Empire State Trail Self-Guided Tours
Trip planning, customized GPS, bag shuttle, bike rental and on-the-ground services
Contact us to start planning your bike tour adventure
We provide a range of services to self-guided riders on the Empire State Trail.
- Tour Planning Services include direct consultation to help you plan your tour, select accommodations, work through arrival and departure logistics, and more. We provide detailed maps for each day of riding, plus customized GPS so that you never get lost and do not miss any tour highlights.
- Tour Operation Services include rental bikes, bike shipping, baggage shuttle, vehicle support, etc. that are provided to you while you are out riding your tour (scroll to bottom of page for details).
Tour Planning Services
You already know that you want to go on a bike tour across New York State, but there are many questions:
- Do you know where you want to ride and how many days?
- Do you know where you want to start and end? How will you get there?
- Do you want to use your own bike or rent a bike?
- Do you know where you want to stay along your ride? Will there be services and good places to eat?
- Are you familiar with all of the places you can visit while you ride? Are there particular attractions or experiences that you are interested in? Are there particular foods or local products you would like to try?
- Would you like a reliable GPS program to help you navigate the route and provide you with information while you ride? (Just following signs while you ride may not be enough because signs are always missing!)
If you are not at all familiar with New York, you should expect to spend about 30 to 50 hours planning out your tour so that you can be organized enough to satisfy the above questions. If you have some familiarity with New York, perhaps it will take you a few hours less. Our Tour Planning Services are intended to save you this work. Our services can also save you money since we can help you identify cost savings that you may not otherwise know about, so they are an excellent value.
Here’s what you get:
- Selecting the best itinerary. Through phone and email consultation, we can go over options with you to create an itinerary that has the ideal mileage per day for your group. This would include a selection of lodging options in locations that best suit your group.
- Getting there and away. We can give you customized options for getting to the start of your ride, and getting back from the end of your ride. This can include logistics for traveling with your own bikes, or for using rental bikes.
- Overview maps. Each day of riding will come with a set of overview maps that describe the highlights of each day, as well as the location of services. Emergency medical facilities and bike shops are identified as well as restaurants, convenience stores, and other services that cyclists may need. Click here to see a sample overview map
- Turn-by-turn GPS navigation. Your entire ride would be programmed with GPS navigation through Ride With GPS. You can run the GPS by using a smartphone app or by downloading it to a Garmin or other device. This GPS will route you directly to and from your accommodations each day, and will help you find restaurants, services, scenic viewpoints, historic sights and more as you ride. Click here to see a sample of the GPS mapping you would receive.
- Information, attractions and points of interest. Your overview maps and GPS navigation can be customized to include information about specific attractions, recommended places to eat, good places to take breaks, notable scenic or historical sites and more. The Ride With GPS smartphone app also includes a guide with photographs of every informational panel along your route so that you do not need to stop and read any. The GPS will read you one-sentence summaries about what each sign is about as you pass the sign, so you will know if you want to read it.
Tour Planning Services typically cost between $500 and $1,200 depending on the length and complexity of your tour.
Tour Operation Services
Tour Operation Services include on-the-ground services while you are out riding your tour. These services could include providing you with rental bikes, baggage shuttle, and/or full-service vehicle support for the days you are riding.
The exact scope of the Tour Operation Services you may need will likely be determined through the Tour Planning process as discussed above. Typical costs for services include:
- Hybrid rental bicycles: $250 per week (no e-bikes, see below)
- One-way bicycle rental drop off fee: $400
- Baggage-shuttle: $400 per group, per day
- Full-service vehicle support: $1,000 to $1,500 per group, per day. (Costs vary by location and group size)
Note on e-bikes: We do not rent e-bikes. E-bikes are prohibited on many of the trails we use for our tours. No tour operators should be using e-bikes on the Empire State Trail because of these rules. If you find another tour operator offering e-bike rentals on the Empire State Trail, you should know that they are disobeying the rules by doing so, which may impact the insurance coverage they are supposed to be providing their customers.
Thank you both for an amazing trip! The ride was beautiful, and at just the right intensity (challenging, yet doable). Your organization and planning were spectacular…it couldn’t have been a better experience!
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