What Support is Included on a TDA Tour?

“TDA delivered an adventurous route with incredible scenery, supported by a fabulous team that was always ready to handle the unexpected.”

TDA tours are fully supported with vehicles to carry your bags and offer a ride when needed, staff to answer your questions and support you, hotels or camps every night, 3 meals on the riding days, great navigation along the route and so much more. But as Canadian rider Paul puts it, our support is offered in an innovative way. “Routes are well-researched but still provide enough uncertainty for a sense of adventure. Provide just the right mixture of rider support and independence.” In this blog, we explain the mixture of support you can expect to receive on any of our tours.

>>>RELATED: Why choose a supported tour over solo

Staff support

We have great staff – energetic, positive and highly talented. As a recent participant on the Journey to the East tour said, “The level of support on this tour was very high. I thought all the crew were wonderful. They were always encouraging and helpful and great fun.” Whether it is the tour leader giving you a detailed route briefing each evening, or the mechanic getting to the bottom of that gear issue you are having, we have a team that travels alongside you providing high quality support. All tours have drivers, a tour leader, assistant tour leader and mechanic and additional help for larger groups (typically there are anywhere from 4 to 10 staff on a given tour). On our tours that involve camping, we also have a chef to prepare the camp meals while on our Adventure and Expedition tours we have a medic to assist with potential injuries and ailments.

Vehicle support

Your ride is supported by at least two vehicles – one that carries your bag, allowing you to ride with just your basic needs for the day, and one vehicle that stops on the roadside to serve you lunch. While the goal is for everyone to be able to ride the full day, the vehicle support system is there if you need a lift on a tough day. You can utilize the vehicle support either by getting picked up along the way, or by stopping or starting from the midway lunch point, making your cycling day essentially a half day. On longer or more challenging days, we sometimes have a vehicle set up to act as an additional water refresh stop towards the end of the ride. Read more about the vehicle support here.

>>>RELATED: What to Expect on a TDA tour

Navigation support

Besides the route briefing each evening, you also have the route at your fingertips. We share GPS tracks for each stage through an app called Ride with GPS which provides you with turn by turn directions via their phone app or through your Wahoo or Garmin device. Even if you have never used GPS tracks before, you will find that having accurate and detailed information on the day’s navigation and elevation profile allows you to roll out each day with the confidence that you know exactly where you are headed.

Food & accommodations

We provide three meals on the riding days. For hotel tours we typically have breakfast and dinners at the hotels we are staying at. On camping tours our talented chefs prepare these meals in our camp kitchen. We also have roadside lunches on every tour, so just past the midway point of the day’s riding distance, you will find one of our vehicles parked alongside the cycling route serving you sandwiches, fresh salads, fruit, snacks and water – all prepared by our talented and creative team.

We offer hotel-only tours where every night is at a local hotel and we also have tours that are a mix of camping on the riding days, with hotels on the rest day nights. Our Tour d’Afrique event is a bit different in that it is 90% camping.

Pre-tour support

Before you even take your first pedal strokes, we offer excellent customer service. We recommend registering for a tour 6 to 8 months in advance in order to take full advantage of that support. In the lead up to the tour, we send out a series of email bulletins that contain really helpful and timely advice for preparing for a tour: what and how to pack, choosing travel insurance, traveling with a bike, getting visas, other arrival formalities and so much more. Our head of customer service, Michael Coo, is also available by email or phone to answer any questions you have along the way. As the tour draws closer we also host a video info session with our tour planners and leaders who answer your questions and share their detailed knowledge of the route.

If you are looking to learn a bit more about our tours before you register, click here to see how we answer the five most commonly asked questions that people have when they consider a tour with us. If you are nearly ready to register, then you might want to check out our How to Prepare series which is a great resource with in-depth info for you to consider when deciding to join a tour.