We took our first bike tour, Taste of Tuscany, in June 2014. Alexandra was 16; Stephen was 12.
As a family, we’d always enjoyed biking—short rides around the neighborhood, easy pedals along rail trails on vacation. We’d traveled some, but nothing as adventurous as a guided bike tour through a foreign country. It was definitely outside the box for us. The biking was spectacular. So was the cultural immersion. That trip lit something in us.
From then on, biking and travel became inseparable. I can’t think of a vacation since then that hasn’t had a biking component woven into it. We’ve pedaled our way through Spain, France, Canada, and corners of the U.S., always drawn to the way cycling lets us experience a place more fully—to move at a human pace, discover the unexpected, and immerse ourselves in the landscape and local life rather than simply pass through.
There’s something about biking that wakes up every sense at once—the ground moving beneath the wheels, the breeze on your face, the scent of a place carried on the wind, the sounds of nature as well as village life. And then the sights: truly awesome, or simply beautiful in their quiet simplicity. But more than any of that, it’s something we do together. That’s the real heart of it.
Twelve years after that first trip, our kids are grown and working adults now—and biking is still one of our favorite ways to spend time as a family. This past June, with some determined schedule juggling, the four of us set off on the Taste of Sardinia tour. And there it was again—that same magic from Tuscany, undiminished.
Funny how some things never change: Stephen up front setting the pace, Alexandra right behind him, forever our cheerleader, and my husband and I trailing at the rear, quietly grateful beyond words for a love of the sport we all somehow share.
We don’t have our next trip planned yet. But we’re always dreaming about where the road will take us next. Until then, we hop on our bikes whenever we can.
We took our first bike tour, 
Twelve years after that first trip, our kids are grown and working adults now—and biking is still one of our favorite ways to spend time as a family. This past June, with some determined schedule juggling, the four of us set off on the 