Bike Tour Recap

This was the first time we did a big trip like this with another family and our 3rd Blue Marble bike tour with the kids. This was also Hannah's first time on her own bike. This was much earlier than other Blue Marble bike tour kids it turns out but Charles didn't really want to tow both kids like he did in the Dolomites. Traveling with another family made our train rides and meals definitely super easy. It had been a pain in the past where the kids would just mess around and be pretty loud.

Christopher was great on the tagalong and generally is a super happy passenger (he was happy as a clam on his first bike tour as well at 2 while Hannah was bored and antsy). Unfortunately, our friend's son was the opposite and got antsy as a passenger. This makes me think that it would be hard to do another bike tour together because Andrew would want to bike on his own and he's not at an age where that is a good idea. Also, because Andrew got antsy, he messed around on the tagalong and he did fall off a few times.  Also note the photos before where Christopher is straight and Andrew's bike is crooked. When we biked at home, we noticed the same thing and we thought it was the tagalong but now we realized it is the child.

Andrew tilted to the side

Christopher sitting straight

But a few things that were important for me to remember if I ever plan my own self guided bike tour:

• Playground stops are key or even just changes in the route (turns, bridges, tunnels)
• Having more food/snack options on us gives us more flexibility and less anxious about finding cafes. Though cafes are good for bathrooms.

After one of these tours, Charles always questions if we could have just planned it on our own since the bike tour is sooo expensive. I think before Hannah was on her own bike probably yes. But now we would have to make sure there was very little biking on road or long downhills since she would need more practice on that sort of terrain first. 

But I am incredibly inspired now and already booked a bike tour in Taiwan (though this one is more of a multi-sport tour). I think it would be incredibly fun to try and plan my own self guided tour but from initial research, logistics are a pain to do so in the US (there are not many bike trail only routes) but the research will continue.