Family on a Bike Adventures
Inspiring families to live adventurously, promoting independent family adventure
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Visit the Family Adventure Project Blog

Welcome to The Family on a Bike Adventures Website

This Family On A Bike Adventures website is part of The Family Adventure Project, a family run venture to promote the benefits of active, adventurous family experiences. We believe big time, environmentally sensitive, family adventure travel is good for your health, relationships, education and for developing young people's adventurous spiirit and share stories, tips and ideas about that here.

We run an active regularly updated family adventure lifestyle blog and this site which is aimed at families interested in big time independent family adventure travel. If you want to get out, get active and adventure together with your family, we hope you'll find something here to inspire you. As Helen Keller said, 'Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.' What will yours be?

This site is run by: Stuart Wickes and Kirstie Pelling, aka Family on a Bike
Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and on our Family Adventure Project Blog

Site Highlights
Creating adventures close at home
Feel at home around the world
Cycling Heaven: Going Dutch
E-book: Twitter While You Travel
E-book: Adventures Together
Feature: Parenting Afloat
Feature: An Active Family Looks to Summer
Our family adventure favourite books

Feature: Gear up for Cycle Toddling
Feature: What is adventure?
Feature: Transports of D'Lite
Story: I Believe by Nancy Sathre-Vogel
Story: The List by Leon Schulz
Updated information on our services
Take the Family Adventure Survey


Biking in Euro Cities
Action Adventure Algarve
Adventures in Dubai
Adventures in Ibiza
Adventures in Egypt


BALKAN ADVENTURES: SLOVENIA, CROATIA, BOSNIA, MONTENEGRO

Our Balkan summer of adventure saw us exploring The Balkans in many different ways. Our eight week expedition involved time in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo, with some travel through Macedonia and Serbia. You can read more stories from our Balkan Adventures on The Family Adventure Project blog including stories of rafting, monster rolling, climbing and a three week cycling expedition in some of the hottest temperatures we've ever encountered. Check out these posts to find out more.


ADVENTURE ISLANDS : EUROPE, ICELAND and FAROES
After a taster trip to Reykjavik in April (visiting the Children’s Culture festival) we’ve been back in Iceland this summer and visited Northern Europe and the Faroe Islands. With the help of DFDS Seaways and Smyril Line we went on a mission to tour these Adventure Islands and find out what they have to offer adventure seeking groups and families. We took the bikes for some expedition style touring tried out some of the many other different adventure activities possible in a wild and challenging, 'back to nature' experience. As always we shared our journey on Twitter, Facebook and our blog and as guest bloggers on the Berghaus blog in August. You can catch all our Adventure Island Posts on the blog here. And track our journey on our special Punkt Map.


Interested in Social Media and Travel?

Take a look at our unique ebook:
Twitter While U Travel

FAMILY ADVENTURE CAPITAL UK SEASON

Seeking inspiration for your adventure?

Let us inspire you with our ebook Adventures Together

Cumbria claims to be the UK Adventure Capital. We want to find out if it's a Family Adventure Capital. We're going places, meeting people and finding out what Cumbria has to offer adventure seeking families. Read about our launch week Coast to Coast cycle challenge. Check out our launch post or download the initial press release to find out more. If you'd like to get involved, get in touch.


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BLUE DANUBE TOUR: GONE CHOPIN, BACH SOON

This tour started in the after school recorder club... when we realised how small and pannier friendly recorders were. For us it was a short step from there to a cycle tour across Europe, attempting to learn an arrangement of the Blue Danube for four recorders, while exploring a little of Central Europe's musical history. Starting in Munich, we waltzed up to the Danube, followed it through Germany and Austria to Vienna then on to Bratislava Budapest. Then we turned North and made our way across Slovakia, crossing the Low and High Tatras to reach Poland, finishing in Krakow. Find out more about our journey with maps, videos, blogs, pics and more on our Blue Danube tour home page.


Interested in Social Media and Travel?

Take a look at our unique ebook:
Twitter While U Travel

Seeking inspiration for your adventure?

Let us inspire you with our ebook Adventures Together

For the Moomins 65th Anniversary we celebrated with a 2000km ride to Moominworld in Finland.  As a child Moominworld was a strange and unfamiliar place to me, where nature ruled and life took on strange and unfamiliar forms. And that’s what this trip was about; visiting strange and unfamiliar places, biking around Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Åland on a summer of Baltic Moomin Madness. You can read more about our journey as we blogged along the way.


