The Savoie Week That Is Not Really a Cycling Tour

DuVine lists its new Secrets of the Savoie tour as a cycling trip. Read the itinerary and the label starts to slip. Of the six days, three are spent on a bike. One is spent hiking above Lake Annecy and then sailing it. One is spent hiking at the base of Mont Blanc. The last is a transfer home. Calling it a cycling tour undersells it, and for a certain reader it undersells it in exactly the wrong direction.

That reader is the one who has looked at the Tour du Mont Blanc and quietly decided the hut-to-hut part is not for them. Or the one whose partner does not ride but does hike and does sail. Or the cyclist who wants the Alps without spending six straight days proving something. This tour is built for all three, and the multi-sport shape is why.

Who DuVine is

DuVine, for readers who have not traveled with them, is a guided cycling company founded in 1996 by Andy Levine after a post-college bike trip through Burgundy convinced him the way to know a place is by bike, through its people, its food, and its wine. The company still runs on that formula, bike, eat, drink, sleep, with small groups of 14 or fewer, boutique hotels, local guides, and tours in more than 20 countries. Travel + Leisure has named it a World’s Best tour operator repeatedly, including the No. 1 spot in 2022. The Savoie tour is new for 2027, and its multi-sport shape is a newer wrinkle on that formula.

The week, day by day

Day one is an easy spin out of Annecy, 17 miles, ending at a lakefront hotel where the group stays for three nights. Day two loops Lake Annecy on a traffic-free rail trail, 33 miles with a shorter 24-mile option, lunch at a lakefront bistro, dinner with a local chef walking the group through Savoyard cooking. Day three leaves the bikes behind: a hike on the Semnoz plateau above the lake, lunch at a mountain hut, then an afternoon sailing Lake Annecy with a local boat captain. Dinner that night is on your own in Annecy, which is a feature, not an oversight.

Day four is the one that earns the trip its Alpine billing. The group rides through the gorge that has served as the gateway to the Alps since Roman armies used it, climbs the Col de la Croix Fry, which rises almost 3,000 feet at an average gradient of 6.6 percent, then pushes on to the Col des Aravis before a transfer to the second hotel, a boutique lodge at the base of Mont Blanc. Day five is a Mont Blanc hike from a wood-and-stone refuge, three to five hours, followed by dinner at a chef-owned farm restaurant. Day six transfers to the Saint-Gervais-les-Bains train station.

The level 2 honesty check

DuVine rates this tour level 2, and for five of the six days that rating holds. Day four is the exception, and it is worth naming plainly: a 28-mile day with 3,970 feet of gain and two real passes is a serious day on a bike, whatever the brochure level says. Two things soften it. The support van follows the route all day, so nobody is stranded on a pass. And the electric hybrid bike is included in the price, not an upcharge, which changes the math for a rider who wants the route without the suffering. The electric road bike costs an extra $400. If you are the reader who looks at the Croix Fry profile and thinks about the van, take the e-bike and enjoy the descent. Nobody on a guided tour is checking your wattage.

The money and the logistics

The price is $6,995 per person for the June 28, July 12, July 19, and August 16 departures, and $7,095 for September 13. The single supplement starts at $1,500. What that buys, beyond the obvious: daily breakfasts, all lunches, four gourmet dinners, wine or beer with meals, a Cannondale road bike or a Specialized electric hybrid, a helmet, a GPS with the routes loaded, bilingual guides, the support van, luggage transfers, daily bike maintenance, wine tastings, entrance fees, and gratuities for baggage, porters, and hotel staff. What it does not buy: airfare, dinner on the one free night, and gratuities for the DuVine guides.

The logistics are the comfortable part. Fly into Geneva. Meet the group at the Annecy train station at 10:30 in the morning. Leave from Saint-Gervais-les-Bains station at 10:30 on the last day. Your bags move between the two hotels while you ride, hike, or sail. The first hotel is Le Palace de Menthon or the Abbaye de Talloires, both on the Lake Annecy shore. The second is the Armancette lodge, with a spa and a pool under the Dômes de Miage peaks. Nobody sleeps in a hut. Nobody carries a pack up a pass.

Who this actually widens the trip for

Here is the reframe that matters. A pure cycling tour sells to cyclists. A ride-hike-sail week sells to the cyclist, the hiking partner, and the friend who mostly wants to be in the Alps eating well and moving at a human pace. The hike-and-sail day is not a rest day dressed up as an activity. It is the reason a mixed-ability group can book the same trip and all come home happy. The cyclist gets a genuine pass day. The non-cyclist gets two days that have nothing to do with a saddle. Everybody gets the same hotels and the same dinners.

That is also why the September departure matters. September 13 is the last date, and it costs $100 more, but it is the best version of this trip for a reader who dislikes summer crowds. The lake is still warm enough to sail, the passes are still open, and the summer rush in Annecy has thinned.

Trailhead basics

A guided tour moves your bags and hands you a bike, but the days still run on the same basics. These earn their place in the daypack.

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• Ultima Replenisher electrolyte packets. One stick per bottle on the Croix Fry day. The van carries water, but the climb still bills by the hour.
• Blue Lizard Sensitive Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50. Alpine sun at altitude does not care that you are on a guided tour. A 3 oz tube is the size that actually gets carried.
• Starbucks Premium Instant Coffee. The 10:30 pickup in Annecy rewards an early start, and this works in a hotel room before the group gathers.
• Men’s travel toiletry kit, TSA approved. Two hotels in six days, one bag moved for you. This keeps the toiletries from colonizing the whole suitcase.

Clay’s Lowdown

Book the September 13 departure if you can. It costs $100 more than the summer dates and buys you thinner crowds on the lake and the passes. Take the included electric hybrid unless you are certain about the Croix Fry day, and decide that before you arrive, not on the pass. Pack for three sports, not one: cycling kit, hiking shoes with real tread for the Semnoz and Mont Blanc days, and a layer for the boat. Fly into Geneva and take the train to Annecy the day before, so the 10:30 pickup is a formality instead of a sprint. And if you are booking for two people with different tolerances for a saddle, this is the rare Alpine tour where that difference is a feature of the itinerary, not a problem to solve.

Sources: DuVine: French Alps Bike + Adventure Tour (itinerary, dates, prices, inclusions); DuVine: France tours (Secrets of the Savoie listing).