Wine and Harvest: A Gem of a Tour

July 8, 2013

One of the finest tours Adventure Cycling offers, appealing to the widest variety of riders, is the Wine & Harvest tour in the San Francisco Bay Area, September 15-22. A nice selection of routes that range from easy to difficult are offered through the wine country of Sonoma and Napa valleys, the Alexander and Russian River valleys, Point Reyes, Tomales and Bodega bays, and the coastal bluffs of Marin County. You will experience dairy farms, vineyards, and orchards at the peak of harvest season. The tour offers plenty of time to experience the wineries of the area with dozens and dozens to choose from. But you don’t have to take it from me; here are some of the comments from the 2012 Wine & Harvest tour participants:

"It was the perfect experience for my first tour. Thank you so much!"

"Riding through Napa and Sonoma, viewing vineyard after vineyard heavy with grapes and then tasting; enjoying the scent of fennel and sage in the air of the dry hill country, mastering every hill I attempted and sharing the experience with other cyclists made the Wine & Harvest a great experience."

“I most enjoyed the people-all of them had great stories to tell. Marilyn made me laugh the most. Marilyn is a beautiful strawberry blonde hairdresser WHO DOES NOT CAMP (although she did all week), and let everyone know that fact. Marilyn would say ‘I don't feel pretty, I have a flashlight stuck to my head...and, I can't get out of my sleeping bag in the morning, because I'm all twisted from going round like a rotisserie chicken’. She kept us all laughing with her stories of misery, yet she never quit smiling and laughing, and it made us all laugh despite some of the predicaments.”

“I appreciated the change in scenery (ocean, forest, grapevines, small towns, etc). There were some beautiful roads and places. I love wineries, especially the small quaint ones, and my favorite part of the trip was biking to and from the unique vineyards.

“I truly enjoyed not having to worry about the lodging, luggage and meal logistics. The maps were excellent and it was a joy to just get on my bike and ride knowing that at the end of the day my only ‘chore’ was to clean up and socialize with the rest of the group.”

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I will miss the Wine & Harvest tour this year, but I know many others will experience this gem of a tour with Adventure Cycling. There is still space available so don’t miss your chance.

Happy Trails - Arlen

Photos by Bob Johnson

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ON THE ROAD is written by the tours team — Paul, Madeline, and Arlen — tours specialists and intrepid bicyclists, covering all things related to Adventure Cycling's tours department. Check out our 2013 Tours!