by Jeff Wozer

Ed note: For first rate help planning your trip we highly recommend you have a look at cyclomundo

In the last few years self-guided bicycle tours have elevated from a novel idea to a now popular choice with riders around the globe. Low on cost, but big with options self-guided tours offer something guided tours cannot: flexibility.

It’s a concept that allows you, the rider, to actively decide rather than passively settle. So instead of following a leader you’re allowed to follow your interests. And because you’re not paying for a tour guide or a shadowing support van self-guided tours are also extremely cost effective.

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Say, for instance, you’ve blueprinted a self-guided tour in Provence around your passion for art history. A typical day might follow as such: You wake in storied Avignon, a town steeped with historical awe. Unlike a regular tour there isn’t a guide trying to herd and hurry you to the next pre-determined location on a pre-determined checklist. Instead, you’re following the pace of your own agenda that allows you to experience rather than to merely glimpse.

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After spending yesterday afternoon touring the Palais des Papes and having the time to visit each of its ten towers as well as its Great Chapel, you want to use the morning to further explore Avignon before pedaling north. Following a leisurely shower in a hotel of your choice you feast on croissants and omelets at the hotel’s sidewalk cafe with your friends. Unlike guided tours there are no awkward conversations with just-met strangers in your group, only relaxed camaraderie with close associates. Because it’s your tour you only ride with people of your choosing.

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Over breakfast you might read a newspaper or study the detailed maps that your tour organizer, such as Cyclomundo, one of the leaders of self-guided tours in France, provided on arrival day.

You then spend the morning being awed by Gallo-Roman sculptures and the works of Dufy, Manet and Daumier in the Musee Calvet.

Following a quick lunch you begin pedaling towards Chateauneuf-du-Pape. But while passing Pont St-Benezet, along the Rhone River, one of the members of your group decides her bike needs a tune-up. No problem. Because self-guided tours are so well organized you’ve been provided with a network of phone numbers to call in the event of any mechanical kinks. One phone call and one hour later you and your group are back on your saddles pedaling into wine country.

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By mid-afternoon you are all hoisting wine glasses from one of the Chateauneuf-de-Pape’s many wine tasting cellars. While some in your group pay extended homage to one of the world’s greatest wine altars, you take advantage of your “self-guided freedom” to huff up to what remains of the Papal Castle perched atop an adjacent hillside. After being staggered by the panoramic views of the Rhone Valley from up there you then rejoin your group and begin the 10 kilometer (6 miles) ride to Orange. As you enter town you pass Theatre Antique, a massive ancient theater recognized as one of the greatest Roman monuments in Europe. You know you’ll have time tomorrow to visit so you don’t fret about somehow fitting it into your schedule. You and your group then check into a hotel, inn or bed-and-breakfast that you pre-selected based on your own budget and comfort needs. There you find your luggage which was transported earlier in the day by your tour organizer. After checking into your room and tidying up you then join your friends for dinner at a restaurant of your own choosing while savoring the satisfaction of feeling like an independent traveler rather than a chaperoned tourist.