This is one of those rare bike tours that combine beaches and mountains, making it easy to understand why so many professional riders make this region their home base. Over the span of eight days you’ll skirt the clear, lapping waters of the Mediterranean Sea along Spain’s famed Costa Brava. You’ll pedal through the jagged reaches of the Pyrenees Mountains while crisscrossing the border of Spain and France and visiting tiny medieval villages. You’ll sample wines from world-class vineyards, wheel through thick forests dotted with castles and even pass dormant volcanoes. You’ll see firsthand the dramatic settings that inspired such artistic heavyweights as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

In between you’ll stay in hotels with three and four-star ratings, and every morning your luggage will be shuttled to your next destination, so it will be waiting for you when you pedal into town and check into your hotel. Information kits will be handed out before the tour begins and will detail everything you’ll need to know about the trip, including notable attractions and just-in-case contact numbers. So all you have to focus on is riding and snapping photos to e-mail to your jealous friends. And as an added bonus, Girona, the tour’s starting city, enjoys easy access via plane or train from most major European cities.