Bike tours not just for high rollers

The group bicycling tour may be the most exasperating product in travel. Its best-known practitioners (Butterfield & Robinson, Backroads) charge $300 and up per person, per day -- even though participants are using their own legs to travel.

Why are prices so high? The assumption that cyclers crave the finest lodgings, meals and escort vans. Cyclists stay in exquisite inns, eat gourmet four-course dinners and are assigned several guides to ride along and drive an expensive “sag wagon” that brings up the rear of the traveling group.

Only recently has a different sort of realistically priced bicycle tour emerged. And although low-cost options are few, they appear to increase each year. Here are some opportunities to undertake an affordable escorted bicycle vacation on the lightly traveled secondary roads of America:

* The National Bicycle Tour Directors Assn. offers an array of trips because it’s a nationwide network of nonprofit clubs run by bike enthusiasts, not by entrepreneurs looking to make a buck. Its helpful Web site, www.nbtda.com, allows users to search for trips. They can choose a specific area or just plug in a price and time range. Most NBTDA tours limit the number of riders, so it’s a good idea to reserve early. Usually you take your own camping gear and supplies, but vans or buses transport everything for you, except you and your bike. Examples of recent offerings: a four-day, 200-mile “Cycle Zydeco” ride through the Cajun country of French Louisiana, priced from $195; a seven-day cycle with the Oklahoma Free Wheel group for $70, including camping, luggage transport, maps and snacks; an eight-day “Great Annual Bicycle Adventure Along the Wisconsin River,” costing $180 for camping and luggage transport.

* Tour Baja is a California-based outdoor-adventure tour company that offers trips south of the Mexico-California border. Owner Trudi Angell, who has lived in Baja since the mid-1970s, offers a variety of activities: kayaking, bicycling, horseback riding and hiking. Prices are reasonable: $695 for a seven-day mountain-bike tour March 30 to April 5. Contact Pedaling South (Tour Baja’s bicycle division) at (800) 398-6200 or www.tourbaja.com.

* Bike the Whites is a reasonably priced East Coast specialist that focuses on New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Its participants travel from inn to inn, choosing their itinerary each morning and traveling solo or, if they desire, with a group of their choosing. Itineraries are customized: They can be tailored to someone eager to grind out 50 miles a day, or to the relaxed cycler interested in covering just 20 miles a day. By emphasizing a self-guided structure, BTW keeps its costs low and passes savings on to the consumer. (It has no group leaders or sag-wagon drivers to pay.) Three-day trips start at $279 per person in May and $329 to $379 from June through September, including breakfast and dinner each day, lodgings, customized itineraries and transport of luggage from inn to inn. Bike rental is extra. Contact Bike the Whites at (877) 854-6535 or www.bikethewhites.com.

* Country Inns Along the Trail, based in Vermont, arranges lodgings at attractive inns and B&Bs; in the Green Mountain State and maps out an itinerary for you. It also provides some pickup and drop-off services if inns are spread farther than your legs can carry you. Expect to pay between $130 and $150 per person, per night. Inns tend to be family-run operations, and meals feature home-grown vegetables and homemade bread and pastries. For more information: (800) 838-3301, www.inntoinn.com.

* Finally, the nation’s leading operator of bike tours for young people (but not limited to them) is Hostelling International-American Youth Hostels of Washington, D.C., whose 35 regional offices offer day or weekend bicycle trips throughout the United States. Prices average well under $100 per day, including most meals and camping gear. Overnights are spent in hostels or camping, and participants are expected to assist with chores such as setting up tents, shopping for the group or making s’mores before bedtime. HI provides two guides experienced in handling teens. Participants take their own bicycles, sleeping bags, foam mattresses and helmets. Contact Hostelling International-American Youth Hostels, 733 15th St. N.W., Suite 840, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 783-6161, www.hiayh.org.