ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours Offers $200 per Person Early Booking Discounts for Cycling Trips in Chile, Argentina

ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours, in 1972 the first North American tour company to offer bike adventures in Europe and since has expanded to South America, announces $200 per person early booking discounts for cycling trips in Chile and Argentina if bookings are made by Aug. 1, 2013, for tours beginning in December 2013 and continuing through April 2014.

Days of self-paced pedaling come with wine tastings and overnights at historic inns on a fully supported, guided tour called Bicycling Chile’s Wine Country for 11days. For those with limited vacation time, an 8-day version is offered. Another Chile/Argentina tour is Bicycling Patagonia’s Lakes District, a 10-day program that travels from snow-capped mountains to the Pacific Ocean.  A weeklong version is also an option.  Discover Northern Argentina and the Ruins of Quilmes is a 12-day program combining a visit to an ancient Inca fortress with immersion into the region’s culture and Colonial history. A shorter 8-day version is also available.

For an overall look at cycling programs in South America plus information and special booking code for the limited-time $200 per person Early Bird Booking discount, please see here.

ExperiencePlus Bicycle Tours’ style of active travel, often referred to as “global cycling with local character” is showcased in their Bicycling Chile’s Wine Country itinerary. Using the eight-day trip as an example, the journey begins in Santiago before venturing into Chile’s Central Valley, one of the country’s highly acclaimed “new world” winemaking regions which also include the Colchagua and Apalta valleys. Rich in culture and natural beauty, some of the area has been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Overnight tastings and stays include a rural bed and breakfast in Zuñiga, a summer getaway for Chileans. After a 42-mile ride the next day, guests arrive at one of the oldest haciendas in the Colchagua Valley, Las Majadas, related to the Bisquertt Wineries. Here they can enjoy wine spa treatments, tours and tastings. Another day brings the Valle de Apalta, home to several of Chile’s most important wines: Montes, Casa Lapostolle and Ventisquero. In Santa Cruz guests take a rest day to visit an outstanding cultural history museum and the private art collection of Carlos Cardoen while overnighting at Hotel Santa Cruz Plaza with a beautiful garden and pool. En route to the Pacific is the historic village of Lolol before reaching Hotel Marina Vichuquén on the shores of Lake Vichuquén. A cycle south to Duao, a picturesque and isolated fishing town on the Pacific Coast, brings cyclists to Hosteria Donde Gilberto.

“This is very much a tour about the celebrated wines and local flavors of Chile,” emphasized Mara Elena Price, company co-director, referring to their eight-day tour with an optional three-day extension that goes beyond the vineyards of the interior valleys to further explore the rolling coast and its vineyards, markets, spas and villages.