This was our second trip by bicycle with our kids. The first one was easy to plan, with just one kid with an age suitable to fit in a bike trailer and enjoy the trip. Now the first kid had grown up (4 years old) and the second one was ready to take his place in the traile. How to plan a bicycle trip of 10 to 14 days and make it pleasant for both kids? The eldest one was 4 years old, so too small to ride his bicycle or even to use a device such a trailgator/followMe (with the risk of him falling asleep). The only solution left was the standard chair at the rear rack, as we could travel by train with the bicycles, but we thought it would not be pleasant for him for such a long trip. Apart from these standard solutions, we had seen on the internet that the Hase Pino was the perfect solution for this kind of trip, covering a big age range to travel with kids during several years, and even to do a nice couple trip when someone would take sympathy of us and would look after our kids for some days. But we considered it is a rather expensive acquisition and the Pino would be too large to travel by train (at that time we didn’t have a car or a van available to get to the itinerary we wanted to do).
After looking up on the internet in a last attempt to find solutions for our summer bicycle trip, we ran into the web site of Locapino, with the great surprise that they could deliver the Pino wherever we needed. As Locapino is located near Nantes we found the trip along the Loire river to be the perfect opportunity at the tips of our fingers.
With little more than one week to the beginning of our vacation, we contacted Igor by email, asking for details and availability for the desired dates. His answer was very fast and luckily we could match our holidays’ dates with one of the Pino availability. Igor was in every moment very supportive to plan the trip, as he had a lot of experience traveling with his kids and he helped us to plan the trip by train to Orleans (with one bicycle and a trailer) and even gave us some rainy gear for our kid traveling in the front seat of the Pino.
Although planning a trip like this is not easy, everything went smoothly and we arrived to Orleans with the train on time and Igor was there on the platform waiting for us with the Pino. After a detour to buy croissants, he took us to the starting point of our trip. From that moment to the Atlantic coast everything just went perfectly.
The Loire a Velo is a really nice route, it is very scenic and every day you ride through beautiful landscapes, villages and towns, with lots of castles and ancient architecture. Many of them are worth a visit, although after some of them, you will probably decide just to stop over and enjoy a frozen beer sitting in a terrace with great views on the castle. The route is also full of camp sites, which allow you to keep your budget while your kids will enjoy swimming pools, open spaces to run and nice playgrounds after several hours of pedaling or sleeping in the trailer. Not to move your stuff every day from the bicycles to a hotel room on a first floor with 2 kids was also well appreciated, as camping allows you to unpack and pack your gear very easily.
We could tell you about all the great things we saw during the trip: castles, gardens, abbeys, forests, animal parks, nice playgrounds, fountains, beers, wine, cheese, but we would rather encourage you to go there and see all these things by yourself.
We ended up our trip in Pornic, a very nice fishing village, where Igor came to pick us up and take us to Nantes. Again he was on time and drove us to our hotel in Nantes directly. We were able to visit the Island of Machines, which is definitively worth a visit, and walk around to enjoy the beautiful city.
After this trip we are seriously thinking to buy a Pino as the experience was awesome. Igor's dedication and support was definitely key. We would like to thank him and definitively recommend him to everyone wishing to experience this kind of adventure.