Bike Le Cantine (1/2 Giornata) - Pedale Veloce al Pinot

How good is this, they pick you up, drop you off, hop on a bike, ride along spectacular river with amazing views whilst visiting breweries and wineries. Pick you up at the end of the day and drop you off. All this on a glorious day in a beautiful location. What else would you want?

Even though it was mostly cloudy and quite cool, this was a fantastic experience for me and my wife. The scenery was spectacular and we stopped at two different wineries and enjoyed the wine tastings. A lot of the trail is alongside the road, but there is a fair amount of the trail that deviates from the road and goes down along the river. Once away from the traffic, and alongside the river, it just feels completely different and you're kind of in awe. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would highly recommend it to anyone who is into this sort of thing. We did use the e-bikes which made things quite easy for both of us. My only suggestion to the bike shop was to have the option of paying a little bit more and having the helmets that can communicate with each other. We have them at home and they are fantastic. When we go bike riding. You can carry on a conversation. Even though your partner or friends are spread out. I think it would be a good option for the bike shop. Anyway, great experience and beautiful scenery and good wine. What else can you ask for?

Wine was delicious, cycling was scenic and fun. Could not recommend the experience enough to anyone.

Really great trail, excellent bikes, very friendly staff and flexible with finishing location. E-bikes were a great decision, worked excellently. Trail is beautiful and everything is well set up for the bike tour. Had trouble finding any information regarding times, apart from pickup in Queenstown. We were not sure what time we were getting picked up until the day before - default is 4:30pm. This made it difficult to book venues for our large group and we had to just make a decision, unsure whether we would be able to make our wineries or not. It also wasn’t clear how long it would take from being picked up in Queenstown to get to bikes and then from bikes to the first venue. This also made it really difficult to book our first venue and we ended up 30 minutes late. If you would like to do 3 wineries, I would recommend the 3/4 or full day tours. If you want half day, I would recommend just two wineries.

Had a really nice time on this bike ride, we loved seeing all the different wineries would recommend the e bikes it’s worth a bit extra

We had the best day ever. The bike ride through the mountains was great, and being able to stop at the wineries was very cool. I would highly recommend this adventure to everyone!!

The scenery was awesome The bikes were in very good condition, even if we all weren't! Mostly level gravel path with only a couple of uphill areas. The Church winery had very tasty Gamay.

A half-day ride by e-bike down into the Gibbston winery area was for us just the right amount of effort, as we neared the end of a very active New Zealand visit. First time on e-bikes, which was a revelation - also downstream, so the effort was limited - past the notorious bungy bridge, a stop to reinforce our lack of enthusiasm for that mad activity - and ended (for us) at the attractive Gibbston winery and a glass of pinot noir before our van ride back to Queenstown. Logistics organizing was smoothly handled - van ride to our meeting point, briefing on the bikes and routing, and meet-up management at the end. Others might reasonably choose either the full-day ride or other appealing and more demanding routes - definitely would endorse using this company.

The trail was beautiful! Would probably not call it easy though - I am a very active person and still found this more challenging than I would’ve thought. Probably would’ve gone for an ebike. The first winery was awesome! Second one was alright, the bus ride home was torture though. There were girls yelling at the top of their lungs and the bus driver did nothing to improve the situation.

Around the basin e-bike Queenstown half day winery trip Overall I felt the experience on this outing was Excellent, Enjoyable, exhilarating, and set in Beautiful scenery. We were fortunate to have good weather which was a big plus. There were a Variety of wineries to visit, including Brennans ( located about 1km or 2 beyond The Church, which was the pick up point at the end of this outing) and the Gibbston winery. I’d recommend both for pleasant wines and staff. The Bikes were in good condition except for one minor issue. My report on this issue was received with gratitude and an assurance that it would be looked at. A further important note about the bikes. There are a Variety of saddle types on the bikes, from the very thin bone hard type like on a regular road/racing bike, to wide well padded saddles and a range in between. Check that the saddle on your bike is ok for you before you depart and request a modification or alternative if necessary or desired. There was one small landslide partially blocking route, after wet weather in the previous few days. This was passable on foot and carrying or pushing one’s bike. It was in the process of being cleared when we passed. Three of the four of us really enjoyed the whole outing. One found the outing fairly scarey in terms of the proximity of the cycle path edge to a very high and steep valley side with falls a long way down to the river or valley floor very easy to imagine. In some places there was a fence at the side of the path, offering protection against a fall. However in most places where the falls are highest there is no edge protection. This is by far the biggest and most significant negative about this trip. While this issue didn’t impact on my enjoyment of the trip during the outing itself, I feel the fear is entirely justified. In places the path is a little narrow, and the edge is unprotected in these places. The height is very substantial. At bends, if you were travelling at speed (easy to imagine) the surface might not have the stability or grip to keep you on the path. I suggest that the path, in the interests of the safety of cyclists and any other users would benefit substantially from fencing along these edges to reduce the risk cyclists falling off the edge of the path. I don’t know if anyone has fallen off the paths here, and I hope no one has, of course. However it is not a stretch of the imagination to see it happening in my opinion, and I hope the issue is addressed, so as to make this ride safer, and keep the ride open for people to enjoy. I think this last point, making it safer and keeping it open is very important. This type of outdoor activity is very much part of the good side of things in being in NZ, a like me, visiting NZ on holiday.