DowneasTTer

At this point in our lives (late 60's) we only travel via motorhome to areas that we DO ride..We spend our summers touring the North East and Atlantic Canada ( we take both our flat bar road bikes and mtn bikes). Early winter in the Fl Keys and spring in and around Sanibel Island. Don't do the plane thing anymore. Here's our second home in the Keys last fall (have owned for the the past 20 years). We have a 4 place Kuat NV hitch rack that does the bike duty.

KraneXL

Ah, the tranquil and quiescent atmosphere of the Florida keys and the Gulf coast. I'd recognize that scenery anywhere.

bobwysiwyg

If it's a vacation we drive to and from, yes, we bike while on vacation. In the past, with only a two bike hitch rack, I had to choose which of my two bikes we take. Moved up to a four bike rack this year, so in addition to my wife's, I'll haul both of mine.

jackb

My wife, adult son, and I are cycing from Passau, Germany, to Budapest, Hungary, in May. I like active trips, so any trip usually involves cycling or hiking.

eja_ bottecchia

eja_ bottecchia

rollagain

I'm retired. Every time I ride, I'm on vacation.

Patriot1

Jim from Boston

Do you bike on vacation?

I try to include cycling in on every trip away from home, even including those to go away to professional conferences. Since I don't fly, it's easy to bring my own bike in the SUV.

Before we had children, most vacations were for cycle touring, whether to drive to a destination, or just leave from home. Our ultimate vacation (honeymoon) was a cross-country ride.

Witterings

I mentally break mine into 2 very separate types of riding

I leisure rode with the family for many, many years prior to becoming a "serious cyclist" ... we had a mobile home at the coast where we kept bikes and would always go out with the kids or cycle to the beach or weekends camping in the New Forest with our bikes as there's about 100 miles of off road tracks and often hired bikes for a day to go site seeing if we were abroad covering between 15 maybe up to 20 miles at a push at a leisurely pace.

My hobby cycling is a much harder hack covering between 20 miles as a short mid week evening ride to between 30 and 50 miles depending on weather and time available at the weekends with my fellow cyclists at a much quicker pace.

I thoroughly enjoy both for different reasons and consider them as very different "types" of cycling ... last year went for a 42km ride around Lake Annecy in France with the family ... absolutely beautiful .... but it was grab some sandwiches, drinks, towels and stopping where ever we found a nice spot for a while to soak up the ambiance / have a swim and took the whole day to do a distance we'd easily do in a couple of hours if I was out with my cycling friends.

I'd love to go on a cycling tour somewhere for a week as long as it was very scenic and lots of site seeing / towns to visit but whilst my other half is happy to have the odd day out on the bikes she wouldn't want to do it as a main holiday where we cycled every day although I might try and get a long weekend away with my cycling buddies somewhere this year for the first time.

autonomy

I've been getting into it more and more. I'll do my best to rent a bike and go on an exploratory ride or if driving, I'll bring my own. It's very different from the typical touristy things that you get to do and lets me experience a new place in a way usually reserved for the locals

Jim from Boston

+10, nicely said. When on occasion I take a train along the Northeast Corridor, I will find a bike rental or Bike Share.

One good touristy thing I do as soon as possible in a new city, is take a guided bus or trolley tour to get the lay of the land and decide on routes.

jefnvk

Hard to bike tour without a bike!

For non-bike tour vacations, it all depends. I enjoy popping onto a bike share or rental to see the city from time to time, it all really depends on where I am at and what I am doing.

schiavonec

As a family, we try go rent or borrow bikes when traveling via plane. DC, Vancouver, ankorage, 4 corners in the last couple years. Will bring a couple bikes to yellowstone this summer and ride with my son. Not really fitness oriented with the family, but 3-10 miles and a mix of urban, rural, parks, etc. Great way to see and experience places.

Patriot1

deephate

Cougrrcj

I kept a bike at my mother's place in AZ, to give me something to do while I'd visit -- when she was taking her afternoon naps...



She's gone now, and that bike has been shipped to Ohio where I live (for now -- looking forward to retiring to somewhere where I ride year 'round - without road salt !!! )

Doug64

Bike touring is the way we spend our "vacations". My wife and I are retired, and in the last 11 years we have toured a total of 20 months, covering over 20,000 miles riding through eleven countries. We ride year-round, but try to set aside 2-3 months a year for our special trips, and also a couple of weeks to cycle tour with our daughters. Last summer we spent 2 months riding with our daughters in Europe. We'd promised them a longer trip, and that was it!

These are our RVs:
Alberta, Canada

PaulH

No rental cars on Ocracoke Island, NC, so bikes and a trailer serve for our surface transportation needs.

All of our luggage moved from airplane to bike and ready to go to dinner.

Cougrrcj

Cutlass! Otherwise known as a 172RG! The 177 was the sleeker strutless version called the Cardinal. Sorry, I'm an airplane geek... Hey, what can I say, I soloed in a 150 waaaay back in 1975. I also have flown a 150/150. 150hp in a two-place Cessna 150 that normally had a 100hp O-200. Back when I was a skinny lad of 135 pounds, that 150/150 literally leapt off the ground when flying solo!!

wipekitty

I haven't had a proper vacation in quite some time (8 years!) but travel frequently for work, as well as to visit family once or twice a year.

If I'm traveling alone, I'll usually try to sneak a ride in (not always successfully, especially if my days are packed with work or I'm really jetlagged.) If I'm driving, I'll take a bike with me; otherwise, I've used bike share and on one occasion an actual bike rental.

For my work trips - which are usually to larger cities - cycling can make a fun alternative to taking public transit everywhere. Last weekend, I managed to avoid the subway in Toronto by taking a bike share bike from the train station to the hotel, and there was a trip to Seattle where I primarily used the (now defunct) bike share to get everywhere except the airport.

rumrunn6

approx. 44 yrs ago, 1st time I brought a bike on a vacation (& perhaps the most consequential) was the summer after HS. I strapped it to the ski rack on our Chevy Impala. forget how I convinced my Dad it was necessary. I needed it to go see about a girl. we lasted 10 years

the new girl turned into a Wife that insisted our kids learn to ride & that we bring bikes on all vacations, including camping vacations. so began the task of strapping a week's worth of camping gear & 4 bikes to the roof, front & back of my own car. still doing it, albeit we can afford a cottage now & sometimes one of the adult kids brings their own car & bike rack! yes! ;-)








whoops! wicked zombie thread alert! argh!

billnuke1 

I’ll play! I always brought the “twins” on our trailering vacations…with these, there wasn’t anyplace I couldn’t ride! The Super V 900 is gone…the ST600 is still going strong!

rsbob 

We don’t usually bike on our vacations but 3 weeks ago my wife and I cycled 3 of the San Juan Islands in Washington state. Had a great time even though is was unseasonably warm and smokey.

When away from home and there are bikes for rent we will. Rented a tandem and road the coast in Monterey, Pacific Grove, the 17 Mile Drive and Carmel. The views were amazing.

When in Key West we rent cruisers and have a ball.








We took our tandem and panniers to Italy several years ago and that was great fun. Italians sure respect cyclists and motorists are nothing but courteous.

Take my bike to California and ride the hills outside Sacramento when visiting my mother

tkamd73 

Nope, summer or fall vacation kayak, winter or spring vacation ski.
Tim