For travelers with specific dietary restrictions, we do our best to accommodate your needs. Chefs in our preferred restaurants work hard to provide you with amazing meals.

To plan the meals accordingly, we need to know about any potential food intolerances in advance, and ask about them in the Customer Information Form.

While we make every effort to accommodate food restrictions, adapted menus may vary quite a bit from what the other travelers are eating. If you have specific dietary requirements and are concerned that we won’t be able to accommodate you adequately, we encourage you to contact us. You may consider bringing items that you need to make your trip enjoyable. On tour, your tour leaders are available to assist you if you want to find the local specialties that meet your dietary needs.

Please note that we make tour preparations far in advance, including selecting menus. If you communicated dietary restrictions to us, please adhere to your request while on tour and do not switch your order at mealtime.

• B, L, & D: For each guided tour, we will provide breakfast, an occasional lunch, and a majority of dinners. For a detailed list of what meals are included on your tour, take a look at your online itinerary by searching our tour pages. The initials, “B”, “L”, and “D”, symbolize, “breakfast”, “lunch”, and “dinner”, respectively.
• Snacks: We encourage you to stop over at cafés, restaurants and markets along the route so you can refuel. In addition, on guided tours, we provide snacks on the van if you need to refuel sooner. On guided tours, your support van will be stocked with trail mix, energy bars, seasonal fruit and water. Snacks may vary by region and availability. If you have a specific snack bar or electrolytes that you prefer, or if you are hoping to get specific nutrients (caffeine, protein, etc.), it’s best to bring some of your own snacks to make sure you have what you need.

Breakfast on tour might be different than what you’re used to at home. In Europe and South America, typical breakfast tends to be a pastry and a coffee, which is a tough way to start the day when you have a full day of cycling ahead of you. We provide you with a carbohydrate-rich breakfast complete with breads, pastries, and fruit (and much needed beverage fuel, as well). Breakfasts may not always have an option for eggs, but there is almost always meat and cheese as a protein option. The lack of eggs in some locations is due to European restrictions that prevent hotels from doing food preparation. If you require something specific, or feel you need more protein at breakfast, please feel free to bring along nut butters for extra protein.

Most lunches on guided tours will be “on your own.” We think this option is best for our travelers because it allows you to ride at your own pace and you do not have to show up for a lunch date at a specific time. Also, you get to pick one of the local cafés that catch your eye – we often have multiple recommendations for each day as options abound! Once in a while there will be a lunch spot we don’t think you should miss or you’ll be riding in a remote area that makes picnicking the best option. At those times, we’ll have lunch together.

Our dinners are an event worth waiting for. As with any event, we will take some time to enjoy our surroundings and each other. Meals are multiple courses and include wine or beer, depending on where you’re touring. Dinners tend to be later in the evening, so expect to eat sometime after 7:00 p.m., depending on the country. We also realize that, on guided tours, sometimes it is nice to have a break from the group, which is why we include a few nights with “dinner on your own”. We’ll provide suggestions for any meal that is on your own, but feel free to explore even wider!

Our first bicycling itineraries in the 70s and 80s were in Italy and at that time all dinner menus included wine. As we expanded, we didn’t want to break with tradition so we continue to offer wine with dinner on guided tours (Gravel Explorer and Expeditions tours excluded), no matter where we are traveling. In regions where wine is not locally produced or not the preferred beverage (e.g. Belgium, Bavaria, Czech Republic, etc.), we will offer the local specialty of non alcoholic and alcoholic varieties. Of course we also always have plenty of water on the table too.

As general policy for guided ExperiencePlus! trips, tap water is available at meals and in the van unless the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises otherwise for the region of travel. Unless you’re traveling in Cuba, or very specific areas in Europe (e.g. Girona in Spain, or Sicily), tap water from your hotel or from any bar is perfectly potable even though you may see locals drinking bottled water. Locally, water may be heavily laden with minerals and may taste differently than what you are used to.

Each country has its own customs and culture surrounding meal time and cuisine. For more detailed information on your destination’s culinary delights check out our country specific travel planning pages.