Ritterview

Calfee has teamed with touring company InGamba for a tandem tour in Northern California, September 10-16.

Here is a link to their brochure: Calfee Tandem Tour 2012

TandemGeek

Is that $4,550 per person, double occupancy?

Onegun

Hey! If you can afford a Calfee .....

Ritterview

You left off the eek! emoticon.

Apparently it is so. Tellingly, the InGamba site doesn't mention costs, and even leaves out a FAQ tab. If your interest is piqued, you email to find out more. A magazine feature mentions costs for a weeklong European trip of $6,800, so the $4,550 is a bargain!

TandemGeek

No kidding.

Point of reference, a 15-day / 14-night Erickson tour of Provence is about $3,800 per person double occupancy. He's only offered two-week tours because he figures if you're going to drop some hefty coin on airfare you might as well have enough time to amortize it.

Tandems East's last New Zealand tour was 18-days / 17-nights for $4,200 per person double occupancy.

Pennywise blows them all away with incredible values. 13-day, 12-night tour of France's Atlantic Coast for $2,565 per person double occupancy.

I'm sure the InGamba tours are plush... but our pockets aren't that deep. To OneGun, we'll be amortizing our Calfee for many more years to come.

bgross

We're hanging here in Budapest for a few dats after a week-long Santana tandem tour. First class river boat accommodations on the Danube from Passau, Germany through Austria (with overnight in Vienna), Slovkia, and Hungary. Daily options included choice of easy or challenging rides in the morning and afternoon; walking tours* and restaurant meals, winery tours & tasting; professional mechanic & emergency van support; unbelievable food on board & complimentary wines or beer with dinner; etc., etc.
The price (+/-$4500) was twice what we've paid for NCL cruises that lasted twice as long -- and still a bargain!
*among the tours that we took were Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Melk Abbey, and walking tours of Passau, Budapest, and a folk music/dance theatre performance. All tours & transportation included in the price.

TandemGeek

We've only done a couple Santana tours here in the states close to home. They were excellent values because they really do pack in the features and the people we've met at their events have been some of the most friendly, interesting folks we've ever met... several have become life-long friends.

If we could find the time and the $$ we'd do more of them... well, more tours in general.

jnbrown

When we have done tours on our own it costs approx $250 per day and that is staying in a nice hotel and having nice meals.
That cost is as high as it is because it is hard to find cheap lodging in the areas of California we like to ride.
So that would be $1750 a week for both of us.
Obviously it could be done a lot cheaper by staying at camping grounds and making your own meals, I would guess $50 per day or less.

rdtompki

Let's assume this is per person even though this is a tandem tour (would be nice if they were clear). For >$9,000 you could map you a tour in the same area, stay in deluxe digs, eat well and hire a local wrench for a week to be SAG: you pay mileage, room, board and the wrench can bring long his gf. Lodging for the wrench might be a notch below deluxe. I'm sure a tour with a bunch of tandems is a great deal of phone, however, and perhaps a >$1000/day tour for a team belongs on one's bucket list.

diabloridr

A few years back we did a tour over virtually the same route with Colorado Heart Cycle. IIRC, we paid $500 to $600 each and had no complaints about what we got in return. We had 4 tandems on our tour.

The only "deluxe" type tours we've done were several of the Italian Bike Camps the Phinney's used to run publicly (I believe they now limit their camps to private groups).

They ran about $2500/week, but that got your room and most of your meals, superb support, and the opportunity to ride with other guests and staff who all knew what a paceline was about. Great way to see Italy.

papabiker 

Do you have any idea what the daily rate is for a wrench and his wench?

zonatandem

Depending on what level of accomodations/food/service you choose you can do a heck of a lot of touring for that kind of money.
But then there are always the folks who want the best in everything and can easily afford it.
Talked to one couple once who only wanted to do downhills on a tour, so they sagged every climb . . . heck they wouldn't even need gears for that!
The most anoying thing we've found with deluxe eating places is the way the waiters hang around and watch your evey move . . . leave me alone and let us eat in peace!
One place we went for an anniversary dinner featured actual gold plates . . .
Beautiful table setting, but never got to eat off the gold plates! Dinner was served instead on nice china as attendant waltzed away with the gold plate setting!
When we got the bill it was so dark in the place we could not read it!
Folks at the table next to us had flown in from somewhere to just dine there. He got his bill, reached inside his tux inner pocket and whipped out a mini flashlight. Funny!!!
Heck we've had as much fun getting together with folks and having pizza/wine.
As the French say: A chacun son gout!
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

rdtompki

No, but the wenchless rate would, I expect, be higher

Ritterview

I was thinking the same thing, and then I looked on Expedia for the most deluxe digs and dining. If InGamba was really providing deluxe digs, they might be putting their tandem teams up at the Auberge du Soleil where the most modest rooms are over $1000 per night, and a dining/spa package is $1600 per night. Accommodations such as the Auberge might explain/justify the price, but more likely the teams are lodged in really nice inns with room rates about $300 per night, or $150 per night per team member. If 7 day trip has 7 days lodging, that leaves $500 per day left over, so everything else must be, like, terrific.

rdtompki

My threshold for "deluxe" is apparently way below the Auberge du Soleil. Marriotts of all sorts have a decent bed, effective AC and a working lav - what's not to like. It can only be that the company of Calfee owners is worth the extra $500 or so per night. Although SO and I have a steel tandem so we must be worth at least $250/night.