SPECIAL FEATURES: Adventuring with Toddlers

Got a young family and wondering how to get started adventuring together? What may at first seem like an impossible dream is much more possible than you think. Cycle Toddling tells of our first steps adventuring as new parents. An Adventurous Pregnancy explains just what's possible with a bump! And Gear up for Cycle Toddling shows how we do it by bike. Think big, start small, take advice and anything is possible. Adventures Together is full of inspiring ideas on cycling, sailing, canoeing, eco-touring and road-tripping with young kids. If you want to adventure as a family, the limit's not your kids but your imagination. Go for it!

 

Fancy an Armchair Adventure?
Visit our Amazon store for our recommended books for family adventurers

Inspirational Talks
Let us inspire you with one of our illustrated talks on family adventures:
Talks Brochure
Baltic Madness
End to End

Hard Stuff
Pedalling Pilgrims

Contact us
to discuss

For The Italian Job. our mission was simple: – Italy by bike. Starting in Amsterdam, we headed across Europe through Holland, Germany, Austria and Italy. Along great European Rivers, on classic cycle routes; the Rhine, Main, Tauber and Romantic Road. Then up and over the Alps on the ancient Via Claudia Augusta and down through the valleys of the Tyrol towards the Adriatic. An awesome 1950km trans European jaunt, from one great city of canals to another, ending in Venice. And mostly powered by pasta. Find out more on our blog and Twitter fuelled ebook.

NEW FEATURE: Parenting Afloat
Loree Alderisio still remembers how frightening it was to pull eight year old Shannon out of school to go cruising. There's no doubt parenting afloat can be a challenge and schooling at sea is an important consideration for cruising families. In this piece Loree looks back on what she learned about parenting afloat from the time she spent cruising with her husband Bill and daughter Shannon. And quite uniquely, Shannon offers first an eleven year old perspective on learning afloat and a view from later life, looking back upon the experience as an adult, wife and mother herself.
 

Are you an adventurous family?
Tell us about your adventures in our online
Adventurous Families Survey

Want to cycle with your young family?
Pics and Ideas on ways to cycle with little ones
Gear up
for Cycle Toddling

We spent a summer in the heat, cycling the ancient pilgrim's route to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. Visit our Pedalling Pilgrims homepage for details and links to our Pedalling Pilgrims blog, online route map, online digital snapbook and photo montages on our YouTube channel.
 
Other site highlights   

Story: Kids go wild in Northland
Story: Lee Ho!
Feature: Parenting Afloat
 


* Visit China with 'China Highlights' Family Tour to China *



Looking for inspiration?
Visit our galleries of Inspirational Images
See what you could be doing with your family.

What is Adventure?You tell us:
30 second survey
Or read what we think
Online feature

We rode the length of Britain; 2000km in 49 days. A feat recognised with a trophy from the LEJOG Association.You can view our route, look at some pics. Or head over to our blog for the full story.

The Family Eco Project                                                                                                                       READ OUR ECO BLOG

The Family Eco Project is another kind of adventure, an experiment in living and learning, taking a long hard look at our family carbon footprint, examining all aspects of family living - energy consumption, waste, water, travel and leisure - learning more about our impact on the environment and making changes to our family habits and lifestyle to reduce it. We've an ongoing Eco Blog and have focused our travels on more local, eco-friendly destinations. 2006 kept us busy with a Cumbrian eco-tour and our 'Dra åt Skogen!' tour of Western Sweden. 2007 saw us launch 'Wheely Good Communities' a community cycling project and complete the classic UK End to End Challenge chronicled in our Everyday Cycle Heros blog. 2008 was our year of Pilgrimage while for 2009 we're continuing the European theme with tours to Holland, France and Italy.


Inspirational
Stories
Family
On A Bike
Adventures
in Writing

A growing collection of stories to help you learn how families adventure together, discover what they get from it, and glimpse what's possible. Read about the dramas and delights of family adventure, hard won lessons and inspirational experiences. We welcome contributions and ideas to develop this collection.

Adventurous Families Blogroll
Why Adventure? Special Features
Family Adventure Books
Family Adventure Features Online

New Story: Kids go Wild in Northland
New Story: Lee Ho! Learning the ropes

New Story: An Adventurous Pregnancy
New Story: The List by Leon Schulz

Feature: An Active Family Looks to Summer
Latest Inspirational Image Gallery
Feature: Parenting Afloat

The Family on a Bike part of this site is about our own family adventures by bicycle. First before children, then with one, next came two and now three. Find out more about where we've been, what we've done and read our postings and newsletters from the road about our own family adventures.

