Tour levels

Daily ride and overall tour level ratings explained

Choosing your tour level

We provide daily and overall tour levels based on a scale of 1 to 5 with. Level of difficulty and effort increase as you go up the scale.

Our tour levels are a great way to start searching for a tour, but remember it is important to look at the daily ride summary because the overall tour level is an average of each day’s level. Tours will include days that are both easier and more challenging than the overall tour level. We developed our levels by rating mileage, elevation gain, and type of terrain traveled from easiest to most difficult.

Daily ride details

Daily ride details are visible on every tour page. For each day we describe distance, gain, and terrain and assign a level.

Terrain level descriptions

		Mostly flat terrain has just a few rolling hills that rarely require you to change gears. It might contain a bit of climbing, but those climbs will be short and at a very gentle slope with little need for increased pedaling or downhill breaking.
		Rolling hills refers to multiple gentle slopes (3-4% grade) with minimal need for changing gears or increasing in pedal power. Elevation gain should be less than 100m per hill and braking may not be necessary to control speed on downhills.
		Hilly terrain has repeated hills and some of them may be require more pedal power as it has steeper inclines (up to 5%). You will change gears throughout the day and braking may be necessary to control speed on descents.
		Very hilly terrain includes multiple hills on your ride, some of which can be steep or long climbs. You will change gears and need to use your brakes to control speed on your descent.
		Mountainous terrain includes one or more sustained (more than 5km) climbs with frequent steep grades (over 7%). Mountainous rides may also feature multiple steep grades (greater than 6%) for extended periods of more than 5km. You will need to shift gears and brake on descents to control your speed.

Terrain level descriptions

Mostly flat terrain has just a few rolling hills that rarely require you to change gears. It might contain a bit of climbing, but those climbs will be short and at a very gentle slope with little need for increased pedaling or downhill breaking.

Rolling hills refers to multiple gentle slopes (3-4% grade) with minimal need for changing gears or increasing in pedal power. Elevation gain should be less than 100m per hill and braking may not be necessary to control speed on downhills.

Hilly terrain has repeated hills and some of them may be require more pedal power as it has steeper inclines (up to 5%). You will change gears throughout the day and braking may be necessary to control speed on descents.

Very hilly terrain includes multiple hills on your ride, some of which can be steep or long climbs. You will change gears and need to use your brakes to control speed on your descent.

Mountainous terrain includes one or more sustained (more than 5km) climbs with frequent steep grades (over 7%). Mountainous rides may also feature multiple steep grades (greater than 6%) for extended periods of more than 5km. You will need to shift gears and brake on descents to control your speed.

Overall tour levels

We list the overall tour level with the tour style on the visual summary of every tour page. Keep reading to learn more about what kind of riding to expect on each tour level.

It is almost always possible to adapt the day’s ride to how you are feeling either by taking advantage of the support van, or asking tour leaders for additional mileage. Many itineraries feature longer and shorter mileage options.
Free Bicycle Training Programs by Joe Friel, a nationally recognized fitness expert! We offer 12-week cycling training programs designed for all fitness abilities and customized specifically for ExperiencePlus! tour levels.
Please Note: We use Ride With GPS (rwgps.com) to calculate elevation and mileage information. Due to variance between mapping technologies, totals may differ across devices and applications.