Global Sports: Visiting Wine Regions While Bicycle Touring

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Visiting Wine Regions While Bicycle Touring

By Tom Oxby


Wine regions make for great bike touring whether on your own or with a guided group. The terrain in wine country is usually gently rolling, with dramatic green hills covered with vineyards. You can stop at a winery and have a tour, purchase some wine for your dinner later that day. Wineries always have fascinating dcor and names as well and many have a cafe to enjoy the local cuisine. Many also provide racks to lock your bikes.

One of the most popular destinations for a wine tour is beautiful Tuscany in Italy. You can hire a villa or flat for the week in the Chianti region and cycle to cities like Greve, Radda and Castellina for a fast look and light lunch.

As this area is located about halfway between Florence and Siena there are fascinating sightseeing possibilities when not cycle touring. And in the evenings there are those local restaurants with great Italian food and you'll be ready to sample the wines from the areas you cycled thru.

Besides Tuscany there are many popular wine regions in Europe for some easy bicycle touring. The Wachau Valley in Austria can be reached along the famous Danube River Bike Trail between Passau and Vienna. Plenty of the German Bike Trails such as the Rhine and Romantic Road cross wine regions also.

You may not think of this but in Switzerland the Swiss National Bike Route 1 along the Rhone Valley and the shores of Lake Geneva passes through a wonderful and not as widely recognized wine region. In Vevey you can stop at a wine museum. As you are riding through the valleys and along the shores of Lake Geneva the country is reasonably flat with the mountains the background. In France, of course, you have countless decisions including Burgundy, Bordeaux and others.

Almost all of the adventure travel firms offer guided tours which include the wine regions with arrangements for the guide, accommodation, sightseeing, bike and perhaps some meals included and some offer day trips for more casual cyclists as well. It is just as easy to book your own accommodation, purchase a guide to local routes and organize your own wine tour if you wish and wine regions like to push and there is always plenty of information.

In North America some best-loved wine regions for bicycle touring include the Napa Valley in north California, Finger Lakes in upper New York State, Niagara area in Ontario and Okanagan Valley in British Colombia. The Napa Valley and Niagara also have a bike trail you can include into your planning.

For some easy bicycle touring why not include some wine regions on your next trip.




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