ExperiencePlus! Blog


What’s All the “Plus!” About?

The Long and Short of our Bicycle Tours

If you’ve poked around the tour finder on our website, or been on tour with us, you’ve likely noticed many of our bicycle tour itineraries have two departure length options: a short  (7 or 8-day) tour and a “Plus!” tour with 3 or more days added to the shorter trip. With more than 4 decades  behind of us running bike tours, we’ve found that having both a short and a “Plus!” itinerary accommodates differing schedules and interests of our travelers.

Our shorter tours are great if you can only spare one or two short weeks away from home, and want to spend 7 or 8-days bicycle touring with a few extra days to explore on either side of your bike tour. Our “Plus!” or longer bike tours allow travelers that want to cycle for 10 or more days to get the most miles out of the time and money they’ve invested in an overseas flight.  We understand various circumstances only allow some people to be on tour for 7-8 days and we want our travelers to relish every bit of their time on the bike – but, if you can spare the time, over 80% of our returning customers choose to take the “Plus!” tour – that number speaks for itself. Here are some reasons why we think this return rate is so strong!

  • Your dollars (and your bike) go further! Depending on the tour you select, you can add 3, 4, and in some cases 8 days, to your bicycle tour often for less than US$1,500.
  • There’s always more waiting around the next corner.  In this instance we think it’s fair to argue “more is more”. The longer you’re able to join us on tour the more our local tour leaders are able to share their home and culture with you. We often find that our travelers are just getting into the “flow” around day 7 or 8 and are not ready for the tour to end!  We want to share as much of the local culture with you as possible, the more time you have to spend with us, the more local favorites and flair we’re able to share.
  • Parting is such sweet sorrow.  Shakespeare said it best (and more eloquently) than the modern equivalent i.e. “FOMO” or Fear Of Missing Out. It becomes even more bittersweet to say farewell to new friends after 7 or 8 days on tour together when they’ll be continuing onto the Plus! trip and carrying on conversations over a glass of local wine and delicious meals.
  • Get further off the beaten path. Unlike most other bicycle tours, we offer the opportunity to stick around past the point of your typical week-long tour. Our Plus! tours give you 3 or 4 more days to pedal deeper into lesser known areas of our favorite cycling destinations. We believe it’s important to visit some of the classic and stunning destinations people travel to Europe and South America to see, and these highlights are often covered on our “short” tour, but we also really want to show you parts of these destinations that few travelers ever get to experience.
  • “Man do I regret spending those extra three days in Spain.” Said no one, ever. Life is short, but those extra days on the bike are time well spent. Take the long way home and enjoy a few extra days traveling through the world at a slower pace on our Plus! tours.