‘Hallyu, a.k.a., the Korean Wave, has put South Korea on the culture map in recent years – think K-Pop superstars BTS, big and small screen hits like Parasite and Squid Game, and the K-Beauty craze – but the country is still off many travellers’ radar. That’s changing, and for good reason. Especially if you like to travel on two wheels.” – Christina Palassio, Globe & Mail, July 17, 2024 The lucky cyclists on the 2024 edition of the Journey to the East Cycling Tour included a Canadian journalist, Christina Palassio, for the Land of the Morning Calm section in Korea from Seoul to Bus ..read more

  A few days ago, the cyclists started the day by climbing over 1700m in the first 35 km of stage 10. The first 18 km were on a gravel road with rough, steep sections. The temperatures when they reached the 4055m pass were at around 7C with strong wind gusts. Some of them were able to overcome the steep climbs, rough roads and challenging weather to descend on a narrow but smoothly paved road with gentle curves and light traffic to reach camp. Others struggled mightily on the first ascent and got a lift to the finish line. The story of this tour started out not in the mountains but in t ..read more

  Jonathan Ruchlis was the Content Creator on the 2024 Pub Ride Cycling Tour. In this report, he examines the story behind one of Europe’s most iconic images – the Dutch windmill. Bike touring is a great way to take in an area, not just the recognizable destinations, but also everything that comes in between. On a long tour, you tend to get a sense for the distinctive features of landscapes and countrysides in different regions and how they change slowly but surely with each day of riding. Along the Pub Ride route, while biking through the Netherlands (and a bit of Germany as well) we en ..read more

  “Do it! You’ll surprise yourself with what you are capable of in your golden years.” – Gary LaRove New York Times June 23rd,2024 Are you one of our newsletter’s followers, who have reached the ‘Golden Age’ and think that you have missed out on the opportunity to do TDA tours? While taking a recent lunch break, I picked up the Sunday New York Times special section – What Does Retirement Really Mean? Being well past retirement age myself, it was no wonder it caught my attention. Throughout the section it had a variety of pull quotes such as, “Please trash-can the word retirement. There i ..read more

  I was very fortunate to join the 2024 Journey to the East during their time in South Korea. Here’s what I discovered… The Land of Endless Bridges might be more appropriate. I’ve never seen so many bridges: big and small, colourful and drab, long and short, ugly and beautiful. Korea’s endless combination of rivers and mountains dictates the vast number of these structures. Truth be told, South Korea, the Land of the Morning Calm, isn’t going to knock your socks off with its touristic highlights. There are no Great Pyramids or Eiffel Tower or Angkor Wat. Its attraction is much more subtl ..read more

  In response to the growing interest in our future cycling adventures, we are starting to fill in our 2027 Tour Calendar.  While the 2027 Tour d’Afrique was already open for registration we have now added the Hippie Trail, Olive Route, Magical Madagascar, Silk Route & Trans-Himalaya to the tour options available for that year. Hippie Trail – Agra to Goa (January 27 – March 6, 2027) The 2025 Hippie Trail Cycling Adventure is currently marked as ‘Limited Space Available.’ Olive Route – Athens to Lisbon (April 25 – July 1, 2027) The 2025 Olive Route Cycling Tour is currently sol ..read more

It may be difficult to think about fall and winter as summer is just around the corner (well, here in the northern hemisphere that is), but now is an excellent time to plan a shorter, end-of-year adventure while spaces are still available. We have recently opened up a few spots in Patagonia on the South American Epic and spaces remain available in Southeast Asia on the Bamboo Road and in Tasmania & New Zealand on the Trans-Oceania. There are also a limited number of spots on the inaugural Cape to Kili African tour. These incredible adventures start in mid-October or later and range in len ..read more

  Jonathan Ruchlis is the Content Creator on the 2024 Pub Ride Cycling Tour. In this report, he looks at back at the experience of cycling through the stark beauty and mystery of the North York Moors. The hardest days on tour are often the most memorable. For many of the riders on this year’s Pub Ride, the two days riding through the North York Moors National Park (between Newcastle and York) fit that pattern. It was some of the hilliest riding we’ve done on the trek and the weather wasn’t perfectly kind. As our rider Tim put it, “One minute you’re in sunshine, the next minute you’re in ..read more

  Dave Auger was a participant in the first ever Tour d’Afrique Cycling Expedition in 2003. He writes, “During Covid-19 I, like so many others, had an abundance of time due to mandated isolation. I decided to write short stories from memories of my life that just popped into my head as I was thinking of what to write about. I ended up writing more that 60 short stories and decided to package up all the pages and get Staples to put them into booklet form. The title of this little book is: Life’s A Journey – Musings of an Old Fart during Covid 19. This story of my experience on the Tour d ..read more

  Mats Fredrix is the Content Creator on the 2024 Journey to the East Cycling Tour. He sends this report from the Japanese island of Kyushu. Kyushu, the southernmost of the country’s major islands, is the first Japanese soil our riders feel under their feet on the TDA Journey to the East tour. The island is one of the lesser known tourist destinations in Japan, although ‘lesser known’ is certainly relative when it comes to tourism in Japan. Yet it’s one of those places that immediately makes an impact. Basking in sunshine, palm trees here and there, lush greenery and blue waters, its lan ..read more