About

Why take a bike trip?

New York City has gravity.

If you, like me, came for a visit and woke up ten years later, you’ll think of the many ways this city pulled you in. You’ll think of all the usual suspects—the arts and entertainment, museums, music, food, fashion, sights and sounds. You’ll probably also think of a few unusual suspects, because the City is full of them. That’s the gravity that made NYC the center of your universe and keeps your orbit in the five boroughs.

But that’s not the gravity I’m talking about. 

If you, like me, spend your days tied to a desk and find yourself longing for weekend escapes, you’ll no doubt be familiar with the incredible gravitational forces that make leaving the City so difficult come Friday. The bumper-to-bumper crawl through the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and across the GW bridge. The overwhelming crowds at Grand Central, Port Authority, La Guardia, and JFK. The post-apocalyptic urban hellscape that is Penn Station at rush hour. Come Friday, every point of egress from NYC becomes a veritable black hole that consumes all ambitions for weekend retreat and permits only stress and fatigue to emerge. Then the whole process repeats itself in reverse upon re-entry on Sunday. 

&%#!... You’re telling me. 

BikeTrips.NYC exists because I believe there is a better way. Over the years, I’ve found that two wheels under your own pedal power and the occasional (off-peak) train will get you out of city limits more effortlessly than most any other form of transit. For me, a good bike trip feels like falling into a wormhole that blasts you through the City’s stratosphere into weekend bliss at the unassuming rate of 10-20 mph. 

All the better then that the opportunities for good bike trips from NYC are plentiful and often on low grade, car-free paths. Want to go autumn leaf peeping in the Hudson Valley? You can bike there. How about a summer beach ride along the Maine coast? You can bike there too. Or perhaps a ride through early American history up the Delaware River and down into Philly? There’s a bike trip for that and many more within reach of the City.

BikeTrips.NYC is here to help you find them.