Category: Amazing bike routes

I should have realized then, that the 88 temple pilgrimage around Shikoku, Japan was a serious ordeal, far, far removed from my idealized fantasies of a peaceful month of quiet meditative days biking and hiking between fairytale temples: a Buddhist style yoga-on-the-beach retreat in Japan.

Cycling Japan’s pilgrimage route around Shikoku to the 88 Buddhist temples turns out to be far more than expected.

During our family’s cycling journey around the world, we got lost—horribly lost—in the steep mountainous interior of the island of Shikoku on Japan. We ended up camping on a freezing cold, windy, mountaintop below the Buddhist temple of Shosan-ji–the 12th temple on the ancient pilgrimage route around Shikoku .After many years of dreaming of following the Henro Michi–as the route is called–we are finally returning to Japan to join this year’s flow of pilgrims and bike and hike the 88 temples of Shikoku.

Voila! We finally found the perfect bike trip for everyone! The Canal du Midi across southern France. This easy, historic and picturesque bicycle trip offers a dream vacation for anyone who can pedal a few miles on a flat path. The canal is one of the most unique UNESCO World Heritage sites. Its bike path (once a donkey towpath) winds 240 very easy kilometers (150 miles) past delightful medieval villages, ancient Roman sites and rolling French vineyards,

Cycling New Zealand’s west coast, past glaciers, snow covered Alps and rainforest: from Wanaka to Greymouth. Truly the west coast route has earned its reputation as one of the top cycling routes in the world!

Majestic 12,000′ snow-capped mountains. Towering glaciers. Glistening, turquoise alpine lakes. High plateau grasslands lined with brilliant purple lupins. And wild, verdant coastal temperate rainforests. New Zealand’s Southern Alps Circuit is awe inspiring and jaw droppingly beautiful. It is easily one of the most stunning bike tours we have ever taken in our lives.

After cycling the Four Rivers route to Gyeongju on the east coast of South Korea, we pedaled north along the steep mountainous coast, exploring an equally beautiful, but starkly different, landscape of sandy beaches, colorful fishing villages and remote, craggy islands filled with happy Korean holiday makers.

The famous Four Rivers cycling route crosses South Korea’s mountainous peninsula from the northwest corner to its southwest tip, traversing the 1768 foot Ihwa mountain pass in the middle.

After cycling 1650 miles down the US west coast from Seattle we made it to San Diego!

When we reached the border of California, in Crescent City, we unknowingly waved goodbye to our ice-cream, carousel and cute-seaside-fishing-town bike trip in Oregon. Not that the coast of Oregon had been flat, or easy to bike or very populated. But relative to California, biking the Oregon coast was a summer picnic. At least in […]