Tour Europe by Bike with Teen Treks!

This summer, see Britain, France, Belgium and Holland the best way -- by bike!

 

On this incredible 4-country European Phantom tour, you’ll bike through major cities and quaint villages in Britain, France, Belgium, and Holland in 28 days.  If you've never been to Europe, this is a wonderful introduction, and if you're an old hand at international travel, it's still a jam-packed trip you'll never forget.

 

Spend 3 days each in London, Paris, and Amsterdam, plus visit beautiful Bruges and Ghent.

Get to know the music, history, landscape, traditions and food in each of these fantastic, bike-friendly countries.  You'll visit world-famous museums like the Louvre and monuments like Stonehenge, eat at great pubs and local restaurants, stay in hostels and hotels, and do a little camping out between the cities.

On your first day, you'll visit Windsor Castle and head out toward Stonehenge. After your first taste of the English countryside, a ferry will take you to France.

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 You'll see the Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen, and then bike along the Seine, visiting Monet's house and gardens at Giverny, touring the spectacular Palace of Versailles, and continuing on into Paris.

The Eiffel Tower is only the beginning of your adventures in Paris!  You'll also see the Arc de Triomphe and the rest of the Champs-Elysees, breathtaking architecture at Montmartre, and much, much more.  You'll dine in charming sidewalk cafes and immerse yourself in Paris' one-of-a-kind culture.

A train will carry you to Belgium, where you’ll bike between the beautiful cities of Bruges and Ghent, seeing more stunning medieval architecture, enjoying more delicious food -- including Belgian chocolate! -- and traveling alongside the canals that run through these cities. 

Then it’s on to the Netherlands to bike through Amsterdam, a city with centuries of history and culture, plenty of quirk, and, believe it or not, the occasional bicycle traffic jam. You’ll visit the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Anne Frank House here. 

Another ferry will bring you back to Great Britain to cycle through green, rolling East Anglia, with a stop in Cambridge, and finally you’ll spend 3 days exploring cosmopolitan London before your flight home. 

Our European Phantom Trek features moderate biking (30-50 miles per day) and camping as well as stays in hostels and hotels.  Teenagers entering grades 10-12 can enjoy this amazing tour, which is loaded beginning to end with things to see and do.  We’re running two European Phantom treks this summer:

• June 25 - July 24 (trip code EP-JN25)
• July 2 - July 31 (trip code EP-J2)

Slots are filling quickly on these popular trips, so reserve your spot now!

Visit TeenTreks.com to apply to bike the European Phantom with us, or sign up for one of our other super trips: Across America, New York City – Montreal, Pacific Northwest, California Coast, New England Shore, Amsterdam-Paris, Maine Coast -- and more!

New Trek for 2014: Green Ireland

We have two new routes this year!  Check out some of the exciting (and beautiful, and all-around awesome) things you'll be able to see and do on our Green Ireland Trek:

Bike through 4 distinct regions of Ireland: Clare, Kerry, Cork, and the Midlands.

Tour medieval castles, the Ring of Kerry, and the Cliffs of Moher.

Get to know charming rural villages and the lush Irish landscape.

Visit bustling Dublin and Galway.

This 28-day trek will take you through Ireland’s major cities and the gorgeous countryside it’s known for.  We’ll travel on bicycle paths and small roads, sometimes sharing them with sheep and cows (yes, really!), climb through Bunratty Castle and other medieval sites, look out across the Atlantic Ocean from the Cliffs of Moher, ride through the green hills of Connemara, and discover traditional Irish music.

You’ll enjoy welcoming Gaelic hospitality in small cities like Limerick, Kilarney, Cork, Kinsale, and Clifden, and get to visit Galway and Dublin, both world-class cities.  Along the way, you’ll experience thousands of years of Celtic history, music, culture, and food.

This moderately challenging ride (30-50 miles a day; some hills, but not too many) is best suited for high schoolers entering grades 10 through 12. We’ll be running Green Ireland June 25 - July 22 (trip code GI-JN25) and July 2 - July 29 (trip code GI-J2).

Visit TeenTreks.com to apply to be one of the first trekkers to bike Ireland with us, or sign up for one of our other super trips: Across America, Pacific Northwest, European Phantom, California Coast, New England Shore, Amsterdam-Paris, New York-Montreal -- and more!

Farewell 2013 Season!

