Mountain Bike Tours & Trips

Should be renamed Hike Bike and Too Many Temples. Certainly there wasn’t enough kayaking to put it in the title. An option to not see 8 temples in Siem Reap would have been nice. If I wanted to go on a temple tour, I would have signed up for one. Our whole group loved the kayaking experience the most. More kayaking, please!

A great tour and very well organised. Son, the tour leader, and his team were excellent and really made the difference to the entire trip. They were helpful, attentive, and made sure that everyone got exactly what they wanted. The activities were well paced, giving everyone the necessary time out from the activities, the local restaurants and food was delicious and suited our fellow travellers who had varied dietary requirements (including vegans). I had a wonderful overall experience in this beautiful country and I definitely will travel with Intrepid again - to Vietnam or elsewhere.

This was an amazing adventure. Let me say first off that I am glad the first day is basically a free day to help acclimate you to the altitude. By the end of the night, my head was pounding but the next morning I felt a whole lot better. The second day was pretty easy but we saw a few good sights. We learned about how the natives dye the wool and alpaca with natural substances and how they twirl it into yard to make anything and everything. We saw the salt mines in Maras but due to heavy rain and even snow a few days earlier the salt was more muddy than salty but still a cool sight to see. Chinchero was amazing as well to see just how they lived way back then and to experience walking through on the steps that had been built centuries ago. In Moray, they had these step like plateaus dug deep into the earth in circles in which they grew and perfected the growing conditions for crops. It was real interesting to see these even today. Day 3 was by far the best day of the trip. You take a bus up to about 14300 feet and ride or coast down the mountain on a mountain bike. The views are amazing. You are literally in the clouds and passing by streams of water all while being passed by passenger buses. After that is lunch and off to river rafting. Be prepared to get wet but it is a blast. Day 4 was an ass kicker for me. I'm 49 and in decent shape but hiking all day on the mountain trails was challenging to say the least but I'm glad I did it. We took several breaks and stops along the way so that was awesome. Day 5 We wake up and take a bus to the zipline and suspension bridge. It was also a blast but if you are scared of heights you might not be able to stomach it. The ziplines are very high and very long. The suspension bridge steps are at least 3 feet apart and towards the end they get even wider apart. You are always hooked so no real safety issue unless you don't trust the equipment. After ziplining we hiked for 3 or 4 hours to Aquas Calientes where we stayed the night in order to get up early for Machu Picchu in the morning. Day 6 It was a rough morning for myself as I found the happy hour in Aquas Calientes to be very fun and interesting with some of my tour mates. 6 AM breakfast and 6:30 on the bus to Machu Picchu. This site is breath taking and unbelievable to experience in person. Pictures do not do it justice. It was couple hours up there with our guide and then we took the bus, or you could hike back to Aquas Calientes. I think I was back by about 10:30 AM and just walked around the town and ate some brunch. They train departed at 4 pm to Ollyantaytambo and was a two hour winding ride. Our van driver picked us up and took us back to Cusco, another two hour drive. It was a very long day for two and a half hours of seeing Machu Picchu, very long. Day 7 Final day is a free day and your ride to the airport. I enjoyed walking around the town until it was time to go. One important thing you should know is that once you start Day 3 with the mountain biking, you must only carry a backpack with everything you need. I don't think they mention this in the tour info. No luggage will be taken. I highly suggest a good size backpacking backpack and only bring what you need. I had only a hiking camelback with some storage. I survived but it was very interesting. Bring a good size back pack! I cannot stress that enough.