Our Mission:
The mission of Vacation Bicycling is the dedication to providing the highest value of bicycling tours delivered with friendliness and safety that will allow both independence and inclusion with group experiences while creating lifetime memories.
Our History:
As we celebrate our 19th Year Anniversary in 2025, we thought this would be a good time to reflect on our past trips and to give future participants a feel for our tours. Our first year, we had trips in three states and decided as soon as any of our participants had taken all of our trips, we would add a trip to another state until eventually we will have a tour in the best of all 50 states. Also, after our very first trip, almost every trip has had prior customers participating. Though we advertise in numerous bicycling related publications and online, the vast majority of our participants come to us from recommendations from people who have taken a bike tour with us.
In addition, we evaluate each trip and try to continuously make small improvements for each future trip. (This is a philosophy adopted from Deming and Kaizen.) Since we are on every trip, gaining insight is pretty easy. With this in mind, we have implemented small changes, including BYOB happy hours, changing restaurants, upgrading hotels, revamping itineraries and adding new destinations to name but a few examples. We are constantly trying to improve our trips, so our hope is each tour will be just a little bit better than the previous one.
Our Plan:
Before starting our company, we decided to look at other organizations that started small and grew into successful operations. The key, as illustrated by those organizations, is to always remember to focus on providing one thing really, really well. In our case this means providing friendliness and guidance while providing the best value in bicycle tours in the United States. We developed our company model around this theme.
Goals of each Tour:
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Independence, but guidance to enjoy your vacation with your own spin
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Encourage relaxation to ensure an enjoyable vacation
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Excellent dinners at local restaurants that are tested and reviewed to ensure an exceptional experience
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Hotels that well respected and tested
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Accurate cue sheets to avoid frustration
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Itineraries that will always take you on scenic routes that are designed to avoid traffic and confusion
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Van support and guides to help assist each day
Come join us!
If you would like to read a little bit more about the history of Vacation Bicycling, please continue reading:
Many people have asked about the history of Vacation Bicycling. The following is a little bit about how the company began and Chandra (Chan) and Joe Fox. The company is small but has tours throughout the United States. We believe the harder we work to make each trip a success through professionalism and friendliness the better each trip will be for everyone.
We took bicycle vacations before we ever started Vacation Bicycling and we always looked for trips that were value focused. We loved participating on bike trips, but were not great campers and preferred to sleep in hotels, but at an affordable price. Then, on the way home from a biking trip, we thought, "Maybe we could start a bicycling tour company with a focus on biking and vacation." On our 17-hour journey home that day, the basic structures and strategies for Vacation Bicycling were created. The company began with only three trips (including our first trip ever in the Florida Keys, which is back again in 2024) and the strategy was to slowly grow as more people participated. Following the plan, growth has continued each year.
The happiest outcome for us has been that once a person comes on one of our tours they come again and again. In fact almost every single trip we have had since the first year has had people that have been with us on a prior trip.
In addition, we feel that adults should be treated as such and can easily read as much or as little of the detailed information that is given to them about the trip. With this in mind, on the first night there is an official meeting and after that, the written itinerary will provide the answers to most questions. Of course, we are always available to answer any specific question during the trip. Our overall philosophy is to make everyone feel like they are on vacation.
No matter your choice, you decide. Nothing is mandatory. Though we do leave for rides and dinner at posted times each day; otherwise, you enjoy your week with new friends on an active and beautiful vacation. As mentioned earlier, don't be surprised if once you join us on one trip with Vacation Bicycling that you return again and again.
So this is the rest of the story.
Come join us!