building has a number of features which we have installed which significantly reduce our energy consumption, including the installation of double glazing and insulation throughout which exceeds the French requirements. This often provides the springboard to discuss with guests how we can all conserve energy, particularly in a stone building where you have 60cm thick walls. Our drainage system is standalone and we have approval to drain the filtered water into the rain water drains as it is classed as “clean”. To ensure the quality of water we do use only bio-friendly detergents and minimise use of these by not changing sheets and towels daily. We recycle plastics, glass, paper, cartons and compost. We encourage our guests to do the same and so provide you with appropriate means to do this. We use low wattage lights wherever possible, recycle rain water for the garden and are currently researching the use of solar heating both for the production of hot water and also for pool heating. We recommend travel to us by train, to minimize the Co2 emission by capita. We use locally owned and run businesses for all of our external requirements. These include all our suppliers for cycle purchase, canoe trips, horse riding etc, and the places that we recommend guests stop for meals and shopping. Most of our clients use our bikes – purchased locally and made in France instead of bringing their own. This, of course, also benefits the local economy. Community Our focus is on single centre self guided cycling breaks and accommodation is here in our property, which we restored and rebuilt with the help of local artisans – using local suppliers and local materials wherever possible, such as the tuffeau stone which is common to this region. We have established a friendly network of professionals and contacts including many wine growers who are also firm believers of sustainable development, many of whom now grow grapes organically and are looking at alternative ways to ensure good harvests each year, in preference to pesticides and chemical treatments. We encourage you to use the commerce in our local village – bread shop, butchers and general store, as well as pointing out the local markets which are close by. Your routes pass by local villages and attractions, giving you the opportunity to visit and so help the local economy. We are particularly keen to point out the lesser known attractions, often run by individuals who are passionate about their heritage and sharing it with others. You will also pass by local sights/events and through the countryside – where you are able to discover the local agriculture and the methodology which invariably provokes a discussion on your return. We serve meals here – again with local produce depending on the season being prevalent – as we are in the heart of the “Jardin de France” – local vegetables and fruits are always served. We believe that over a meal and/or a drink is also the ideal time to discuss ways in which we can all help prolong the life of the planet which we share. In summary, we believe we are operating an environmentally friendly holiday, with a high level of interaction in the local community, benefitting our economy. Of course, anything can be made better and we are striving to do so – guests who think like us are most welcome. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |