Taking a bicycle trip involves a lot of repetition that happens outside the time when you are riding your bike. Along the way, you’ll most likely stay at numerous hotels, experience different food and wine, and see amazing scenery. But the time you have to linger at any one place is limited.
Moving around from one place to another plays a big part in general when you travel (and also quite a bit during the course of a bicycle trip). Over a weeklong trip, though, it can take a toll when all you want to do is rest after a long day on the bike. Santana Adventures offers something a little different to its cycling guests via the moving hotel of a cruise ship that takes them to each ride location.
Who is Santana Adventures?
Santana Adventures is the brainchild of Jan and Bill McCready. They were already used to creating trips and leading tours, so their experience in the tourism industry made choosing their next venture easy. Santana Adventures started hiring cruise ships for bicycle tours in 2005, but the actual company started in 1984.
The whole theme of their company is to offer a unique cycling experience and eliminate the packing and repacking that cyclists normally experience as they ride from town to town to stay at a new hotel during a typical bicycle trip hosted by bicycle travel companies.
What Makes The Company Unique?
To mimic a typical bicycle vacation trip, the McCreadys realized they would need to offer their bicycling guests 5-star accommodations. The rooms, food, wine, and trips themselves also had to match what other bicycle travel companies offer.
And since guests don’t have to worry about the next place they’ll be staying the night, cyclists get an “extra hour of leisure per day—more time for cycling, sightseeing, and sleeping.”
The McCreadys also made sure the ships were designed around the needs of bicyclists. Their cycling cruise ships provide “secure on-board parking, bike service area (with cruise assigned mechanic), and a convenient bicycle gangway. The best part of a cyclists-only cruise is the easy camaraderie of interesting, active, and adventurous couples. This is way better than any normal cruise.”
A Cruise Is Fine But Is The Cycling Good?
Of course, the most important part of a bicycle trip is the cycling itself. The McCreadys wanted to make sure their trips appealed to the casual cyclist as well as the hardcore roadie.
That’s why the company offers short daily rides of 30+ miles, medium routes of 40 – 50 miles and maybe one climb, and long routes of 55+ miles with lots of climbs but with the best scenery. Santana Adventures also offers what they call a “challenge ride.” It’s an even longer route with one climb that is “difficult yet rewarding.”
Santana Adventures Worldwide Destinations
A typical bicycle travel company is limited in how much area it can cover. That’s why their individual trips tend to focus on particular regions, such as Provence in France or the Dolomites in Italy.
A cruise ship is only limited by the lack of ocean near a location that offers great cycling. Guests can, for instance, ride in Spain one day and then in Portugal the next. The boat travels anywhere from 100 to 150 miles overnight, so cyclists experience new rides, routes, and scenery every day.
Just to give you a quick overview, here are some of the locations Santana Adventures schedules its trips.
- New Zealand
- Duoro River Valley/ Portugal and Spain
- Tahiti
- British Isles
- Danube River
- Corsica
- Adriatic
- Bordeaux Norway
- Baltic Sea
- Norway
- Mississippi River, Columbia River, USA
What’s Included in a Santana Adventures Tour?
Since the time when cyclists are not riding will be spent on the cruise ship, many items that land-based bicycle travel companies include are covered by Santana Adventures. Accommodations on the ship, however, aren’t included. Other than that, all meals are included as well as most beverages, including beer and wine. Other alcoholic drinks are not.
Santana Adventures provides the ability to rent a bike if guests choose not to bring their own, although 90% of its guests choose this option. The cost to rent a road bike for the duration of a trip is $500.
Of note here, besides bicycle touring, Santana Adventures specializes in and builds tandem bikes. If a guest chooses to hire another type of bike, those arrangements have to occur outside of Santana Adventures.
The company also supplies all guests with GPS head units or they can bring their own. Use of a smartphone as a ride computer, however, is discouraged due to possible weather damage and because of the variances in phone GPS systems.
If a guest chooses to bring their own bike, Santana Adventures does have a Valet Bike Assembly/Disassembly Service. It runs $100 for a tandem bike and $70.00 for a single bike. There are a few discrepancies in terms of how the bike is packed and the materials used to pack it, which might keep your bike from being reassembled by the company’s mechanics.
Cost of A Santana Adventures Trip
The company currently has 12 trips scheduled (this was for 2024/2025). However, their cruise page states the company might add additional trips. That said, to give you an idea about one of their trips, the Douro River Cruise, which includes both Portugal and Spain, is $3,199 for 8 days and 7 nights.
This price does not include the cost of your room on the ship, the lowest cost of which is $3,999. So, this is not a cheap trip by any means. Flights and travel insurance are also not covered by the company. Check out the specific cruise page about the trip you want to take for extensive details about each trip.
Last Thoughts
A cycling cruise is a unique way to take a bicycling trip, either internationally or in the United States. Santana Adventures tries to make everything as easy and relaxing as possible.
This may be the perfect trip for you if you wish to cycle through more than one country without worrying about changing hotels every day. The nice thing is the company attempts to match the amenities of a high-end, land-based cycling trip. I suppose my only recommendation is to book early, as Santana Adventures’ trips seem to fill up quickly.
