Accidental Tours -biking or walking tour
 

Hi,

I am going to be spending 5 nights in Florence at the end of May and I was really interested in taking one of the accidental tours. Has anyone taken the biking or the walking tour offered by them? I would love to do the biking tour but does it go through the vineyards and olive groves or does it just cover the countryside? Same question goes for the walking tour. Any help on this would be terrific. Thanks.

Anna

Hi ef,

Why not email the Accidental Tourist people and ask them for the precise itinerary?

Have you considered their dinner tour?

Ira,

I did email them. I havent gotten a reply yet. Also I just wanted to know if someone actually took the tour and how good it was. Thanks though.

Oh about the dinner tour, yes I have considered it but I wanted to do something more active and fun outside.

Hi,
I took a one-day bike trip (not with Accidental Tours) and I loved it, but I biked for a month before to get in shape. If you're not going uphill, then your'e going down the vast majority of the time around Florence. We biked past vineyards and stopped at one, had pasta at a restaurant on the way, that sort of thing.
Go for it!

You got in shape for a month prior to the bike riding, really? From accidental tourist, its only a 10 mile ride. That shouldn't be too bad, should it? How long was yours because I have biked in a long time?

I took at 12 mile+ bike tour with Artviva.com about two weeks ago. We were three women in our mid-40s one of whom does not exercise regularly, and the other two of us are, well, in our mid-4)s. To be honest, my non-exercising friend had some trouble and walked up several of the hills, but all in all it was a great experience and we agreed we would do it again. It is challenging in parts, due of course to the hills. You pick up the bikes in Florence and work your way out of the city up the hill at Piazzle Michelangelo and then out into the glorious countryside. Cost was 35 Euros, including copious amounts of bread, wine and cheese on the break. (Bring a largish size bottle of water, as the bottles they give you don't fit in the holders and fall out. )

Artivia also does walks of Florence, we took their Beautiful Views walk and loved it. Take a look at ://www.artviva.com . I found them by recommendations on this site.

I had looked at Accidental Tourist, but they take you quite a bit out of town and to be honest, it looked like the trip was all about visiting their wine estate (and maybe buying wines?) I know they get good reviews on this site and can't say for sure this is part of the plan, but the Artivia trip fit into our schedule better and was €40 cheaper. Also, the Accidental Tourist trip takes all day, the Artviva tour starts at 9 and you are back in Florence at1 pm in time for a well-deserved lunch and bottle of wine. (If you take the Artviva tour, and your hotel is in the Santa Maria Novella area, you might suggest meeting them at your hotel, as the usual meeting point is their office near the Uffizi, and it is about a 15 minute walk from there to get to the bike rental shop which is a bit behind Santa Maria Novella.)