Accommodations

Your lodging is included for the whole length of the tour — between seven and fourteen nights depending on the route, with the exact count set out in the What’s Included list on each individual tour page. You book once, and the beds are handled from the first night to the last.

Wherever the geography allows, we book in the center of town or close to it, so that the end of a riding day leaves you within walking distance of dinner, a square to sit in, and whatever the place is known for. Your luggage travels between hotels in the support van rather than on your bike, so you ride with only what you need for the day and your bags are in the room when you arrive.

A bike-friendly hotel is one that can take a group of bicycles overnight and put them somewhere secure and dry — a locked garage, a store room, an inner courtyard that closes at night — rather than leaving them chained to a railing on the street. It also tends to mean staff who are used to cyclists turning up warm and hungry in the late afternoon, and who do not mind a bike being looked over before the morning.

In some places we stay in so-called wellness hotels, where a sauna or a massage at the end of a long day is part of the appeal. Where we have a group dinner at the hotel, we make a point of checking that the restaurant is among the best around. Food is one of the parts of these tours we are most careful about, and a mediocre dinner after a hundred kilometers is a wasted evening.

Every room has its own private en-suite bathroom — that is the one thing we do not compromise on, whoever you are sharing with. If you are traveling on your own and would rather share a room, the registration form asks whether you already have a roommate in mind or would like us to help find one, so say so there and we will sort it out before the tour starts.

Most of our tours also offer the option of an extended stay at one or both ends — an extra night or two in Prague, Seville, Berlin, Copenhagen, Vilnius or wherever your route begins and finishes. It is often the cheapest way to add a city to the trip, since you are already there and already booked. Each tour page says what is on offer; ask when you book rather than after.