Guided group tour

On a Guided Group Tour you will receive the most comfort in terms of organization, guide services and support on your trip. Tours are led by experienced and qualified bilingual tour leaders who ride with the group throughout the tour and are backed up by the supporting vehicle.

Our tours are specifically designed for tourists who want to enjoy an active holiday full of adventure without losing the important considerations of comfort and safety. Each trip, especially a sporting one, can bring unexpected problems resulting from bad weather conditions, health problems, temporary fatigue, or a defect on the bike. In such cases you will be sure to appreciate our technically and medically trained tour leaders, who will be at your disposal throughout the holiday. You always have the option to exchange your bike for the support vehicle at any time you would like or in the event of experiencing health problems.

Our carefully planned and researched routes are designed for experienced bikers as well as for leisure bikers. Leisure bikers usually ride for a section of the daily leg. For the remainder of the daily leg they can be transported by AVE minibus.

THE PEOPLE YOU MEET
By offering our tours over the internet, our tour groups are inevitably diverse. However, a considerable number of our clients are from English-speaking countries such as Great Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia. People usually book as a single person, a couple or for four and more people. Our experience shows us that younger adults usually prefer our cheaper self-guided tours. We have also found that our female clients, particularly when traveling alone, and bikers over 50 generally prefer to take advantage of our more secure and comfortable Fully Guided tours. Parents often book a tour for themselves and for their children in their younger adult years. Couples often book on behalf of one or two other couples in order to have fun together. For many participants, the bike tour is an opportunity to meet new friends as you ride along the route.

GROUP SIZE
Cycling offers the unique opportunity to see at your own pace the landscapes and great places that are to be found in the Czech Republic. In order to give you the best experience possible, we have set a maximum number of participants for each trip. Most groups comprise 8 to 12 participants, the tour leader and the driver of the support vehicle. If there are more participants than this in a group, we usually divide the group depending on the wishes, skills and pace of the individuals.

If you are a group of four or more people, you are welcome to request a separate group on the dates of your choice and we will add no-one else to your group.

DAILY PROGRAMME OF GUIDED TOURS
All our Guided Group Tour programmes start with a pick-up from Prague Airport or from your hotel at an appointed time. After collecting the whole group, you will travel by minibus to the starting point, where you will be given a detailed welcome briefing. Tour leaders will give you informative materials, maps, the itinerary and all further essential information. They will solve possible problems for clients and answer any questions. Before departure, all bikes will be adjusted to each clients body dimensions and leaders will give clients a brief review of biking techniques for our mountain bikes. If you bring your own bike-pedals or saddle, we can install them onto our bike for you. All group members will be given practical safe biking training.

The support vehicle is used for sections of the route that may be too far or demanding, or in the event of bad weather or illness. The support vehicle carries all participants luggage, and is equipped for clients who want to take a rest along with their bikes. On top of that, it also carries refreshments that can be picked up at any place on the route (water, musli bars). You can also store your spare clothes or raincoats in the vehicle.

Every evening all members of the tour are made familiar with the programme for the following day: the distances, the elevations of the route, the time schedule, possible hazards, and the possibilities to shorten or prolong the route. During these sessions, any potential problems of the group can be solved and all relevant questions are answered. AVE Travel has a standardized daily programme for each tour, which the tour leader hands out on the first evening. However, the daily programme may be adapted to take account of specific situations, for example, the weather forecast, the cycling abilities of the group, guided tours of particular castles or important monuments.

In addition to dealing with any health and technical emergencies, our bilingual tour leaders manage all the essential services for the group during the biking days, for example, all the issues involving accommodation in hotels, catering, breaks on the route, luggage delivery to the next place of accommodation, constant cell phone connection with the AVE hotline service, evening programmes, castle visits and translation, when required. However, the main task of the tour leader is to give you an authentic and informed experience of our country, its history, culture and inhabitants.

With respect to possible adjustments of the daily programme, we guarantee visits to certain famous tourist places stated in the tour programme. However, we cannot guarantee how they will be reached because of changing circumstances out of our control.