A Cycling Wine Tour In Tuscany

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Italy, images of the Tuscan countryside immediately flood my mind.

Well, that… and wine 🍷

So when we decided to do a dual city trip to Venice and Florence earlier this year, I immediately started looking at what we could do to incorporate more of Tuscany within our visit.

While I would love to spend a few days (or weeks… months even…?) in a villa overlooking the rolling hills and vineyards somewhere in Tuscany, we had relatively limited time on this occasion since we did want to experience the city of Florence as well.

Plus, we also ended up doing a day trip to Pisa so time was at a premium.

We have talked about doing a cycling tour like this one with Intrepid through Tuscany at some point as well. But we decided to prioritised the cities on this occasion. The week-long cycling trip is still on the bucket list for now 😊

Anyway, long story short, we decided to do a taster of everything by booking a one-day cycling wine tour through Get Your Guide, and it worked out absolutely perfectly as an introduction to the Tuscan wine region!!

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A Cycling Wine Tour – The Logistics

• We booked our cycling wine tour through Get Your Guide, which is a super easy website and App that you can use to book all kinds of activities and trips all over the world
• We were given a central meeting point in Florence which was easy to find. From there we jumped in a minivan and drove for about an hour out of Florence into the Chianti wine region in Tuscany, getting some initial insights about the area on the way
• The total tour duration is about 6 hours
• The total cycling distance is about 15km and is mostly on paved roads (yes, there will be cars) although the last few kilometers were on gravel
• I would recommend a medium level of fitness. While the distance isn’t too far and we stopped off regularly for breaks, photo opportunities and drinks of water, Tuscany is hilly so you will have to work for it a bit!
• The cycling wine tour we booked was a small group one which meant there would be 15 of us at most. In the end, though, there were just five of us plus our guide, Alessio
• The bike, helmet and water bottle are included
• We visited two wineries, had an extensive tour of the cellars, did some wine tasting (obviously) and finished up with a yummy Tuscan lunch including plenty of wine!
• Total cost per person was €109

 

Why We Loved This Cycling Wine Tour In Tuscany

This tour was genuinely a great taster (excuse the pun!) of Tuscany. The countryside was every bit as beautiful as I had always imagined and cycling it (rather than driving) gave us the opportunity to really soak it all in. Plus I guess we were lucky that the weather was equally as stunning! It definitely whetted our appetite for going back to Tuscany and spending more time there.

The tour guide was knowledgeable and fun. Trust me, we’ve had tour guides before who’ve rushed us through places, didn’t know what they were talking about, or didn’t seem particularly interested in what they were doing. Alessio from FlorenceTown (the company that runs the tour) was great. His English may not have been perfect but we had a lot of laughs!

The pace was perfect – not too rushed and our guide took his time explaining things along the way. We learned all about olive trees, how weather affects vine growth, why they don’t use irrigation, what makes Chianti special and much much more!

Visiting the cellars was amazing. Seeing the huge vats in the massive wine cellars and learning about the process of making the wines was really insightful. Of course, having a taster of the wines was pretty great too! Would you believe I’d actually never had a Rosé before? Turns out I really like it! 

The lunch (and wine!) following the tour was plentiful and delicious! Sure, €109 per person isn’t the cheapest tour you could do but with everything we got out of it, we really did feel it was worth the money.

Is It Right For You?

If you’re a bit lazy (no judgment! I am very often lazy myself!) this tour is not for you! 😅

You’re going to have to work for it with this one so make sure you’re ready and willing to do so. If you have an average level of fitness, you’re good to go!

It may get hot (you know, Italy and summer and cycling all that). If you’d rather not get sweaty, you probably don’t really want to sign up for this particular tour.

Also, if you’re not that comfortable on a bike, you may want to reconsider. While the roads were relatively quiet, you will need to navigate traffic a bit here and there. We had one girl on our tour who struggled because she hadn’t ridden a bike since she was a kid. She still managed though, so it’s not a deal breaker. But just consider your comfort level before booking!

But, if you like the feeling of getting a little active, you like the slightly slower pace, want to be able to stop off for lots of photo opportunities and interested in learning a good deal about wine, olives, and Tuscany, this cycling wine tour is going to be right up your alley!

 

Are There Any Alternatives?

If cycling isn’t quite getting your juices flowing, there are some awesome alternatives too!

The same company also do wine tasting tours by Vespa, minivan and even horse riding! You can also opt to go VIP and do a private tour if you prefer. Although we quite enjoyed the company of the other participants! 

 

Have you ever been to Tuscany? Or would you like to?

Let me know whether you’d consider doing a more active tour like the cycling one we did, or even a longer one like the one we’d still quite like to do! I’d love to hear about your experiences!

 

 

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