There is no “perfect” inline skating tour location, as what constitutes a good location depends on the tour participant. But our new tour in Switzerland is in the running for everyone!
In general, our inline skating (Rollerblading) tours fall into two categories:
- Locations that use long, paved, flat paths. These often require shuttling between paths since the paths are not contiguous. Most of our United States tour locations (Florida, Idaho) are like this.
- Tours that use a combination of paved paths, bicycle routes along roads, and small rural roads to string together a contiguous multi-day tour. Most of our European skating tour locations (Netherlands, for example) are like this.
The former are fantastic for those who just like to focus on the skating. But the very nature of sticking to paved paths, often created from old railroads, is that you have to follow the path wherever it leads you. I myself prefer the latter variety because these tours allow us to skate through small towns and past interesting sights, experiencing the local culture as we skate.
Our new skate tour in Switzerland is very much this type of cultural skate tour. We skate in one relatively small area of Switzerland in the far northeastern section of the country. We stay in four separate hotels in four different towns but skate through dozens of towns along the routes. We use a combination of paved paths, agricultural roads prohibited to cars, bicycle paths along roads, and small rural roads trafficked much more by bikes than cars. We see mountains on both sides of the valley, cows in the fields, medieval villages, and the Rhine River always nearby.
As a participant, if you skate the medium route each day (usually about 15 miles) you can skate from hotel to hotel. We have only one shuttle, by train, to get us past an area that is more congested than we like.
The topper is that Switzerland is the only country in the world we know of that has signposted inline skating routes. That means not only do they upkeep these routes for skaters but everywhere we skate has signs just for us at each intersection.
We used to run an inline skating tour in a different area of Switzerland until the routes deteriorated. This new tour is as good or better than that. We look forward to skating in Switzerland in 2020!
Sounds interesting I’m a retired surgeon, Good health, 81 years old, and blade 8 miles a day, 5 days a week on an old railroad trail in Atlanta, average speed 7-8 miles/hour ?Acceptable
Hi John,
First off, congrats on skating eight miles a day, five days a week at 81!
Are you comfortable braking? And going over slightly uneven portions of your trail? If so, yes, you would be ready for this tour. The reality is we do have to brake when needed and go over bike “speed” bumps or other rougher patches. Keep in mind we have a support van always available and it is no problem to go whatever distance you want and then jump in the van.
Allan
What would the price be for this tour?
Alisa, the price is $3300 for the week. For complete details see https://zephyradventures-production.mystagingwebsite.com/tour/switzerland-skating/.
Allan