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Sue Smith-Kindred, of Omaha, might well be a travel agent by profession, but she says the European bicycle tours she puts together are more about having fun with friends.
She organised her first tour through the wine region of Bordeaux, France, simply because she and her husband, Alan, thought it would be something they would love to do.
They mentioned the idea to a couple of acquaintances, who proved similarly enthusiastic about the idea, and a tour was born.
Over the succeeding years, Sue has organised further bicycle tours to Italy, Portugal, Croatia and Vietnam.
She says cycling is the perfect way to get off the main roads, out of the main cities and it allows one to explore vineyards, coastal regions, rivers villages and hamlets at a relaxed pace.
“We are cycling for softies, we are not Tour de France people,” she says.
She says on her tours cycling distances are kept to around 35-50km each day and avoid too much hilly terrain. They include plenty of stops at cafés, cheese factories, wine bars, fields, castles, surf beaches and other places of interest along the way.
“And when we get to our destination, we still want to have enough energy to be able to walk about and have a look around,” she says.
There are usually 16-20 people on each tour and word-of-mouth over the years has encouraged cyclists from Canada and England to join the party. Most cyclists are in their 50s and 60s and the oldest has been 73.
All bikes are hired in country and Sue says the advent of ebikes has made cycling holidays open to a wider group of people. One woman who broke her leg shortly before one tour commenced, still managed to undertake the tour on an ebike. However, Sue cautions a modest level of fitness and bike riding ability is still required.
Sue says combining cycling with a river cruise has been especially successful on many of her tours.
Cyclists board the river boat with their bikes and stay overnight. During the day, they set off on an organised bike tour while the boat continues along the river. Cyclists rejoin the boat at a different location each night.
If someone prefers a day off cycling, they can enjoy a day on the boat and a river cruise instead.
When not on a boat, cyclists tend to stay in small villages in accommodation that befits the character of the area rather than flashy five-star hotels.
Sue adds that European road users and Europeans generally tend to be more sympathetic to cyclists than Kiwis.
“As you are going through villages, people will stop and wave, and we will wave back,” she says.
Not that there aren’t sometimes mishaps along the way.
On one occasion in Portugal, the riding party stumbled on a street race, with all roads blocked as cars zoomed past at breakneck speed.
Sue says such incidents are all part of the holiday experience.
“All the locals thought it was hilarious and so did we,” she says.
Sue says she likes to tour places she has already visited previously so she can point out all the intriguing places, which an unfamiliar visitor might easily overlook.
She says by and large, language is not a problem. Tour guides generally speak English and Sue manages to get by with a smattering of high school French, German, Spanish and Italian.
“And in cafés everyone knows ‘café au lait’ or ‘dos cervezas’ for two beers,” she says.
