Guided cycling tours: 3 questions you need to ask yourself before booking

Virtually anyone can ride a bike and follow the arrow on their mobile navigation app. And finding a hotel in a foreign country is now just five clicks away. But we would still like to explain why joining a guided cycling tour can save a lot of time, nerves and ultimately create a better, safer and more stress-free vacation. Here are the answers to the three most important questions you need to ask yourself before booking your next cycling holiday.

Why even join a guided cycling tour?

Reason number one: full local suport. You’re taken care of from the moment you see our van driver with your name on board at the airport until the moment he waves goodbye to you (probably at that same airport). Transportation from the airport to the start of your cycling adventure and back, booking all your accommodation, transporting your luggage – your only job is to pedal, press the shutter button on your camera and, above all, enjoy yourself.

Okay, but that’s also included in the self-guided tours, you might say, so let’s move on to reason number two: 

An experienced bike guide (we have both women and men) will be with you throughout the entire guided cycling tour. All our guides are experienced in tourism, with extensive knowledge of local history and cuisine, they speak at least one foreign language, have knowledge about basic first aid and above all, all of them are enthusiastic cyclists themselves. Yes, when they’re not working, they cycle. This means that they also know how to change a flat tire or do minor repairs on the go. The guide is there to make sure everything runs smoothly and that your time on your vacation is used to the fullest.

What about the other cyclists in the group? Our guided tours are limited to 8 participants and based on experience so far (knock, knock), we can say that we’re incredibly lucky. Anyone who loves cycling knows that a cycling holiday is not travelling in an air-conditioned bus. Things are a bit more unpredictable and often more demanding, but this is exactly what creates a ‘filter’ that comfort-oriented tourists get stuck in. Frankly, some really cool people join our guided tours. Many times, after returning home, they send us an email saying that they came on the tour as clients, but left as good friends.

What kind of experience do I want on vacation?

OK, now you already know that you want to cycle on your holiday. But based on the truly diverse geography of the area where we operate, we can offer you a wide variety of adventures. Do you like mountains, alpine valleys and hearty country food? Cycle around Slovenia’s only national park on the Around Triglav National park Tour. Do you prefer cycling along the sea and tasting Mediterranean food? Then we suggest our Istria to the Adriatic. Would you like both, the mountains AND the sea? Our best-selling Bike Slovenia Green: Alps to Adriatic connects locations of both tours mentioned above.

Would you like to reward your pedaling with top-quality food and award-winning wines? We have two tours with your name on, slightly more prestigious the Istria Gourmet Cycling Tour, covering parts of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, and the Bike Slovenia Green: Gourmet Cycling Holidays; the latter now even includes culinary workshops! How about a combination of cycling in nature and pampering in thermal springs and saunas? We have developed the Slovenia Green Wellness Route and divided it into two cycling experiences for the soul and body; the northern (closer to the mountains) and southern (with more wine-growing hills). 

And if you want a little more ‘hard core’ biking vacation, let us mention that in addition to ‘touring’ we also offer mountain biking, gravel and from 2026 also road cycling tours in the Alpe-Adria region.

When is the best time for cycling in our part of Europe?

We adjust our pre-scheduled guided cycling tours to the best times anyway, so you can trust us. But let us provide you with an explanation anyway. 

In short: in the more mountainous areas, along the refreshing Alpine rivers, we cycle from the second half of May to September, when it’s the best time for Bike Slovenia Green: Alps to Adriatic.

In the southern parts of the area we cover, i.e. in the Mediterranean, we like to go outside the main tourist season, in April-May and September-October. That’s a great time for, say, Istria Gourmet Cycling Holidays or Istria to the Adriatic Cycling Tour as in July and August (that’s when our kids have holidays), the coast is packed with tourists, and the temperatures (up to 40°C/104°F) are too hot to pedal.

And in the winter? That’s when Slovenians ski (in March you can join us at the Ski Touring Festival in Bohinj) and clean the chain and lubricate the bearings on our bikes for the next cycling season.

So, now you know: will you have to adjust the date of your vacation to the destination, or vice versa, choose a more mountainous tour instead of a seaside one.