Days 6 Nights 5 Start Dates September 5, 2010 September 19, 2010 October 3, 2010 October 17, 2010 April 24, 2011 May 8, 2011 May 22, 2011 June 12, 2011 June 26, 2011 July 10, 2011 July 24, 2011 August 7, 2011 September 11, 2011 September 18, 2011 September 25, 2011 October 2, 2011 October 9, 2011 October 16, 2011 October 23, 2011 November 6, 2011 Start City Petaluma Nearest Airports Santa Rosa (25 miles) San Francisco (59 miles) Activity Level 3-4 Daily Distances 40-60 miles Price per Person $1845 Single Supplement $498

Northern California Bike Tour — Undiscovered Wine Country and Pacific Coast

Ride the quieter regions of the California Wine Country and Pacific Coast by bicycle

Inspired vistas, intimate wineries, sun-kissed hills—this is California’s celebrated Wine Country cycling landscape. The routes are ideal for biking no matter how hard or easy you want to cycle. Join us to explore valleys of world-famous vineyards, forests of soaring redwoods, perfect pastoral landscapes and the captivating Pacific Coast.

Not Your Typical California Wine Country Bike Tour

Although there are dozens of Wine Country bike tours to choose from, to us they all seem about the same. They ride the same routes, stay in the same hotels, and visit the same wineries. But that’s not the Undiscovered Country style. Our tour avoids the more famous and heavily traveled portions of the Wine Country in favor of the quieter and more intimate regions. The roads we ride are less traveled, the inns we choose are smaller and more authentic. And while the standard Wine Country bike tour that has been around for decades is long on wineries and short on cycling, our tour always emphasizes the great cycling first.

Ours is clearly not your standard Wine Country tour. First of all, we avoid the Napa Valley completely—too well loved by visitors for our tastes—and restrict ourselves to the quieter parts of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties. We spend our first two nights in the great little Wine Country town of Healdsburg, perfectly located to ride the roads through the wine growing regions of Alexander Valley, Knights Valley, Russian River Valley, and Chalk Hill. Healdsburg is ideal for spending a couple of days, with dozens of tasting rooms, interesting shops to browse, and great restaurants showing off the ultimate California Wine Country cuisine. And although Healdsburg has been discovered by some, it still retains that small town charm.

After Healdsburg, our next destination is the redwoods of the Russian River, in the bohemian enclave of Monte Rio. Life in Monte Rio is peaceful and unhurried. You won't find any boutique shops or restaurant chains, nor will you find any other bike tours. Here we stay on the river’s edge in a charming inn, surrounded by towering redwoods. We savor some wines from the Russian River Valley appellation specially chosen for a wine pairing dinner.

Something completely different awaits us the next day. We head to the wild Northern California Coast for our next stay: the Sea Ranch Lodge, on an undeveloped stretch of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There's nothing to see at the Sea Ranch Lodge, other than crashing waves, coastal cliffs, sea lions, and the occasional gray whale. There's nothing to do at the Sea Ranch Lodge, other than hiking the ocean's edge or watching the sun set into the ocean from your dinner table. And that's precisely the idea.

By design, this is not the typical Wine Country tour that's been around for decades. If your taste runs towards world famous hotels and restaurants, bustling tasting rooms, and the well worn roads, our tour is not for you. But if you prefer the road less traveled, the authentic communities, the landscape less touched by human hands, our Undiscovered Wine Country and Pacific Coast Tour may be just to your liking.

 

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