Top Trips for Exploring by Bike

Before your calves cry out in protest, assure them you won’t be cycling all the way from the Andes to the Amazon. This awesome discovery tour of Ecuador features an adventurous bike ride on the Baños Waterfall Route, offering you a trio of cascading rest stops that give new meaning to the term “water break”. These rivers run all the way to the Amazon, but you won’t have to run – or cycle – for that matter. Whitewater rafting on the Jatunyacu River sees you paddling down the main tributary.

This 10-day trip gives you the time needed to fully embrace the south of Italy – renowned for its relaxed pace of life and phenomenal cuisine. Sample the best street food of your life in Naples, bake (and promptly devour) Altamura bread in an artisan bakery, and savour seafood lunches in top-notch Puglian restaurants. It’s just as well there’s an e-bike tour of the Itria Valley to keep that caloric ratio in your favour – the dreamy patchwork of olive groves and vineyards make for quite the backdrop.

While most of this 10-day Rail Trip – calling at Central Europe’s most charming old cities, including Prague, Vienna and Bratislava – will be spent in the comfort of modern train carriages, you will get the chance to get off the train and out of the city on day six. We’ll take a detour from Vienna to the Wachau Valley, which follows the Danube through beautiful rolling hills and vineyards. Your route starts in the picturesque medieval town of Krems and snakes through the valley alongside Europe’s second longest river, passing charming old towns before returning for lunch and a well-earned wine tasting in Krems.