Vermont Self Guided Biking Details

You custom-design your Vermont bicycling itinerary based on the mileage you want to ride each day. Generally, you would need to cover a minimum of 18-20 miles a day to actually ride from door to door between our inns.  You can vary the distance each day if you choose.  Most of our guests find daily distances in the 25 – 40 mile range to be just about right.  At a leisurely pace of about 8 miles per hour, this is a half-day in the saddle, but you’ll expand that with pauses for sightseeing, snacks, rest, and to take in the views.

MeadowWe are not called the Green Mountain State for nothing!  While “Vermont ain’t flat,” the routes we use are considered “rolling farmland”; you will be riding up and down, but won’t have any long significant grades.  One of our guests characterized it as a “quarter mile up, half mile down, half mile up, quarter mile down” experience.

Our cyclists are pleased that we have obtained a license to furnish a RideWithGPS app to display turn-by-turn routing cues on your phone, spoken aloud if desired.

It is rare that we lose an entire day of riding due to rain.  By checking the weather in the morning, you can sometimes plan to wait it out if they promise clearing (local aphorism:  “Raining at seven?  Done by eleven”), or, on the other hand, ride a little more purposefully if conditions start out fine but are predicted to deteriorate in the afternoon (this would be more common on summer days with afternoon thundershowers in the forecast).  Always, if you feel a certain day may be too wet for safety, and you can generally arrange with us at breakfast-time to catch a ride to the next inn with the luggage shuttle later that morning.

A non-electric rental bike is included in the package price.  Each bike comes equipped with helmet, water bottle, a small trunk on a rear rack, mirror, and handlebar-mounted phone holder; each pair or group of bikes comes with a mini-pump, spare tube, adjustment kit, and lock.  Most often, these are Raleigh, Kona, or Jamis branded equipment, and they will be in exceptionally good mechanical condition for you.  While bikes are included, advance sizing with the bike shop is absolutely required, as we have arranged to have rental bikes delivered to your first inn and picked up from your last inn.  Electric-assist bikes (“eBikes”) are available at a $25 per bike per day upgrade charge.  Bring-your-own-bikes cyclists receive a $25 per biking day discount from the published package pricing.

No sag wagon is provided. We transfer your luggage from inn to inn while you ride, and emergency roadside service (generally a pick up by our luggage staff) is always available, as is a hotline in the very rare event of needing us for a phone call while cycling.  But please do not plan to have an emergency:  you should set out from your first inn with the expectation that you will pedal yourself to your next inn, choosing your distance accordingly.  You will have multiple ways to reach us, and cell coverage is generally available in the cycling area.  Our top-notch bike shop is also on-call for emergency roadside repairs for a fee payable to them.