GPS on a bicycle tour - new standard in touring!

Use of GPS in every day travel is coming, and in some cases – its here.

Everyone has heard of GPS, some use in their Hertz rental cars to find their way to a hotel. Others may have it in their cars now as a built in or even standard feature. GPS is becoming more and more common, and it is making its way into travel.

Explorers, hikers, mariners, and those more heavily dependent upon navigation and mapping systems have been using GPS for a long time. We have introduced GPS now into some of our cycling and walking tours as a way to make route finding/following much easier than reading and interpreting maps. We do still offer the maps and cue sheets, but the GPS is a confirmation, a back up, to confirm decisions made about route interpretation from a map.

Our new models are currently so small to be easily carried or mounted on handlebars. They indicate direction only from waypoints. You can get distance info, but the most basic models prevent a novice from disabling the unit, and help them to use it in its basic but most effective form. It won’t be long before full featured map based GPS units will be affordable enough to mount on every bike, but for now, we have just begun.

L

Charity And Cycling 2006

Cycling/Hiking for Charity:

In 2006 Discover France, Pure Adventures, and Cycling Classics will team up and combine efforts to donate to several charities. We plan to contribute a portion of each tour booking to the following charities – all rated 4 star for their effective use of donor funds:

Save the Children
Lance Armstrong Foundation
Arizona Wilderness Coalition

In addition, our company, LRB Flagship Inc which owns all these brands is a sponsor of youth cycling. We providing funding and time to support Racelabu23 cycling team. See http://www.racelabu23.com for details and to make your own tax deductible contribution.

We also support the International School of Arizona via donations of supplies, materials, and dollars. Arizonans have a unique opportunity to direct the state tax dollars to accredited private schools and receive a dollar for dollar tax credit. This means, any Arizona tax payer can send his/her state tax money to any such school such as the International School, instead of sending it to be spent by politicians on projects over which you as a taxpayer may not approve or have any control/benefit. You must do it by December 31st to get credit in that same tax year.

Loren

Gay & Lesbian Travel

As in the previous post about family travel, we do also have a fair number of bookings from the Gay/Lesbian community. Again, self-guided travel is the perfect format. Privacy being the big reason, couples can do one of these trips and not be concerned about how their lifestyle might be perceived or incorporated in a group travel environment. Of course, Europe being a much more tolerant place for alternative lifestyles; gay and lesbian couples have a much easier time traveling throughout.

L

Family Vacations

Family travel is a hot buzzword currently in the travel marketing side of the business. Media outlets are writing about it and at all the travel shows you see “Family Friendly, Family Travel”, etc. Yea, family travel – as if this was something new!

I remember taking trips with my family as a kid – didn’t others do this? Ok, maybe our family trips in those days were not the same as what people are doing today. For sure, the family unit is quite a different thing today than it was in my youth. Parents today don’t have time nor desire to organize something for their family, and in many cases, they don’t want to be responsible for keeping their kids busy and happy during the vacation time. I know for a fact that many parents want to be able to work as well while on vacation, and so they don’t want to have their kids distracting them! Whoa, that’s not vacation is it? Yes, the modern family vacation.

Well, this is good news for some of the high end group tour companies with family trips. If you can afford to pay $5000/person including for each child, then you will have all your bases covered. If, on the other hand, you want to have time with your kids and enjoy a vacation together at a great price to value, then our self-guided formula is just what your family needs!

The self-guided model is so much the ideal trip for so many different travelers, but for the family, its ideal. First, the family of any aged children can go on a trip and know that they do not depend on others in a group, do not depend on the attention of a guide to get them what they need, and they can go in peace knowing that no matter how civilized (or not) their kids are, there won’t be other childless adults to worry about offending forming your traveling party.

The self-guided model is a trip for each party who books. This could be a couple, some friends, a group, or a family. We have equipment for all ages/sizes. We have family sized rooms, and some lower child rates in some cases, and trips never cancel for lack of participation. You can choose any date you want. For cycling, hiking, or relaxing – we can organize what each family needs within the limits of services to be found.

Some themes available:

Star tours: this is the cycling tour where you stay in one place and ride out and back each day. Its ideal for families because it can accommodate all levels of cyclists. For example, say dad and teenager are strong cyclists – they can do a long ride and meet up with mom and younger child who want to do a shorter ride. They all start together, but the slower low mile riders can return sooner on their own itinerary. Later at the hotel, they can all go out and visit together. We offer this style of riding in Provence, the Loire Valley, Languedoc, and in Spain. We can customize for this in Italy as well. In Languedoc we are right on the beach and in Spain only 7km away –so the kids can always go play at the beach each day. A perfect family adventure!

Older kids: Some of our tours that pass through some larger towns where older teenage kids or even college age kids can find some ambiance to keep them happy. Rather than being stuck in some quiet charming village, on our Provence Avignon to Mediterranean trip, we stay in Avignon, Uzes, Arles, Nimes, and St Remy de Provence. All larger towns with lots of activities and ambiance including dancing/discos. In July, the Festival of Avignon attracts theatre performers from around the world, typically young people and it’s a great ambiance of culture and art; but book ahead!

Grandparents – bring them along, absolutely! We can always add car rental and if needed, we can add vehicle transfers if granny and gramps can’t ride, which in many cases they can – even better than the grandkids!

Age is not ever something we will deny a tour to a customer. With our self-guided trips, we expect each family group that is booking to be aware of what each of the family members can do and can’t do. You can ask for help, but its ultimately up to you to manage tired kids/family members, so if you know and are prepared, then we have the best family vacation of all – your own!