Viva Velo Cycle Tours - Bespoke Trips
““A brilliant week with Dyll and all the team at Viva Velo. They were flexible, adaptable to our needs and focussed on what we wanted instead of making you feel like a number as other organisations do. They happily accommodated one of our riders, giving her a ride leader for an entire day away from the bigger group - you just don’t get that level of attention elsewhere. Nothing is too much trouble for these guys. I developed significantly as a rider thanks to all the ride leaders who took time to help each one of us improve.” ”
Organising bespoke cycling trips is our absolute specialism. And when we say ‘bespoke’ we mean ‘bespoke’, not-off-the-peg dressed up to look like bespoke! Every aspect of your trip will be designed to suit you and your group. There are several options to choose from:
The full monty - all you have to do is pedal
Fully supported trips like this will have on road vehicle support to transport your baggage from overnight stop to overnight stop (on point-to-point tours) as well as a mechanic/driver to assist with mechanical issues roadside. They will also have a team of our dedicated ride leaders to not just guide you but offer additional technical and moral support as required. For these trips we offer a multiplicity of services including devising and doing reconnaissance on all routes, booking all accommodation, providing bike hire and transfers, where required, to and from airports, researching restaurants for lunch and coffee stops as well as providing - although you will be guided every pedal stroke of the way by our ride leaders - route files when requested. In short, all you have to do is relax and push the pedals!
As with all our bespoke trips we start with an initial telephone consultation to help us find out what type of trip you are looking for. It is essential we get as much information as possible at this stage so we can design a trip or trips that really fulfil your brief.
We’ll then produce a full-colour online proposal giving you our initial idea or ideas for your trip. Here is an example of one we produced for a corporate client who wanted a three day trip on which to take their clients. SMBC and Marlborough Partners Proposal
As you can see, we came up with three initial ideas for a potential trip from which the client chose the Milan San Remo point-to-point tour. We then refined this option and produced the following online brochure for the client to use to advertise the trip to their clients. SMBC & Malborough Partners Milan San Remo Brochure.
The clients thoroughly enjoyed their trip and we have just received our third commission from them - in additon to a commission from one of the group for a similar corporate trip.
the half monty - grab your Garmins and we do the rest
While we always recommend that you use our experienced ride leaders on your trip as they do far more than just show you the way, it is in no way compulsory and if you are happy to self-guide then this is a great option to choose. We will provide all the services as outlined in our Fully Supported Trips (route design, accommodation research and booking, and mechanical on-road assistance and baggage transfer, etc) but without the benefit or added cost of our ride leaders.
The process is exactly the same as above, starting with an initial conversation in which we take the brief and understand your needs. Then, just as with our Fully Supported Trips, we produce a proposal. Here is one we created recently for the JLP CC who wanted a to cycle through the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. John Lewis Partnership Cycle Club Proposal
Unusually we only produced one tour suggestion for this client but we thought the idea of having multiple routes to cover essentially the same ground for differing abilities of cyclist was a novel one. The client then came back and suggested we design a circular route along the same lines but which avoided the need to arrange transfers from the end of the linear route back to the start. The result was our JLP Three Parks Brochure
The client was delighted and duly commissioned the trip which we then ran in June 2021.
self-supported trips
As the name implies these trips do not include the provision of baggage transfer and on-road mechanical support and are intended for smaller groups for whom the fixed costs incurred in a supported tour would make them impractically expensive.
But just as with all our bespoke trips the process starts with a conversation. Having talked with you we will advise as to potential destinations (if you do not already know yours) and produce a tour to fit your budget, designing routes researching and booking accommodation, arranging transfers, etc. This process is normally staged as follows:
We charge an initial fee for route design and then send you the GPX files to use as you wish. This fee varies according to the number of days cycling involved (obviously) but is generally around £350 for a short four/five-day trip. If you then ask us to provide other services these will be costed on a menu basis and you can opt for as many or as few as you wish.
individuals or a small groups looking for a bespoke trip - join our 'Let us Link You' scheme.
If you are an individual or small group we can still help you design a bespoke tour at a reasonable cost. You can either choose the self-supported option OR we can help put you together with other like-minded cyclists to help share the fixed costs of a supported tour.
By joining our cycling community we can help you find other like-minded cyclists through our Let Us Link You Scheme (or LULU for short!) It is easy to join. Just click the link or the button below, fill in a brief questionnaire giving us the details of your ideal cycling trip and we’ll aim to put you together with others who are looking for a similar trip. It takes less than five minutes and helps us make supported bespoke cycle tours a possibility for everyone.
Why settle for the run-of-the-mill when you can have bespoke?
need more inspiration?
We hope you can see from the examples on this page and in the drop down menus above that whether it be a point-to-point tour, a fixed base camp or a cycling challenge you have always had on your bucket list, we will look to take you where you haven’t been before or add a touch of something special – creating tailor-made trips solely designed with you and your friends in mind.
But if you need more inspiration to start planning your own bespoke trip then here are a few more of the many purpose-built trips we have created for clients previously, just click on the pictures below to get more details.
Of course, if these inspire you to take a similar trip we can adjust, tweak and amend them to suit you or, alternatively you can start again from scratch and we can design something completely new. The choice is yours. Simply click the ‘Enquire Now’ button below to start your conversation.
