Another city, and another bike tour. We love these - what better way to see a new city and figure out the best places to go? A walking tour will only get you so far and individual site tours, while detailed and informative, don't give you a good overall feel for the city. However, a 2-3 hour bike tour, encompassing 8-12 miles gets you almost everywhere you'd want to be with a brief overview so that you can decide if any one place is worth going back to.
The always lovely Melissa Z and I headed to Denver for a weekend of exploring the city and hiking in the mountains. Normally, we'd prefer doing a bike tour on our first day, but that day was spend catching up with an old Tampa Yelp Elite friend - you have to prioritize, people, and friends come first. Therefore, we woke up early our second day and headed for our bike tour.
Our tour guide, Karen, was very knowledgeable of the city and we knew she wasn't full of BS because if she didn't know something, she told us so. She kept us at a good pace, on safe streets or bike lanes, helped us get some awesome pictures, and helped us figure out places to come back to for exploring later. She also had the added benefit of being from Plainview, Long Island, where yours truly grew up. How weird is that? A resident of Saint Pete travels to Denver only to meet a tour guide from his hometown on Long Island...small world.
If I had any complaints - and my name is Todd; I always have complaints - it was that I feel there were other places we could have gone to for exploring. For example, Denver has many statutes and fountains in the city that it would have been cool to get the background on from the tour guide. I know you're stuck for time and you have to prioritize, but I may have dropped one or two items and gone somewhere else. Not really much of a complaint as I enjoyed all of the info we got.
The bikes they use are 3-speed with baskets or pouches and very comfortable. The group was small - only 8 of us, which our guide said was big, but we've been with bigger bike tour groups than that.
Why am I going with 4 stars instead of 5 - I just think there might be more interesting places to see besides the performing arts center - which we'd find anyway if we wanted to see a show. Been on bike tours now in Denver, Austin, New Orleans, Chicago and I know I am forgetting others, and this one was good, but just not the best. Still, I would definitely recommend it if you want a good overview of the city with a friendly and knowledgeable tour guide.