Pyrenees - Form a group or join one?
- Thread starter Jake8294
- Start date
I now fall into that category of caring for my elderly mother who lives alone and has dementia. This has impacted my opportunities for relaxing at weekends and going off on camping trips, bike tours with mates etc.
I've got one holiday booked to Thailand in January to see family which has been a logistical pain organising, and to cap it all my pals recently widowed wife (through prostate cancer) was meant to be coming with us and has also just died herself, most likely of a broken heart. Now trying to get refunds on her share of the travel and accommodation. Sadly I can't yet plan in advance for anything else like another bike tour although I'd love to go.
I've never done a solo bike tour, the ease of it appeals but I wonder if the evenings would be lonely, I do love the craic of going out sightseeing followed by a few drinks and a good meal each night, its what makes the trip. Small groups are great especially if you know each other, large groups are like herding cats.
Agreed Wessie if I had to suffer a group of misbehaved or unpleasant folk it would put me off.
I sympathise with your predicament, been through the same over the last 5 years and she's now gone into a care home for now
So hopefully in 2025 I get away into Europe on the bike
Ditto! "plus you are more likely to engage with the locals if solo or they with you". Part of the fun
All this group trips are like group sex (don't ask
). Great idea at the time but a fucking disaster during and after the event. As the Wessie said, there is always a **** who ruins the show.Personally since my blander issue, I will not dream to go in a group anyway.
Bladder??Ditto! "plus you are more likely to engage with the locals if solo or they with you". Part of the fun
All this group trips are like group sex (don't ask
Personally since my blander issue, I will not dream to go in a group anyway.
it all depends on your make-up. Some people pay thousands to stay like a Trappist or Buddhist monk in a monastery to have a period to decompress with no external factors to worry about. I found it worked for me when I was at Xerox in the 1980/90s and they had the 2 week shutdown in the summer. Friends and siblings were at home with kids or taking family holidays. I just jumped in the car, or after 1993 the bike, and toured the UK. I tried a couple of MCi Tours into Europe but they are not ideal due to a rigid timetable and the potential wanker factor. The internet, especially the usenet group UKRM has provided me with some life long friends to tour with but as mentioned, many are now too old for long tours or have other commitments they did not have in middle age. I have since resumed solo travel and have enjoyed exploring places others had not wanted to go to before, especially Spain, "as it is too hot." I tend to alternate now, one solo tour, one with friends. 2025: May/June solo to Spain; Sept: somewhere yet to be determined with at least two friends (although they are in their mid 70s so...)
that's the one
Blonde hair really suits you Wapping ...
No, it wasn’t cod/haddock n chips. He doesn’t do foreign muck apparently.
I have had the best trips doing this, but also travelling with my wife and also a good mate, we always managed to end up with the keys to the hotel and just write down what we had from the bar!
South of France was a good example, Portuguese bloke who hated the French
He didn`t want to take any money for the beer we consumed after he had gone up to bed, the morning after...But we forced it on him and he had to leave the hotel before us, so he gave us the keys to lock up and told us where to put them.Somehwere in the Alps, got with some Swiss guys who were friends with the owner of the hotel, we had the run of the bar and the keys...It was a very messy night.
Just two of many examples...Trust, I reckon it would be rare now...I don`t know, I have not really travelled for the last 3 years.
I have enjoyed all kinds of travel with all kinds of people, apart from cruising, I would rather staple my bollocks to the head of a crocodile, than go on a cruise.
I think the OP realised what a massive mistake they made asking for advice. 
'Come back, Jake, it'll be OK'.
'Come back, Jake, it'll be OK'.
Drag night in 'La Figa' in Limehouse?
I suspect 'Jake' could be an AI bot and the responses here have caused it to blow a fuseI think the OP realised what a massive mistake they made asking for advice.
'Come back, Jake, it'll be OK'.
I have done one organised trip and never again. The tour leader was a wanker and two of the other riders were not great to the point of being unsafe.
We have a core group of seven and when we go on our trips (twice a year), there is never a cross word. We all like to do the same things; excellent food, plenty to drink, take in the sights, make friends, enjoy local culture.
The one time we relented and let a new guy in, it didn’t work out. A reasonable enough chap in many ways but it wore thin quickly. It started as we left Calais - he immediately dropped off the peloton on the motorway so we all pulled over to see what was wrong. Him - for reasons of fuel economy, I am not prepared to travel at more than 110kmh. My pal - but the speed limit is 130 and we are riding as a group? Him - I don’t care. I will meet you at our destination.. Him on night 2 after crossing the Spanish border. Why are we eating Tapas? It is all shite. I want a well done steak or pizza. Me - because we are in Spain you absolute fucking scrubber.
