Bicycling Offers Adventurous Family Vacation

June 15, 2004 -- If you are looking for a family vacation that includes variety, physical activity and breathtaking scenery, consider seeing your destination on two wheels.

A bicycling vacation can be a challenging workout that involves pedaling more than 100 miles a day to elevations of up to 8,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, and burning 8,000 or 9,000 calories in the process.

Or, it can be a leisurely ride along a section of Florida's Gulf Coast, stopping to watch painters capture the view, and knowing that, should you run out of steam, all county buses are equipped with bike racks. It can be days of riding along a major historic route such as the Lewis and Clark Trail. Or it can be a vacation centered in a single locale that combines cycling with a variety of other activities such as horseback riding, canoeing, visiting museums and exploring historic sites.

The sheer variety of the bicycling vacation is one reason that bicycling is the third most popular outdoor vacation activity for Americans, after camping and hiking, according to the Travel Industry Association of America's Adventure Travel report. And about 40 percent of these cyclists take the kids or grandkids along for the ride.

Biking is a great vacation for families. Parents and children venture into the great outdoors, enjoying new scenery and fresh air while getting plenty of exercise. Cycling any distance, whether on their own or on a 'trail-a-bike' — a sort of half-bike with a seat and rear wheel that attach to the rear wheel of an adult's bike — can give children a huge sense of accomplishment.

Tom Hale, president and founder of Backroads (www.backroads.com), a multi-sport touring company, still remembers the day he and his then 8-year-old daughter covered 25 miles on their bicycles during a trip to Switzerland.

"It was a great day and a big accomplishment for her," he says. "That's really neat, to see kids have that sense of accomplishment."

Be Realistic About Kids’ Stamina

That said, parents have to be realistic about children's physical stamina and interest in biking. "Most kids would rather not get on a bicycle for five days in a row and bike like crazy," Hale said. For that reason, most of the families on Backroads' family trips choose multi-sport vacations that can include a whole range of activities-hiking, rafting or snorkeling-as well as biking.

It is a good example for parents to follow, whether they're joining an organized tour or doing it on their own.

Hale breaks down the amount of time spent biking according to children's age. Small kids on trail-a-bikes, usually between 4 to 7 years old, are under the parents' control, so safety, particularly along roadways, is less of a concern, and stamina isn't an issue.

Distance depends on the parent's pedaling power and the child's interest in the scenery and the experience. However, anything more than three hours with kids this age is pushing the limit, and even a three-hour trip should include plenty of rest stops and play stops.

Seeing Rural America

When kids are older, from age 7 to 10 or 11, the time frame and distance are about the same, but safety becomes more of a concern. Parents of children of this age may want to opt for routes with broad shoulders if biking along highways or, better yet, an off-road bike path that is on the nearly 13,000 miles of rail beds in the United States that have been converted to bike paths. The beauty of these rail bed paths are that there are no cars to worry about, and the grades are gentle.

Teens, depending on their interest in biking and level of physical fitness, can be similar to adults in terms of their willingness to get on a bike and go for miles. "We had a 13-year-old last year do the entire Great Divide," says Brian Martindale, tour director for Adventure Cycling Association (www.adventurecycling.org), a non-profit group that promotes cycling and conducts bike tours. "That's very, very hard riding," he says of the route, a 75-day trip along the Continental Divide between Canada and New Mexico.

Martindale says that the teen was exceptional, but the example does illustrate the different mindset that comes with a little more maturity. He recommends that parents be conservative in estimating the amount of bicycling their children can do, both physically and mentally. The right cross-country trip is often hugely successful for older children.

"It's a very different side of America than most people see because the best riding is in the most rural parts of the country, it gives you a whole different perspective and experience," he says.

Organized Tours vs. Do-It-Yourself

Parents opting for a bicycle vacation have a range of choices. They can go on organized tours with groups, which often have "sag wagons" to provide support or a lift for tired cyclists. Organized tours also arrange for accommodations, which can range from campgrounds to luxury hotels, depending on the operator.

Some have tours designed for families, offering multiple activities in addition to cycling. Others are simply straightforward rides; parents have to choose the rides with terrain that works for their kids, and find accommodations, which can be campgrounds or motels or hotels. One group, Cycle America (www.cycleamerica.com), actually has a rolling "summer camp" for kids ages five to 12 on one of its tours, this month's Pedal the Peaks tour through the Colorado mountains. Kids hop aboard their own motorcoach during the day to go off on their own adventure with staff — swimming, rafting, learning from Native American "horse whisperers" or whatever other opportunities kids' activities leader John Reardon picks out along the route — while their parents cycle. Parents and children meet at the end of the day for dinner, to trade stories and then fall into bed for the next day.

Rail Beds Offer Off-Road Fun

But families can also go it on their own. There are a huge number of choices of routes. Adventure Cycling showcases routes on its homepage. These include trails such as the Lewis & Clark Trail, which was created to celebrate the bicentennial of the Corps of Discovery and follows its route as closely as possible over more than 4,000 miles of paved roads, unpaved roads and bike paths.

The best bet for families with smaller children is to find a trail via the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (railtrails.org), a non-profit that helps communities convert old railroad beds into biking and hiking trails.

The trails help parents avoid traffic worries, and grades are gentle. Rail beds were built at a grade of two to five percent, according to Jeff Ciabotti, vice president of trail development for the organization. The trails offer plenty of sightseeing opportunities as well, since railroads were built to connect commercial centers and communities that convert the old railroad beds to trails work to make all that their communities have to offer accessible to bikers using the trails. One example is Florida's Pinellas Trail along the Gulf of Mexico between St. Petersburg and Tarpon Springs, which takes bikers past beaches, guided island walks and, for those who run out of gas, public buses equipped with bike racks.

Recreation possibilities along these trails are endless. Rail bed trails often parallel Blue Trails, which follow old waterways and offer a variety of detours such as whale watching, exploring an old Confederate fort, visiting archeological digs, horseback riding, swimming, visiting artist colonies and so on.

Choices are limitless because the terrain is as varied as America itself-mountains, beaches, farmlands and ranch country