The 10 Best Cycling Tours in The World

The Sa Calobra climb switchbacks up 26 hairpins through the limestone Serra de Tramuntana, including a spiralling loop where the road passes beneath itself, before dropping to a hidden cove on Mallorca's northwest coast.

Wider routes through the range link terraced olive groves, the monastery at Lluc and the ridge-top village of Deia.

The road is a pilgrimage climb for road cyclists and one of Europe's most celebrated stretches of tarmac.

A signed cycle path links Onomichi on Honshu to Imabari on Shikoku across six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea, crossing seven bridges over open water.

Riders follow dedicated blue lane markings past citrus groves, fishing harbours and turquoise straits, with the cable-stayed Tatara Bridge and the towering Kurushima-Kaikyo suspension bridge as centrepiece crossings.

Rental terminals at either end let you start and finish where you like.

La Loire a Velo's flat, dedicated paths link the Loire Valley's great chateaux, threading past Chambord's fairy-tale turrets, Chenonceau's arches over the Cher and Amboise's clifftop fortress.

Riders pass through stone villages, vineyards and troglodyte cave dwellings carved into tufa cliffs along the way.

Short, modular loops between 10 and 45km make it easy to see one chateau or several in a single day.

Chapman's Peak Drive carves along sheer cliffs between Noordhoek and Hout Bay, the scenic centrepiece of a wider ride around the Cape Peninsula past Boulders Beach's penguins and the fynbos slopes near Cape Point.

The full loop, ridden each March by 35,000 cyclists in the Cape Town Cycle Tour, mixes ocean-cliff drama with quiet vineyard roads on the return leg.

Wind and open cliff edges make it a serious ride outside the closed-road race day.

A flat, paved path traces the Danube's south bank through the Wachau, a UNESCO-listed valley of terraced vineyards, apricot orchards and medieval river towns between Melk and Krems.

Riders pass beneath Durnstein's ruined castle, where Richard the Lionheart was once imprisoned, while Melk's baroque abbey looms over the starting point.

The gentle downhill gradient and dedicated bike lane make it an easy half-day ride at any fitness level.

Quiet lanes and dirt tracks wind through Jatiluwih's UNESCO-listed rice terraces, a 600-hectare patchwork of paddies fed by the centuries-old subak irrigation system in central Bali.

Riders pass working farmers, fighting-cock cages and coffee laid out to dry in small villages between the terraces.

E-bikes make the gentle climbs manageable, with wide views over layered green paddies to Mount Batukaru behind.

Quiet dyke-top lanes and narrow village paths thread through the rice paddies, fruit orchards and canal towns of the Mekong Delta around Vinh Long, Can Tho and Cai Be.

Riders pedal between traditional stilt houses, brick kilns and coconut-candy workshops, crossing narrow bridges and taking short boat hops between islands.

Life along the water, from floating markets to fishing boats, unfolds at close range the whole way.

A converted 19th-century railway line runs 150km through Central Otago's high-country landscape, crossing viaducts and old tunnels between Clyde and Middlemarch.

Riders pass abandoned stone stations, schist rock outcrops and wide tussock valleys with barely another soul in sight.

Most riders spread the flat, gravel trail over four or five days, staying in small towns like Ranfurly and Naseby along the way.

Copenhagen's 400km network of raised, kerb-separated cycle tracks makes riding the easiest way to see the city, from Nyhavn's canal houses to the harbour baths and Christiania.

Dedicated bicycle bridges and traffic lights timed for cyclists mean two-wheeled traffic genuinely outnumbers cars downtown.

Hotel and station bike rental is everywhere, and the flat terrain suits complete beginners.

The paved Vine Trail runs 12.

5 miles between downtown Napa and Yountville, weaving past manicured vineyard rows, stone wineries and oak-dotted hills.

Quieter backroads through Carneros add rolling, sheep-grazed vistas that turn yellow with wild mustard flowers each spring.

The route is flat enough for casual riders, with tasting rooms, bakeries and picnic stops built into most itineraries.