Southern Tier Cross-Country Tour 2008 has Begun!

We had a perfect beautiful sunny day to start our cross-country Southern Tier bike tour this year. All 32 women dipped their rear wheels in the Pacific Ocean last Friday to begin their 3000+ mile trek across the country.

Several of the women on the tour are keeping blogs during the trip. You can follow their journeys by clicking below:
Cheryl Berman
Phyllis Biegun
Penny Bradley
Mary Kay Engel
Jane Irwin
Ellen Martyn
Barbara Minnick
Debbie Smythe
Jan Sward
Clark Taylor
Arda Tole

Changing Gear Documentary playing at film festival

Changing Gear, the feature-length documentary about women bicycling across the country in our Southern Tier cross-country bike tour, has been chosen to appear as part of the Women in Film Festival in BC, Canada! If you're anywhere near Vancouver, come to the screening on Friday, March 7 at 1:00pm. For tickets, click here.

Meet our newest staff member

I'm thrilled that Michelle Green has joined the WomanTours office. She's another one of my sisters. Most of you know that my other sister Jennifer has been working in our office for a couple years now. When we were in high school, everyone thought Michelle and I were twins. You can read more about her here.
Or you can join her on our Outer Banks tour in May.
She's new to cycling, so she had to buy her first pair of bike shorts just for the trip.

Meet our guide Kimberly Masters

Here's a wonderful article about our guide Kimberly Masters. We're very proud of her and feel fortunate to have her guiding our tours!

New Bo Peep for our Cross-Country Tours

The Subaru we use as a support vehicle on our cross-country tours finally died after 196,000 miles. We call her "Bo Peep" because she keeps track of all the riders on our tours.

Yesterday I installed the bike rack on our beautiful new (and gently used) Subaru Outback. She drives like a dream, smells great, and is in pristine condition. One of my favorite guides, Nancy, helped me deal with the used car salesmen. Here's the car next to her flowers. We look forward to putting some miles on this Bo Peep!

Yellowstone Tour

There was a treat in my email inbox last Tuesday. It was a copy of a letter written to someone interested in our Yellowstone tour. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.


Hi Jan-

I highly recommend this tour, and traveling with WomanTours
generally. Food was excellent: lots of great snack materials to take
along in the am, or make your own breakfast. Great lunches along the
way, made in the back of the van in the WT kitchen. Fabulous dinners!
We ate at a couple 2-3? of the best restaurants in the region, all
included in the price. All the food was fine with the exception of
one so-so breakfast at a motel. The accommodations in the park are
fabulous-some big lodges, some groups of cabins. You will not be
disappointed. There was just one motel, one night, noted above, that
was certainly adequate but not special. (Their pool was nice,
though.)

The only van shuttling required was going from Yellowstone to Grand
Teton Park; the park services don't allow group biking on that road
cause the shoulder's so bad. That was an hour or so. Otherwise, you
can ride in the van as much or as little as you like. If you're tired
or just having a bad day, or just don't feel like doing a particular
hill, you can grab a lift and still have a good time. No judgments.
It's your experience to have as you wish.

The roads are generally very good for biking, nice wide shoulders.
You get a florescent triangle (to keep) to put on the pack of your
bike (or body) so the sag wagon can easily pick you up as a member of
the group.

Being with all women is very empowering. There is not the kind of
one-upmanship, competitiveness, etc. that there sometimes is in
mixed athletic endeavors. There is a nice feeling in the group. There
are women of all ages and backgrounds. We had women in their late
60's who rode every mile and then some! There are women who bike a
great deal, have been on lots of centuries or tours or whatever, and
some who are just starting to bike. But you stop and go as you
please, stopping to look at mts or birds or rivers or bears or
whatever you feel like. Some start earlier than others; some arrive
at the day's destination later than others. There's lots of
flexibility and freedom, yet the knowledge that there's help or
companionship if you want or need it. They do keep some track of
where folks generally are, by watching, letting us know where they'd
next be stopping for a break or so we could refill water etc,

WomanTours does a great job with all aspects of producing the trip. I
recommend this trip or any they are doing. The leaders are
knowledgeable, friendly, know how to handle unexpected things without
panicing, etc. The scenery was great, they planned some special
places to lunch. There was one place we went after the day's riding
(Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone) that we had to leave our bikes and
all go in the van. Well worth it!

I am doing the Death Valley trip with them in February, so I guess
that speaks for the faith I have in them and what a good experience
it was for me. This time, I hope to have done a bit more training!

Let me know if you have other questions. See you on the road!

G.

New Tour in Basilicata Italy

We're awfully busy in our off-season creating new tours. Our newest is in Basilicata, the instep of the boot, as they say. Basilicata is near the Tuscany region of Southern Italy, but it's not nearly as well-known. We'll have it to ourselves.

Basilicata by Bike.

We'll visit Sassi and its ancient maze of cave dwellings carved from the limestone. They film all the movies about Christ here. We'll bike through the country's largest natural wilderness -- Pollino National Park -- formed to preserve the Pale Bark Pine tree. Who knew?

So start saving now and join us next fall in Basilicata....