Jarrett2

Just got back from a 5-day vacation/3-day bike tour in the Texas Hill Country with the Velo View Bike Tours company. This was simply the best bike trip I've ever been on by far.

The routes were 38, 55 and 45 miles over three days with a decent amount of climbing. It was the first time I've encountered 17-20% grades before and they were much funner to go down than to go up

The whole trip was fully supported by the Velo View tour van. They picked us up in Austin, then started the ride in Blanco, rode to Luckenbach, were shuttled to a winery for lunch, then on to the ranch cabins that we called home base for the weekend. Dinner was at Hilltop Cafe outside of Fredericksburg and was outstanding.

Saturday, we did the Willow City Loop which some call the best bike ride in Texas. It was certainly in the top 3 for me. We did lunch at another nice restaurant in Fredericksburg followed by a catered dinner back at the ranch.

Sunday was riding out of the ranch back towards Johnson City for lunch at the Pecan Street Brewery, then a short ride back to Austin to finish it out.

I had a nice recovery ride in Austin Monday morning around downtown. That is such a great city for cycling. Trails and bike lanes everywhere and all very scenic. It was a great trip overall.

I've got over a 100 pics from the trip, here is a link to the ride pics and I've embedded some of better ones below:

Texas Hill Country Photos (Fredericksburg) - Velo View Bike Tours

Flatbroke

That looked like a lot of fun. Hope to be able to do that some day but since my wife doesn't ride it probably won't happen

LGHT

Looks like a lot of fun, and I just love those open roads and views.

Mindcrime

Huh. Small world. I was also out in Hill Country this past weekend for Northwest Cycling Club's volunteer appreciation weekend. We stayed just outside of Burnet at a resort called Log Country Cove, and rode around Inks Lake state park. Fantastic, hilly, scenic rides. Hit Perisso's vinyards, ate like kings, and on the way back to Houston hit Jester King brewing.

I agree, Hill Country is one FABULOUS place to spend a riding vacation.

Fangowolf

I was looking at that tour. You wouldn't have any GPS's would you? 17-20% grade ouch, without any hills around I just can't get a feel for that kind of effort at 300+

Edit, Sorry they have them on their site now.

gjhsu

Glad you had fun in our neck of the woods! And while we don't have much in terms of mountains, we have more than enough rollers to share

Jarrett2

We have 11-13% hills where I live. It wasn't much worse than that. I just put it in the granny gear and hoped I had enough juice to make it to the top each time and I did.

We bumped into a group from Keller in Fredricksburg as well. Seems to be a popular spot.