As I said, never again. Our group is now closed.
Good luck to the OP though - I hope you don’t find anyone as intolerant as me to ride with!
We have a core group of seven and when we go on our trips (twice a year), there is never a cross word. We all like to do the same things; excellent food, plenty to drink, take in the sights, make friends, enjoy local culture.
The one time we relented and let a new guy in, it didn’t work out. A reasonable enough chap in many ways but it wore thin quickly. It started as we left Calais - he immediately dropped off the peloton on the motorway so we all pulled over to see what was wrong. Him - for reasons of fuel economy, I am not prepared to travel at more than 110kmh. My pal - but the speed limit is 130 and we are riding as a group? Him - I don’t care. I will meet you at our destination.. Him on night 2 after crossing the Spanish border. Why are we eating Tapas? It is all shite. I want a well done steak or pizza. Me - because we are in Spain you absolute fucking scrubber.
As I said, never again. Our group is now closed.
Good luck to the OP though - I hope you don’t find anyone as intolerant as me to ride with!
I'm also pretty intolerant of wankers and may have been called that myself once or twice in the past! I have now organised and led (loosely) many European tours (because no-one else will) and have only had to 'lose' one person along the way. I didn't even need to have 'The Conversation' with him. He received all our 'non-verbal' messages. He was a good friend of mine and I was genuinely upset at the time. I put this down to the fact that these people are all known to me, many over decades of friendship forged in testing times in the cauldron of London policing - a diverse bunch of misfits if ever there was one. We have drank together, laughed, physically fought each other, been to each others weddings (and others funerals), fallen out, made up but united against a common foe. They know me and I know them. All faults are excepted. Others have joined but on a personal recommendation. Recommending someone to the group comes with the responsibility of their behaviour. Anyone is genuinely welcome but I do a few local ride outs with them first if they live in the South-East. No-one has dropped out and I am constantly being asked when I'm organising the next trip, so I must be doing something right!!I have done one organised trip and never again. The tour leader was a wanker and two of the other riders were not great to the point of being unsafe.
We have a core group of seven and when we go on our trips (twice a year), there is never a cross word. We all like to do the same things; excellent food, plenty to drink, take in the sights, make friends, enjoy local culture.
The one time we relented and let a new guy in, it didn’t work out. A reasonable enough chap in many ways but it wore thin quickly. It started as we left Calais - he immediately dropped off the peloton on the motorway so we all pulled over to see what was wrong. Him - for reasons of fuel economy, I am not prepared to travel at more than 110kmh. My pal - but the speed limit is 130 and we are riding as a group? Him - I don’t care. I will meet you at our destination.. Him on night 2 after crossing the Spanish border. Why are we eating Tapas? It is all shite. I want a well done steak or pizza. Me - because we are in Spain you absolute fucking scrubber.
As I said, never again. Our group is now closed.
Good luck to the OP though - I hope you don’t find anyone as intolerant as me to ride with!
The two groups of about six intermingle on different trips but there's always room for a recommended bikermate.
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2004
- Messages
- 2,370
- Reaction score
- 123
Yes, solo tours can be very lonely. Out of the way barren campsites with little amenities had me in bed at 9pm with the iPad (don't try and visualise). I have met other bikers on sites for a chat & beers. Chat with other camper foreigners with beer or coffee. Great if a town is within walking distance for shopping and/or restaurants.
Stopping on a laden bike is sometimes a conversation piece.
Once off the ferry, I normally cover 150 miles every second day to the next site. Mostly A-roads through towns and villages. I am in no hurry to get anywhere.
As I normally go for 6 weeks, it is difficult to get someone else to commit to that. The grandkids will miss him.
Sent from my MI 9 using Tapatalk
Stopping on a laden bike is sometimes a conversation piece.
Once off the ferry, I normally cover 150 miles every second day to the next site. Mostly A-roads through towns and villages. I am in no hurry to get anywhere.
As I normally go for 6 weeks, it is difficult to get someone else to commit to that. The grandkids will miss him.
Sent from my MI 9 using Tapatalk
That’s a good point. Solo travelling and stopping in town means exploring it for that evening, so it’s never lonely or dull.
A historic urban place is my preference when solo travelling. I like to end riding no later than 4pm and have a wander about. See some of the local sights, especially the architecture in older places. Gander at menus as you walk past to whet the appetite. If in Spain, maybe have a tapas or helado to tide you over until dinner at 8 or 9pm. A few beers of course. Wander back to the hotel, snooze and ablute before dinner at the place you spotted earlier with, for some, the burger menu and Heinz ketchup on the Formica tables. A post prandial wander at dusk is nice too as many places illuminate the older buildings to good effect.
Similar threads
