Organized bike tour vacations
Wondering if anybody can recommend an organized bike vacation company/destination:
My husband and I are late 50’s/early 60’s. He is a better/stronger rider than me. I just started riding a year ago when he bought me an e-bike. We usually ride 25-35 miles for a ride, with about 850 feet of vertical climb. My husband would happily do 50 miles/day, could probably do 60. I could probably do more than 35 but the idea of doing 60/day every day is daunting.
Here are my concerns:
1. Cost. Yes, we could choose to afford Backroads, but wow are they expensive. At over $1000/day per person, I wonder if it is worth it. I look at the trips and do the math, and it seems like half of the cost (or MORE) is pure profit, given that the hotels plus bike rental would be no more than 30% of their price. Any companies that aren’t so expensive but offer great rides and great service?
2. Route. I can be a nervous rider if the route is on busy or narrow roads. We tried to do a ride recently in Italy and there was a point about 6 miles in that had NO shoulder and busy traffic both ways so the cars wizzing buy were not swinging out and giving me a wide berth, but were within 12” of me at times. I made my husband turn back because I was too scared to have any fun.
3. I don’t see the point of doing a bike vacation where we would ride so hard from town to town that all we would want to do is collapse and not get to do other fun things. So, I am not interested in anything that is 6+ hours on a bike every day, even if I could ride in the SAG wagon.
4. We have discussed doing something independent or customized for us, but I love the idea of meeting new people.
So, any suggestions?