Plan your trip
Guided bike tours of New Zealand's South Island
Two ten-night e-bike journeys with one riding guide and a support driver the whole way. Small groups, never more than twelve, and the logistics carried: bags moved, beds booked, dinners found.
What guided means here
A guided tour with us puts two people on your tour, every day: an experienced guide riding beside you on the trails and a support driver keeping the vehicle close, an air-conditioned Mercedes-Benz Sprinter with a spare bike aboard. E-bikes are standard on every guided tour, top-of-the-range Meridas fitted to you on day one. The van is the reason a hard day can become an easy one halfway through: ride everything, or hop in at two in the afternoon. No explanations needed, and no shame anywhere in it.
The full case for riding with us >
The two tours
Alps, Valleys & Lakes · 10 nights · Christchurch return
Our flagship. The Alps 2 Ocean, the Lake Dunstan Trail, the Roxburgh Gorge with its jet boat leg, the Queenstown Trail and the West Coast Wilderness Trail, stitched into ten nights with the TranzAlpine rail crossing to finish. Grades 1 to 3, daily rides of 31 to 57 kilometres, almost all of it on trail.
Itinerary, dates and prices >
Wilderness, Coastlines & Vines · 10 nights · Christchurch return
The northern ten-nighter: over the Southern Alps on the TranzAlpine, up the West Coast Wilderness Trail, then across the top of the South to Kaikōura's whale coast, with Marlborough's vines waiting at the dinner table. The gentler of the two, and the one we point first-time trail riders toward.
Itinerary, dates and prices >
Peak summer departures on both tours sell out months ahead. The shoulder seasons ride just as well and breathe much easier.
Who guided suits
Most of our guests are retired or semi-retired, here for the scenery and the company rather than the stopwatch. Guided is the natural fit if you want the days shaped and the thinking done, if you are travelling solo, since the group is ready-made company, or if one of you rides stronger than the other: the e-bikes level the climbs and the van levels everything else. Riding confidence matters more than age, and we will tell you before you book exactly where the hard parts are. We grade every trail and we do not round down.
Still deciding?
Whether to ride guided or self-guided is its own question with its own page: Guided vs self-guided >. What the price carries, and why, is on What a guided NZ cycle tour costs >. And if you are coming across the Tasman, Cycling New Zealand from Australia > covers flights, seasons and the practical bits.
What is included on a guided tour?
Accommodation, mostly 4 to 5 star, most breakfasts and lunches plus the welcome and farewell dinners, a top-of-the-range e-bike fitted to you, luggage transport for the whole journey, one riding guide plus a support driver, and the trail and Department of Conservation fees. Each tour page lists its inclusions exactly.
Are e-bikes really included?
Yes. On guided tours e-bikes are standard, not an upgrade, with step-through frames available if you ask at booking and a walking mode that powers the bike along beside you. On self-guided tours an e-bike is a paid upgrade, which is one of the differences our guided vs self-guided page walks through.
How fit do I need to be?
Riding confidence matters more than age. The trails are gravel, graded 1 to 3, and the support vehicle is close by on most days, so you can skip any section you would rather not ride. There are a couple of days where the van has no trail access, and your guide will tell you in advance which days those are. If you have not ridden in years, get back on a bike before the tour, ideally on gravel.
Do you run guided Alps 2 Ocean tours?
Not as a separate end-to-end tour. Alps, Valleys & Lakes rides the Alps 2 Ocean's lake country on days two and three as part of its ten nights, and that is how we do the trail guided. For the full end-to-end ride, our self-guided Alps 2 Ocean tours cover it with the logistics carried.
I am travelling solo. Which tour suits me?
Guided is the natural fit: the group is ready-made company, and if you are happy to share we will try to pair you with another solo rider, which saves the single supplement. Self-guided needs a minimum of two, so solo riders ride guided with us.
