Undiscovered Wine Country and Pacific Coast Bike Tour —
Northern California USA
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 County. 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 area, in the peaceful enclave of Occidental. Life in Occidental is peaceful and unhurried. You won't find any brand name stores or restaurant chains here, nor will you find much traffic. In Occidental we stay in a charming inn overlooking the town, surrounded by towering redwoods.
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, this is not your tour. But if you prefer the road less traveled, the authentic communities, the landscape less touched by human hands—in addition to some of the best cycling anywhere—our Undiscovered Wine Country and Pacific Coast Tour may be just to your liking.
