If you’re looking for a more active form of Boat Bike tours, this is for you! On these tours you’ll ride a mountain bike, sometimes on bike routes, but also sometimes on technical passages. At the same time, you’ll be island-hopping in beautiful Croatia, Turkey, Greece or Italy! Our partner Islandhopping offers these tours on its website.
These routes still include everything that makes our regular boat bike tours special: you’ll stay in a comfortable cabin for the week in either a motor-driven yacht or a sailing ship. You’ll pass through magnificent landscapes, swim in brilliant blue water on out-of-the-way beaches, and enjoy drinks at picturesque bars with beautiful views in cute coastal towns.
Certified local guides will accompany you on your MTB tour. You’ll love the varied terrain: sometimes technical with loose ground or downhill steps, sometimes nature trails, sometimes paved bike paths. It’s a great combination of exciting and active riding with relaxation and authenticity as you pass through landscapes with fascinating histories.
If your friends or family are all into mountain biking, take one of our MTB Special tours, which are exclusively focused on mountain biking. When it’s possible, our guides split up and offer different routes with different difficulty levels.
Don’t worry, though, if you want to travel with someone who doesn’t do mountain biking. In that case, take one of our MTB standard tours. On these tours, a regular boating and cycling tour takes place at the same time on the same boat! You can travel together, but ride different routes each day. Requirements for MTB and boat tours
Of course, if you’re going to sign up for an MTB tour, you need a certain level of fitness and also be able to handle a mountain bike. These tours are meant to be guided, but, if you let a guide know ahead of time and choose your route carefully, with the guide’s help, you can bike on your own if you want.
Difficulty levels
We can’t predict how difficult you’ll find a particular route. It’s influenced by your physical fitness, your general health, how you cope with high temperatures, and how experienced you are. Nevertheless, we can give you an idea of what our routes are like, so we’ve rated them by level of difficulty:
Level 1: Relatively easy routes which mostly follow paved roads or wide nature trails. The distance is 20- 30 km and about 200-400 meters of elevation gain per day. S0.
Level 1-2: These routes are easy to intermediate, for riders with a good level of fitness and good bike control. You’ll follow nature trails and relatively easy single trails. Distance: 20-40 km and 300-500 meters of elevation gain per day. S0-S1.
Level 2: Intermediate level for mountain bikers who like a range of terrain and who are used to climbs of up to 500 meters. Distance: 30-50 km with 400-600 meters of elevation gain per day. S0-S2. Level 2-3: Intermediate to advanced-level route. This is for riders who are confident on a wide range of terrain, have a good level of fitness and excellent bike control. These trails are mostly hiking trails and single trails. Distance: 30-60 km and 400-750 meters of elevation gain per day. S0-S2.
Level 3: Advanced tour for those with excellent bike control who like technical trails. These routes mostly use hiking trails and single trails. Distance: 30-60 km and 500-1000 meters of elevation gain per day. S0-S3.
Single trail classification
To make it clear what you should expect on different tours, we’ve classified the single trails for each one. We used the European single trail scale as reference.
Blue (easy, S0-S1): These trails have small obstacles like flat roots, small stones, some gulleys, some erosion, some loose ground, with gradients up to 40% and some tight curves. You need basic riding skills but also to be able to control your braking and weight dispersal as well as to ride standing up.
Red (intermediate, S2): These surfaces will have loose, larger stones and sometimes roots, ledges, and stairs. The trails have gradients up to 70% and some hairpin turns. You need to be constantly ready to break, with excellent braking control and be able to effectively shift your body’s center of gravity.
Black (difficult, S3-S5): These trails may be blocked, have large stones, rocks and roots. The ground may be slippery or covered in loose scree. There may be high ledges and narrow hairpin turns. The trails have gradients above 70%. Expert control is necessary.
Want to know more?
Do you have any questions about our trips or can we help you with booking? Our partner Islandhopping offers these tours on its website. For more information, simply click on Islandhopping Mountain Bike Tours.
