Cape Town Cycling Tours

We often get asked what Cycle Africa Tours offer. Do we only offer cycling tours or other forms of travel? Well, its very simple to explain. I was employed at the time with another operator based in Cape Town, and one day while walking along the beach. I decided to make a career change. Throw in the towel and go solo! I have always wanted to turn my passion for not only cycling but the outdoors in general from a hobby to a profession. So in 2014, Velo Africa, trading as Cycle Africa Tours was started.

So to answer the many questions. We started out with designing a few cycling day tours around Cape Town. Our initial plan was to offer guided road cycling trips from Cape Town and around the Cape Peninsula, but also to cycle into the popular Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. This particular trip went well and is still going strong. Imagine being able to cycle not only on the iconic Cape Town Cycle Tour route, well parts of it but also to the most south-western tip of Africa! 

We then decided to offer a road cycling tour along the official Whale Route. We now have two trips that start in Hermanus and explore the coastal road past the penguin colony at Stoney Point, and the hugging the False Bay coastline along Claren’s Drive. For the more relaxed road cyclist, you also get to visit Hermanus during the whale season but your cycle route starts in Kleinmond. You enjoy a 50km route compared to the 80km.

Being an avid mountain biker, I then decided to venture into the countryside and showcase the world-class trails the Western Cape has to offer. We concentrated on the local trails around Cape Town. I must admit, we are very spoilt with our selection of single track, but the mountain biking scene, in general, is growing really fast. For us, it’s a pleasure to take our guests and showcase places like the Elgin Valley, the Stellenbosch trail network is also awesome and needs to be ridden, not to mention the Winelands around Paarl and Wellington. 

The new boy on the block – “GRAVEL BIKING” yes, we to have been overtaken with this new form of cycling. The first time I did a test ride it was like going from traditional skiing over to snowboarding, FREEDOM pure. I found myself spending more time on my gravel bike than I did on my racing bike. I was hooked. The cool thing is, you head off on tarmac and pass a gravel turnoff. Now in the past that was it, you note that junction and decide to come back in either your car or on your mountain bike, nine out of ten times it never transpired or it was forgotten. Now, you can go off and explore that road less travelled. I must admit that I can't get enough of my gravel bike. With the tubeless conversion, punctures are a thing of the past…

So yes, we now have a few guided gravel bike tours from Cape Town, but also some that start in other areas of the Western Cape and as far as the Garden Route. All our cycling tours are either guided with a qualified cycling guide and support vehicle or what we call a driver/guide in the support vehicle. Our gravel bike holidays use a mixture of good quality gravel with a few tarmac roads which interlink and creating an awesome network of country exploration. We try to use small hand-picked accommodations and restaurants, especially now with the current situation and economic collapse. The little businesses are desperate for patrons and guests.

We also offer self-drive holidays along the Garden Route. A typical route would start in Port Elizabeth, come west via Tsitsikamma National Park and then head over the mountains and into the Little Karoo, taking in all the must-see places and sights, before heading via Route 62 and the closer you get to Cape Town, the Winelands. We pride ourselves in knowing this region well and are happy to custom design a holiday for your group. As our motto goes “Quality not Quantity” this means our cycling groups are private, max 8 guests, no group pressure. We can book quaint guest houses where the big groups wouldn't go and believe me, you will feel like a guest and not just a number.

So in closing. We offer a quality program for not only the solo traveller but families and couples looking for something special. Oh, did I mention our exclusive ladies only cycling trip? Make the difference between a holiday and an outstanding vacation. Please feel welcome to visit us on Trip Advisor and see what our past guests have to say.