Tips for planning your next group cycling holiday

What could be more fun than a group cycling holiday? Planned carefully, we think there’s nothing better but what are the key considerations to making sure it’s a success?

We asked our official cycling holiday partner, Saddle Skedaddle. They’ve been running incredible group cycling holidays around the world since 1995. Here are their top tips based on their three decades of experience.

Finding the right challenge level

The most important part of planning a cycling holiday is choosing a route that balances challenge with enjoyment. In a group setting, people’s idea of what this means could vary. If your group regularly rides together then hopefully this will be a little easier, but there are still a few things to keep in mind.

Daily distances, ascent and gradients are the obvious metrics to start with, but remember that riding on consecutive days increases the challenge level, especially if it’s not something that you’re used to.

Off-road riding adds another dimension, and this can be where you’ll see the biggest variation in rider skills and experience, and the biggest variation in the kinds of terrain you’ll encounter. Over the years we’ve refined our grading system across all different cycling types, and these are different for leisure, road, gravel and mountain bike.

A grade 3 leisure cycling holiday is not equivalent to a grade 3 mountain biking holiday, for example. In our experience, it helps to provide as much information about what to expect so everyone ends up on the holiday that is just right for them.

Choose your destination

This is the fun part! Will you head abroad to popular destinations in Spain, Italy, France or Portugal, or are you looking to holiday somewhere closer to home? Your plans might be dictated by when you can travel.

For example, a summer cycling holiday is perfect in the UK or France but best avoided in the heat of Spain and Italy. Spring and autumn are ideal times of the year to plan a cycling holiday in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Andalucia in southern Spain and the coastal regions of Portugal also make wonderful winter cycling destinations.

There are also lots of incredible far-flung destinations to explore by bike over winter, such as Chile, Costa Rica, Vietnam, India or Sri Lanka.

Some cycling destinations are popular for good reason, but we’d also invite you to consider riding off the tourist trail. In our 30 years of exploring the world by bike, some of our most memorable and magical moments in the saddle occur in the least expected places.

In the spirit of adventure, we continue to explore beyond the beaten path. It’s an ethos that led us to create our most popular tours today. For example, the quieter single-track mountain and coastal roads of the Scottish Highlands, road cycling or mountain biking in the Spanish Pyrenees, discovering the peaceful side of Sardinia or heading into the wilds of Northumberland.

Centre-based or place-to-place?

If you’re organising your own group cycling holiday, then it’s probably logistically easier to stick to a centre-based trip with planned daily loop rides. Then you’ll only need to find one place to stay, and you don’t need to worry about carrying your luggage each day.

This model is also a lot easier to manage should things take an unexpected turn with mechanicals, an injury or one of the members of your group simply realising they may need a rest day.

If you’re using a tour operator, then a place-to-place holiday adds to that feeling of adventure.

It’s also great if you’re looking to do a popular challenge ride like the Coast to Coast (C2C), Land’s End to John o’ Groats (LEJOG), or one of Cycling UK’s long-distance routes like Rebellion Way, Traws Eryri or King Alfred’s Way (remember, when you book onto a Cycling UK route with Skedaddle we will donate 5p to the charity for every mile you ride).

A tour operator will take care of your accommodation reservations, move your luggage, organise delicious meals and provide expert support (and often a riding guide, when required).

Accommodation might seem like a less important aspect of your holiday, but we think a comfortable night’s sleep is hugely important to the enjoyment of your tour. Plus staying in quality independent hotels, family B&Bs or an agroturismo adds to your cultural experiences of a place.

Guided or self-guided?

Opting for a self-guided holiday with a tour operator doesn’t mean that you will be left to your own devices. You and your group will navigate with a GPS unit or phone while your luggage and accommodation needs will be taken care of, and you’ll have emergency support if needed.

Along routes that are harder to navigate, somewhere new or unknown, or more technically challenging, we’d recommend a guided tour. It offers peace of mind, and you won’t have to worry about taking a wrong turn.

There are lots of other benefits to choosing a guided holiday too: our expert guides are brilliant mechanics, they prepare the best picnic lunches, they always offer words of encouragement and keep group spirits high, they know the best places in town for an evening meal or post-ride drink, and they love to share their local knowledge.

A guided tour doesn’t have to be limited to existing group tours – you can request a private departure for your cycling group or plan a tailormade trip. We’ve created countless bespoke group holidays over the years, from simple tweaks to an existing holiday to custom routes or challenge rides.

Choosing a tour operator

At Skedaddle we are proud of the way we run our holidays – we will never compromise on providing expert local guides, amazing local partners and quality food and accommodation. We run trips with small group sizes, provide expert support and we support local businesses.

Whichever tour operator you choose, we’d recommend checking the following:

• What’s included – accommodation, rooming, meals, transfers, luggage transfers, emergency support and so on.
• Group size and guide ratios.
• ABTOT financial protection (a legal requirement) and ABTA membership.
• Bike hire – the quality of the bikes available and appropriateness for the holiday.

Adding e-bikes to the mix

Electric bikes are surging in popularity, and we love that it encourages even more people to join us! Here are a few things to keep in mind for your group holiday:

• You typically can’t fly with an e-bike battery so if you’re travelling outside of the UK, it might be simpler to hire.
• Always make sure you use a reputable brand and that your electric bike complies with the laws in the destination you are riding in.
• Hotels are becoming increasingly nervous about allowing e-bike charging so if you’re planning your own trip then make sure you check in advance. We’ll always do this for you on a Skedaddle holiday and some of our tours in the UK make use of our special van charging station.
• Check the range of your battery and make sure it can cover the daily distances and hills. Don’t forget to charge the battery each night!
• When riding with a mix of e-bikes and non-e-bikes, make sure the riding pace is always set to those not riding an electric bike.

Still not sure or have a question?

Skedaddle’s friendly team are always happy to discuss options. Get in touch.