The Italian Job Euro Tour
Pedalling Pilgrims tour to Santiago
Everyday Cycle Heros Tour Blog
Meet the Family on a Bike
Gearing up for Cycle Toddling
'Dra åt Skogen' Sweden tour, August 2006

Our Easter Cumbrian Eco Tour
In Search of Adventure Tour
Postings from the road

Touring Cumbria's invisible Green
A honeymoon adventure story

Great writing inspires travel and travel inspires great writing. Whether journalling, stories, poetry or blogs, writing about family adventures encourages family dialogue and develops skills of creative expression. Adventures in Writing encourages, supports and develop the writing skills of family adventurers.


An Active Family Looks to Summer
by Laural Ringler
Where to go, what to do? Planning a family adventure can be a journey in itself - all that dreaming, discussing, researching, reserving, packing and perspiring - to create an experience everyone's up for and then make it happen. In this feature, Laural Ringler shares a little of what it's like for her family when they think ahead to summer.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, we'll let these ones speak for themselves.
Index     Gallery 1     Gallery 2     Gallery 3     Gallery 4    Gallery 5    Gallery 6   Cycle Toddling

Six families in
search of adventure
Take the family adventure survey The List
by Leon Schulz

There are hundreds of families around the world adventuring together. Read profiles of six different families around the world who adventure together in different ways and for different reasons. Get a sense of what's possible and why people do it.

We're researching who's doing what in the world of family adventure and want to hear about your experiences. Whether you're new to the game or a long time adventurer, you can contribute through our online adventuresome families survey.

Sailing home after a year's family adventure at sea, Leon Shulz reflects on the sacrifices and rewards of living the dream, and contemplates the prospect of starting life afresh. Reproduced here with permission from www.reginasailing.com


Family on a Bike: Postings from the Road - In Search of Adventure Tour

When the kids were toddlers Family on a Bike completed their 'In Search of Families In Search of Adventure' tour. Stuart, Kirstie, Matthew, Cameron, Puppy the Wuppy and Lamby on a 10 month family adventure - cycle touring in New Zealand, eco touring in Samoa, road tripping and railroad riding across the USA and Canada. Two adults, two toddlers, two bikes, two trailers, and too many miles. Meeting other adventurous families and writing real-life stories of family adventure.

As we travelled around the globe we posted stories and musings about life, parenting, and what it's like to adventure together as a family here on the website. Follow this link and read our postings

Or explore these random posts from the archive: Time Travellers Barnacle or Hermit Crab Culture Shock The ear of a Stranger
No Room at the Inn  He who smelt it dealt it Sun, sea and sandy nostrils Samoan pop idol A day in paradise ENJOY!

Finding independence by bike An adventure in parenting This I Believe

In 1999, Angela Devas bought a trailer bike, packed her ageing camping gear and took her six year old daughter, Catherine, on the road. Their ride, through Denmark was the start of a long journey they would make together in life as they forged a new family unit. Read this story of new beginnings written by Angela especially for the Family Adventure Project.

For many people a trip to the shops with toddlers is adventure enough. Adventuring with little ones certainly presents its own challenges, including the attitudes of people who tell you it's plain irresponsible. Here Stuart Wickes and Kirstie Pelling recount their first tentative steps in touring with toddlers and show how, with practice, all sorts of things are possible.... whatever people say. Climbing aboard a bicycle to tour with your children can be a daunting thought, the reality can be challenging yet the rewards are beyond words. Nancy Sathre-Vogel took 12 months out with her husband John and 8 year old twins Davy and Daryl to cycle 9,300 miles around North America. Here, Nancy tries to put into words just why she does it and why she believes it's important.
Education & Coaching Research into
Family Adventure
A Festival of
Family Adventure

We aim to spread the word about family adventure through talks and educational activities for schools presentations and after-dinner speeches for business or community meetings; and a coaching service dedicated to helping families acquire the skills and confidence to organise their own family adventures.

Get adventuring with our coaching service

We're researching who's doing what when it comes to family adventure, finding out more about the nature and benefits of it from those who practice it. Right now we're using an online survey to gather information from active adventurers and building a bibliography of relevant articles and research papers.

We're building a network of people actively involved or interested in family adventure. Families from across the globe, engaged in all sorts of adventures. In the long term we hope to host the world's first festival of family adventure - a chance for families to gather together, meet and celebrate the joys of family adventure.



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