Founded in 1980, the family-friendly Backroads has designed trips that are "specifically developed to suit kids' abilities and attention spans." Backroads tours range from the six-day Tuscan Family Biking, with stops in San Gimignano and Monteriggioni, to a six-day France and Germany Family Biking Tour, where you walk through medieval castles, explore Riquewihr and experience a canoe ride on the Old Rhine River in Germany.
Hours of bike riding can range from 2 to 11 miles per day, depending on the level of activity during the tour. Accommodations with Backroads range from hotels to camping. Backroads provides two styles of bicycles, road bikes and mountain bikes, at no extra cost. Children under 7 years old are not allowed to ride their own bikes but an adult can bring them along in a trailer or piccolo. Professional guides lead all tours.
Backroads
801 Cedar St.
Berkeley, CA 94710
(800) 462-2848
backroads.com
Recipient of the 2009 Travel + Leisure "#1 Tour Operator in the World" award, Austin-Lehman Adventures offers 19 bike tours throughout Europe. From the eight-day Holland Family Tour, where you explore windmills, experience a glass blowing demonstration and visit towns such as Borger and Haarlem, to a seven-day Germany-Mosel Magic Family Adventure with bike stops in Zeltingen and Neumagen, wine tasting for adults and tours of castles. Accommodations throughout the tours consist of hotels.
Groups range from 12 to 18 guests per trip. Austin-Lehman Adventures provides Cannondale Adventure 3 bikes, Children's mountain bikes and helmets for all bike tours. It is requested that children be at least 7 years old to participate in the bike tours. Professional guides lead the tours.
Austin-Lehman Adventures
P.O. Box 81025
Billings, MT 59108
(406) 655-4591
austinlehman.com
Founded in 1996, DuVine Adventures offers six-family bicycling tours all over Europe. Tours range from the moderate-level Switzerland Family Tour where you spend six days visiting villages such as Vevey and Montreux and stopping for a cheese tasting at the Gruyeres Cheese Factory, to the easy level, six-day family-bike tour in Loire, France, which travels through vineyards in Touraine and sunflower fields in Montrichard.
DuVine Adventures' tours average 15 to 30 miles of travel per day. Accommodations during the travel range from hotels to chateaus. DuVine Adventures has five sizes of bicycles to choose from that are included in the tour at no additional cost. Professional guides lead the tours, which are open to all ages.
DuVine Adventures
667 Somerville Ave
Sommerville, MA 02143
(888) 396-5383
duvine.com
