What to Expect When You Ride With Us
Below you'll find an overview of our company and approach to mountain bike tourism. If you want to know more about a specific aspect of our company, click on one of the links below or one of the menu items at left.
A Little Bit About Us...
Our Rides are all about amazing mountain biking in spectacular locations around the world. But they're also about meaningful, responsible tourism that gives back to local communities and gives you a rich, rewarding experience that goes beyond just an amazing mountain bike adventure. Ride with us and you'll get:
- Amazing, challenging singletrack rides in spectacular locations
- Local guides and support staff who know their areas intimately
- Interaction with local communities
- Cultural activities that help you understand and appreciate the area where you ride
- A % of your trip cost donated to local community projects
- Opportunities to volunteer with some of the projects that we support
[Find out more about our company, our mission, and our guiding principles]
Responsible Riding
What is Responsible Riding?
It's a belief that bicycles matter.
It's a belief that:
- mountain bike tourism should be based on creating and sustaining strong, vibrant communities
- mountain biking and responsible travel can go hand in hand
- mountain biking and environmentalism aren't mutually exclusive
- mountain bike travel can make a positive difference in the communities that we visit
[Read more about our Responsible Riding mandate]
Why Would I Want To Go On A Guided Ride?
We'll be the first to admit it - a guided mountain bike ride is not for everyone. Some people prefer to go it alone and enjoy discovering trails and places on their own. But here are a few reasons why a guided ride might appeal to you:
- In some remote places (like Peru for instance), it's just plain impossible to find the trails without getting hopelessly lost
- Local guides means they know all the best trails and local hangouts, so you spend more time riding awesome trails and less time deciphering maps
- New riding buddies from all over the world - you'll never ride alone!
- You just show up at the airport with your bike (or without) and we take care of everything after that. No booking hotels, cars, searching for restaurants, etc...
We Guarantee All Our Rides
We're so sure you'll have the trip of a lifetime with us, we back our trips with a satisfaction guarantee: If you're not 100% fully satisfied with your trip, we'll give you a full credit toward another trip with Sacred Rides. If after your 2nd trip you still aren't satisfied, we'll refund 100% of your money, no questions asked.
[read our customer service pledge]
We Care About Your Safety
At Sacred Rides, we take your safety very seriously. We have a comprehesive safety and risk management plan - one of the most comprehensive in the business. Our full safety plan is over 50 pages long and covers all kinds of contingencies. Each of our guides is briefed on this safety plan at the start of each season and at periodic intervals throughout the season.
When you sign up for one of our adventures, you can rest assured that your safety is taken very seriously by your guiding team. While no one can guarantee a 100% safe trip, we do everything we can to minimize risks.
Skills and Fitness
Our Rides are for passionate, experienced mountain bikers. The majority of our rides are rated strong intermediate and up. What this means is that you should be able to:
- Ride moderately technical singletrack (i.e. trails, not dirt or gravel roads)
- Ride up to 4 hours/day at a relaxed pace (we like to take time to enjoy scenic viewpoints and cultural/community interactions
- Ride over small trail obstacles (e.g. roots, small logs up to 6" high, rocks, etc...)
- Climb up to 300m/1000ft vertical at a time
[read more about individual skill ratings and fitness]
What's Included
Although the specifics vary from Ride to Ride (exactly what is included is listed in the right columb of each individual Ride page), in general our Rides include (with a few exceptions):
- Accommodation, generally in clean, comfortable locally-owned hotels, lodges and B&Bs
- Healthy and delicious breakfasts and lunches and, in some cases, dinners
- 2 local English-speaking guides who live and work in the areas where they ride
- Transportation during the Ride in comfortable, air-conditioned vans
- Admission to cultural/archaelogical sites visited during the Ride
- Entrance to national and provincial parks when applicable
- Purified water in locations where it is needed
Our Rides do not include international airfare to the trip starting point, and they do not include bike rental (but bike rentals are available for an extra fee on almost all of our Rides)
FAQ
Answers to all (OK, most) of your questions, including:
- Who goes on Sacred Rides' trips?
- What if I'm traveling alone?
- Should I bring my own bike or do you offer rentals?
- What if I have to cancel?
- What if you cancel a trip?
- How far in advance should I book my trip?
[more FAQ]
Finding Your Ride
So you've read all about our company and our approach to mountain bike tourism, the next step is to Find Your Ride. We offer almost 20 different Rides in 9 locations around the world - to find yours, click on Our Rides or use the Ride Finder above to narrow down your search using date, location, and skill/fitness filters.
Once you've found your Ride, you can book your spot by putting down a 20% deposit - then just start giddily counting down the days!
You can also visit our schedule page to check out dates of upcoming trips!
