Chesapeake Bay Bike Tour
This is the first “active” vacation I have taken (Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Bike Tour). I am usually one who sits on the beach every day with cocktail in hand. However, this was probably one of the funnest vacations I can recall ever taking. Our guides, Josh and Bill, were extremely personable and organized. We didn’t have spectacular weather each day (one day was pretty much a wash out and the next was very windy with gusts up to 26mph) but Josh and Bill made sure we had options to both get some biking in as well as other activities to do while the rain poured down.
The Inns were lovely and welcoming and the food each day was delicious.
I think the group size was just about perfect. It is hard to wrangle a bunch of people into an organized group so keeping it at about a dozen made it easier to ensure that we all understood directions and kept up with plan changes as they occurred.
I like that the trip is set up such that you can personalize your pace and daily mileage. Having supported stops throughout the routes is nice as it gives you a moment to get some fuel, take a quick break and decide if you’d like to move on or call it a day.
The only suggestion I have for improvement would be to perhaps have someone at the administrative offices to ensure that daily reservations, tours, etc are confirmed and to communicate any changes in advance to our guides. One day, the restaurant was not expecting our group so it caused a bit of a delay. Another day, we were told that the Wildlife Refuge was closed and so we could not complete a part of our scheduled tour. Had these things been confirmed or communicated prior to our arrival that day, it would have been easier to find “Plan B”. I felt bad for our guides as they had to try to figure out what alternatives we had. Fortunately, our group was easy going and did not put up much of a fuss at changes in plans but I am sure this may have presented a different result had there been more tightly wound personalities in the group.
Overall, I loved pretty much everything about this trip and I believe that Wilderness Voyageurs had a great operation. I will likely be booking another trip in the future. Thank you to Josh and Bill for such a wonderful experience!
Rating: Pretty good ****
Amber Nelis
Butler, Pennsylvania