Teen Treks' 2013 season has flown by, and as summer turns to fall, the office is winding down for the season.  It has been a blast!  From the beaches of Cape Cod, to the islands of British Columbia, and the streets of Paris, our Trekkers have been lucky enough to see some fascinating parts of the globe.  
Cliff and Alexa enjoyed meeting Trekkers and families in Buffalo, New York City, Block Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut; it was wonderful to see groups working hard and enjoying themselves.   
Our Leaders were tireless, working to climb hills in South Dakota, to fix flats in pouring rain, and round up Trekkers who missed a drop.  We thank all of our Leaders for their hard work and dedication.  
Most of all, we are happy for all of the Trekkers who decided to do something out of the ordinary this summer by hopping on a bike for weeks at a time, often to new places with new people (who turned into close friends).  From town to town, country to country, our Trekkers have grown as young people and bikers, all while traveling hundreds of miles and having fun.

Teen Treks would like to thank all of the teens and families for participating in our bike trips.  Everyone has helped to make 2013 another exciting season of cycling.  We hope that you join us again next season for more new cities, beaches, hills, food, and friends.  

Thank you for choosing Teen Treks, and have a great year.

See you in 2014, where adventure awaits!

Some European Phantomers

Maine Coast

Pacific Northwest

Niagara-Toronto

Across America

New England Shore

California Coast

Some European Phantomers

New York-Montreal

Lake Ontario

New York-Montreal

Farewell European Phantom Trekkers!

It has been a fantastic 28 days for our European Trekkers.  And today, the Trek returned to London's Heathrow airport to bid farewell to out well traveled Trekkers.  From castles to beaches, city streets and quiet pastures the Trekkers have toured England, France, the Netherlands and Belgium in two wheeled style.  We wish all of the Trekkers the best as they safely Travel to the countries of Canada, Germany and the USA.

London

Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England

Normandy region, France

Rouen, France

Paris

Bruges, NL

Ghent, Belgium

Ghent,Belgium

Amsterdam

Rural Holland

Rural England

Along the River Cam, England

European Phantom 2013

Oh, the places you've gone!  Teen Treks hopes the rest of your summer is as exciting as the past five weeks.  Bon voyage, merci and cheers!

European Phantom's Weekend in Cambridge and London

Kings College, Cambridge

A weekend recap from Taylor (Leader):

The European Phantom trekkers are in London! After three great cycling days through England, the group has arrived at its final destination.

After getting off our ferry from the Netherlands to England on Wednesday, we biked the 30 miles from Harwich to Sudbury before lunch, arriving earlier than planned. We passed a bowling alley on the way into town and the group enthusiastically decided to stop and bowl a few games. (Jordan and Sean were the winners. Their prize was a jacket potato.) That night at our campsite we had a tasty soup-and-salad dinner and then played a few rounds of cards before bed. The next morning we woke up to our first rain of the trip, which fortunately stopped by the time we'd finished breakfast. The day turned hot and sunny as we rode to Cambridge. We arrived late afternoon, settled in to our hotel, then cooked burgers in a nearby park. 

Friday was dedicated to exploring Cambridge. After an all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hotel, we went downtown to walk the winding, narrow streets and see the beautiful old stone buildings of the 31 colleges that make up Cambridge University. We stopped into the gorgeous King's College Chapel, built in the 15th Century. Next to the chapel itself was an exhibit on its construction, showing the mathematics behind its vaulted ceilings and the process of making stained glass windows. Pretty incredible. From there, we had a picnic lunch, and headed to the river to check out the local past-time: punting. (Punting is a style of boating in which a person stands at the back of a low 12-passenger boat and pushes the boat down a shallow canal with a long stick.) After laughing at the other tourists struggling to move their punting boats, we opted for a guided punting tour of the city. Unfortunately, just as we were leaving the docks, our guide dropped his punting stick and hit leader Kate on the head. We had to stop the tour to get Kate checked out, but fortunately she was OK (though it sure looked like it hurt). After our punting misadventure, we went to a play of Cymbeline at the Downing College Gardens, part of the annual outdoor summer Shakespeare Festival. The show was really entertaining and well-done.

In front of Trinity College

Punting guides and novices along the River Cam

This morning we biked about 20 miles toward London, before stopping for lunch and catching a train the rest of the way into the city. When we arrived, a friendly cyclist helped us find our hostel in the drizzle, riding through traffic on bike/bus lanes shared with iconic red double-decker buses. Tonight we took advantage of the hostel's kitchen and cooked ourselves a hearty pesto pasta. And now we're getting ready to hit the streets tomorrow, as we conclude our trip with two days of London site-seeing.