by Peter Illés on February 27th, 2023
When speaking to people about our tours, the question that always pops up is regarding the difficulty of our tours. How hard is it? Do I need to be fit? What happens if I can't finish the whole distance?
Well, there's a short and long answer to that question. The short answer is that if you have ridden a bike for just a couple of hours in the last year or so or have ridden your bike a lot in the past, you can finish most of our tours. This has more to do with how you feel on a bicycle, how confident you are, your handling of the bike and safety on the road, and less about fitness. But you're not here for the short answer, are you?
Wiredonkey tours are categorized into 3 difficulties. Easy, moderate and hard. The difficulty is displayed as coloured bars on the tour cards and tour detail pages. Easy tours are green, moderate tours are orange and hard tours are red.
Easy tours are designed to be completed by anyone, even those who very rarely cycle. Average daily distances are between 30 and 40 kilometres, with little to no elevation. We'll aim for an average speed between 15 and 20 kmph, roughly 2-3 hours of daily cycling.
Some days may be more demanding, like day 4 of our Iron Gates of the Danube Tour, but it evens out during the whole tour.
Moderate tours can still be completed by anyone, but they will push you just that little bit further. Let's say that our moderate tours are for those who enjoy the feeling of tired legs in the evening.
Average daily distances are between 30 and 50 kilometres, with an average elevation of 500 to 700 metres daily. We'll aim for the same average speed between 15 and 20 kmph, which equals approximately 3-4 hours of daily cycling.
Some tours that mix easier and harder days in the saddle will fall into this category. The Tour de Bükk is one such tour, alternating a more challenging climbing day and a super-easy relaxing day to allow you to recover.
It says it all on the tin. Longer distances, more climbing, tougher terrain. The reason we classified these tours as hard might vary, but they are certainly recommended for those who ride regularly.
Don't feel fit enough, but still interested in the tour? Why not opt for an eBike or ask us for a custom tour that includes your preferred highlights.
Ah, eBikes. The great equalizers! Almost all of our tours provide an option for eBikes. And we love them because choosing an eBike automatically makes a hard tour eModerate, a moderate tour eEasy and an easy tour... well, e-e-easy! Now you can complete any tour you've set your eyes on!
Tour styles also affect the general feeling of difficulty you'll get from a tour. The tour style is displayed as pictograms on the tour cards and tour detail pages.
Most of our tours are in this category. You'll be riding comfortable touring bicycles at comfortable speeds. The surfaces will vary, but they will be mostly bike paths, tarmac roads and smooth(ish) dirt roads.
Road tours are for men and women who love lycra. You'll be riding road bikes exclusively on tarmac roads and at generally higher average speeds than in the touring category.
Being categorized as a road tour pushes the respective tour one difficulty category up, as compared to an equivalent touring category tour.
While the touring category might also hit some dirt roads occasionally, gravel tours aim to cover most of the tour on unpaved roads. Road conditions can sometimes get rougher, so expect to feel your legs and your upper body.
Being categorized as a gravel tour pushes the respective tour one difficulty category up, as compared to an equivalent touring category tour.
Bikepacking tours don't differ in the type of bikes we ride, the surface we ride, or even how fast we ride. Instead, they aim to bring you as close to nature as possible by self-sustaining throughout the tour. We'll carry all our supplies (okay, we might hop into town for a quick beer or gelato occasionally) and sleep in tents.
The difficulty is being self-sufficient, not being fit enough, although you will have to carry some weight on your bike.
Our non-riders welcome tours are designed as hub-and-spoke tours. This means that we'll be staying overnight in a single hotel (or at most two) for the duration of the tour. While this is convenient in case you want to bring with you non-riding members of the family or if you hate unpacking as we do, it also allows you to skip a day if your legs need an off day.
As mentioned above, you can complete most of our tours without preparation. The aim of our tours is to enjoy the landscapes and history along the way, but there's a reason we opted to go on a cycling holiday. And that is to get some movement!
We are sure you'll be fine if you do regular sports activities. However, if you rarely do any physical activities, some gradual preparation might make your holiday more enjoyable.
We're in no hurry. If anyone is tired, we'll take a rest. If you're feeling out of it, you can hop in our support vehicle, which is always near.
If you opt for a Non-riders welcome tour, essentially a hub-and-spoke tour, you can skip a day if you'd like!
