Bicycle Italy's Piedmont Region

Dreaming of designing your own bike tour of Northwest Italy around Turin? The region is ready for you! The region's new web site "Piemonte Ciclabile" (Cyclable Piedmont) lists thirty some bike tours and routes you can do on your own. Each tour has an interactive map that shows lodging options along the route. This is a great service for those planning their own tour.

The Piedmont is one of the best areas for bicycling in Italy. It enjoys a mix of mountainous (indeed, Alpine) terrain as well as great vineyard riding through the hills of Monferrato and flat rides across the rice paddies of the Po Valley. Piedmont cuisine is also excellent - a mixture of the best Italian food and more refined cuisine of France.
Of course, if you prefer to take an escorted bike tour there are plenty of those as well. Click here for one example.

Rent a Bike for a Day in Santiago, Chile

There is nothing better after that long, overnight flight to Santiago than to explore by bicycle. In Santiago, Chile "La Bicicleta Verde" offers rates on single speed cruiser bikes,multi-speed mountain bikes and hybrid bikes. La Bicicleta Verde also offers half-day bike tours. These are a great introduction to any city! Tours cost $30 and include a green bicycle, helmet, 1 bottle of water and a local snack (and, of course, a bilingual guide.)

So if you are headed for a bicycle tour of Chile's wine country, think about exploring Santiago by bike during your layover day!

Despite the photo, helmets ARE available and recommended with tours and rentals from La Bicicleta Verde!

Lonely Planet Cycling Italy thanks BikeRentalsPlus!

Monica Malpezzi Price, and the staff at BikeRentalsPlus! are thanked for their contributions to the 2009 edition of the Lonely Planet's, Cycling Italy guide. Monica, with the help of others assisted with routes and descriptions for the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. In addition, BikeRentalsPlus! is recommended as a bicycle rental supplier. The Lonely Planet's line of Cycling books are great resources for self supported riders. We highly recommend using them to plan your rides (and there are some great lodging suggestion's as well). But, if you need a bicycle to go along with that ride, check out our bicycles available for rent.

Italy's Cruiser Bike Tours Shows off Florence, Rome and Pisa

Italy's Cruiser Bike Tours offers half day, relaxed guided tours for 39 euros and half day self-guided bike rentals (including helmet, MP3 player with an audio guide, and a map) for 39 euros per person.

Interested in just doing your own thing? Cruiser Bike Tours will rent you a cruiser for an hour (4 euros), five hours for 10 euros, and all day for 15 euros. For more information on bicycle rentals click here.

Hotels and Bicycles: What Took So Long

The New York Times reports again in its Sophisticated Traveler edition Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 of more and more hotels offering free bicycles. Park Hyatt is one which announced its new "Bicycle Valet" initiative on Facebook July 20th.

According to the Facebook announcement, "the Park Hyatt Bicycle Valet program will be complimentary at most Park Hyatt locations with a refundable deposit." The service includes use of a lock, helmet, lights, pump, kickstand, bottled water, and map." Free of charge for up to four hours! Now that's our kind of hotel.

Rent a Villa for a Week of Loop Rides, Yes

But be careful to find out where that villa is located! Is it at the top of a three kilometer long gravel road? Or, perhaps at the end of a two-mile long dead end leading to a small provincial road so that every ride you take requires you to repeat the same twenty kilometers every day.

In short, some villas lend themselves to great mountain biking, others are great for racing or hybrid bikes. But if you've not seen the property or if you are relying solely on the beautiful pictures on the villa agent's web site, be careful. Ask a few critical questions and take a look at some online resources. You might have just rented the perfect villa for mountain biking. But if you aren't a mountain biker . . .

The folks at BikeRentalsPlus! have plenty of experience in matching you up with the right type of accommodation.

Rent a Bicycle in Croatia

If you are planning a bike tour in Croatia but prefer to do it yourself rather than with a tour operation we can help you find bikes, villas, and even set up your own itinerary. We've got great local contacts who provide mountain bikes, mountain bikes with road tires, and road/touring bikes. They rent panniers and can book hotels or villas for you. There's no better way to explore the islands of Dalmatia than by bicycle. So think about renting a villa or apartment and contact BikeRentalsPlus! about bikes and logistics.