Massachusetts North Shore

We’ve spent late September in Massachusetts the past two years. Last year Cape Cod, this year the North Shore/Cape Ann area. Both are beautiful, both are great places to cycle.

If you are interested in cycling tours or touring on your own in the North Shore area or even the greater New England area, I recommend checking out Bike New England:  http://bikenewengland.com. It is quite the website with suggested routes, maps and cue sheets for all the areas mentioned. The actual tour we were on was through Road Scholar and is offered twice a year.

This was a lower mileage tour than those we have done in the past and I found I enjoyed the lower miles as well as higher mileage tours.  With fewer miles there was more time and tendency to see the sights in the towns we stayed – Ipswich and Newburyport, MA. Quaint towns with tons of history, restaurants with great seafood and plenty to see and do off the bike.

Like our other bike tours, we rode with a wonderful group of people, participants and guides alike. There was a mix of ages and cycling experience. but we meshed together well; truly a delightful group of people. The group of 14 usually broke into smaller groups, with at least one guide riding with each. All 4 of the guides were terrific and took very good care of us – my thanks to Gordon, Paula, Barbara and Jimmy. Unlike all our previous tours, no one drove a support van yet it worked out great. It wasn’t  needed during our tour, we did out and back rides from both locations. If someone had needed a lift back, I’m sure one would have been provided.

In addition to riding in the North Shore/Cape Ann area we spent several days in Boston beforehand and had a chance to ride there also. First off we did the Boston City View Tour with Urban AdvenTours – highly recommend them. The guides took great care as they navigated us through the streets of Boston, while providing a very informative tour of Boston’s historical sites and neighborhoods. A wonderful way to see Boston. In addition we did several walking tours, but the bike tour was our favorite.

Boston’s Urban AdvenTours City View Tour

Last, but not least, we used Boston’s bike share – Hubway. We bought a 72 hour pass so we could have the flexibility to ride each day if we chose AND allow me to meet my “ride every day” goal. The most fun was when we decided to hop on and ride back to our hotel after eating a huge meal including a bottle of wine at Al Dente in the North End. We ended up in the middle of Chinatown on Saturday night – traffic jam deluxe! What a memorable ride that was – if only I’d had a GoPro to catch the whole thing on video!

Massachusetts North Shore was a fantastic experience and a beautiful place to ride.