Why Tour by Bike? 7 Good Reasons to Experience Boulder, CO on a Bicycle

When you think of a vacation, what pops into your head? Is it the planes, shuttles, taxis, and buses you took to get to the good bits? Or is it the sites, activities, and experiences you had between those inconveniences?

If a vacation is about seeing and doing, then you already get why tour by bike enhances your trip. Why get bogged down in the travel on your trip when you can enjoy it? It’s a bit of a leading question, but it illustrates the point either way.

Taking a bicycle tour lets you see the sites and skip the frustration of “wait until we get there.” From the saddle of a bike, you can see all of the reasons why 86 million people visited Boulder in 2017.

Free yourself from stuffing the family into yet another confined space while reminding them that you’re supposed to be having fun.

Why Tour by Bike Makes a Difference

The following list represents not only the benefits, but also the expanded possibilities of taking a bicycle tour of Colorado.

Taking a tour on a bike isn’t as strenuous as you may fear. Modern bike technology makes it accessible to more people than ever.

Tandem bikes let couples work together. Recumbent bikes accommodate those who prefer to sit back and stay lower to the ground. And for those who need help over a distance, you can always go the eBike route.

Here are more reasons to go on a bike tour.

1. Enhances the Journey

A bicycle doesn’t have doors, walls, and windows. Everywhere you go, you’re already part of the surroundings. You feel the temperature, experience the sun and the wind, and smell the world around you.

This greatest bicycle tour benefit permeates the whole experience.

Being a part of the world around you awakens senses that get dulled by travel inside a vehicle. Moving your body to propel the bike is much better than sitting with pins and needles setting in.

2. Promotes Health

Too often, a vacation is an excuse to binge on foods eaten outside of the hotel. Or sometimes, worse, inside the hotel. It’s easy to get into a “what’s eaten on a trip doesn’t count” mentality.

Some of that is the rush to experience new food in the local scene. Part of this is also the instinct to treat yourself when on vacation.

Taking a bike tour helps with both of these aspects. By spending the trip working, you not only earn those calories, but your body also craves what it needs, not just what you can shove in it.

You’ll find yourself enjoying food more and being more conscious of the difference between wanting to eat and needing to refuel.

3. Builds Memories

The combination of exercise and new experiences works in tandem to literally build new memories.

Studies show that enhanced cardiovascular exercise stimulates the hippocampus, producing stronger memories. Rather than just enhancing the moment so it seems more memorable, your brain actively grows to keep memories formed after exercise.

These memory benefits work for people of all ages and most strongly affect visuospatial memory.

Why settle for a vacation you only recall in bits and pieces when showing random photos and videos, when the travel itself can lock those memories in for a lifetime?

4. Meet New People

When traveling on a bus, you often have an assigned seat. This puts you in particular proximity to only a few people, which makes it hard to get to know your travel companions.

On a bike tour, you have a wide world to explore and comment on. You can speed up or slow down, mingling with anyone and everyone on the tour.

The sense of community you gain by keeping others in mind enhances bonding. You’ll feel a part of the group as you watch the progress of others and participate in watching out for other travelers.

If you find yourself enjoying a conversation with someone, you can continue that as you resume the ride. There’s no getting split up when heading back to an assigned seat.

5. Low Stress

You can’t will a train to leave on time or to get to a destination in time to make a connection. A lot of people feel trapped and isolated when traveling because they’re so focused on the next step and not where they are.

On a bike tour, you have the power to go at your pace. This can mean getting to the next stop faster to have more time with an activity, or slowing down and lingering at the last one a bit longer.

The simple act of putting you in control of your speed along a route does wonders for lowering stress and producing positive feelings of autonomy so often missing in the working world.

6. Puts You in the Moment

Lowering your stress helps you to take a breath and notice where you are, rather than where you’re going. You can break free of the itinerary running in your head to keep things on-track and enjoy the moment.

See the world around you, smell the air, have a conversation while you go. All of these are things you’d let yourself do; if you only felt like you had the time.

7. Effort Is Its Own Reward

In the same way that saying “I climbed Everest” means a lot more than “I took a helicopter to the top of Everest”, biking to a destination is a badge.

Each destination you arrive at on a Colorado bike tour feels significant. You worked to get there and that impacts your enjoyment.

Seeing a magnificent vista at the Flatirons is a moment to breathe and rest your legs, drink some water, and feel the place. From the moment you arrive to the moment you leave, you’re in the place your legs took you.

That beats trying to shake from your head the fuzz of boredom that comes with vehicle travel.

Experience the Difference

With so many benefits and new experiences to be had, it’s hard not to at least try a bike tour. Why tour between trips in a vehicle when you can make the tour and the transportation one and the same?