Bicycle Touring with Kids
People often assume bikepacking or cycle touring is something reserved for ultra-fit adventure racers - the kind who chase epic distances on lightweight bikes and measure success in elevation gained. Our experience with family touring couldn’t be more different. For us, cycling holidays have always been about slowing down, travelling together, and discovering what our kids - and we - are capable of when the journey becomes the destination.
We’ve been touring with our children for years now, riding routes like the Remutaka Incline, the Five Beaches Trail at Porongahau, and through the Marlborough Sounds, along with a growing list of quieter backroads and tracks around Aotearoa. There’s more still on the wish list - Akitio Coast is calling for our next adventure. None of these rides were about speed or monster mileage; they were about creating meaningful shared experiences outdoors and letting our kids build confidence one day at a time.
When our touring began, the kids were still very young - the youngest just three, with the others around six and seven. Back then, our setup looked nothing like the sleek touring rigs of internet adventure videos. My wife carried most of the camping gear on her cargo bike. I used mine to haul spare kids’ bikes, bags, the children themselves when the legs ran out, and a miscellaneous collection of whatever small treasures needed to come along for the ride. When the kids felt like riding, they’d ride. When they were done, they hopped back into the cargo box. There was no pressure to perform. Riding wasn’t something they were made to do - it was something they chose to do, as much or as little as each day allowed.
That simple flexibility changed everything. As our kids grew stronger and more capable, their roles shifted naturally - first riding longer stretches, then carrying their own light gear, and eventually taking responsibility for full pannier setups. Touring evolved around them rather than asking them to fit into an adult-designed idea of what cycle travel should look like. And that principle still guides us now.
Distance is one of the questions we get asked most often, but the truth is that kids ride at the pace of curiosity - not adrenaline. Once you factor in swimming stops, snack breaks, photo opportunities, and all the little detours that make a journey fun, the actual kilometres matter far less than people imagine. The best place to start is simply with short adventures: a morning outing, an afternoon ride, or taking the long way to somewhere you already enjoy together. It’s no different from heading to the park with the bikes and cargo bike in tow — just with a few extra twists and turns along the way. What matters most is keeping things flexible and letting your youngest rider set the tone, whether that means exploring for twenty minutes or pedalling until they’re ready to hop back in the box for a breather.
Wind teaches a particularly humbling lesson on family rides. Hills at least come with the reward of a downhill. Headwinds just ask kids to keep pedalling with no visible payoff, which can be deeply demoralising until the moment they realise they’re actually winning anyway by pushing through. We learned long ago that morale management is as important as physical preparation.
One tour began with a late start, a building headwind, and then a solid five-hour grind into rolling terrain under thunderclouds. Seventy kilometres later - spirits hanging on by the promise of a celebratory burger at the pub - we reached town only to discover the pub and all surrounding shops had closed early. Disappointment was swift, but it soon turned to laughter and story-making. Mishaps like that don’t ruin trips. They become the trips - the moments kids remember and laugh about long after the legs have stopped aching.
Electric bikes deserve special mention here, because they quietly make family touring accessible to far more people than most realise. When kids are young or gear is heavy, e-bikes allow parents to balance the load so that everyone still gets a real workout without anyone becoming overburdened. They’re not cheating - they’re practical tools that make shared experiences possible. They keep the group riding together instead of fragmenting apart, and that continuity makes all the difference on multi-day trips.
Gear choice has also become far more flexible than it once was. There is no single correct way to carry everything. Some rides suit classic panniers perfectly. Others work better with frame bags, bar packs, or minimalist rack systems that let you move loads onto bikes that don’t traditionally carry panniers at all. Different trips demand different solutions, and part of the fun is dialling into setups that evolve with your family’s needs. What never changes is the goal of keeping loads manageable so that everyone - especially the kids - can enjoy riding without feeling overworked.
Cargo bikes continue to play a big role for us, even now. Especially at the glamping end of touring - when you want warm sleeping gear, decent food setups, maybe even to bring your dog along (Charlie remains a firm fan) - nothing compares to their carrying ability. Many New Zealand trails are surprisingly cargo-friendly, opening touring to families who may never consider traditional backpack-style bike travel otherwise.
For inspiration and route planning, we’ve leaned heavily on the Kennett Brothers’ books, especially Bikepacking Aotearoa, which showcase options for every riding style - from gentle rail trails and sealed backroads to backcountry gravel routes for more adventurous crews. These books are fantastic for discovering just how much of our country is accessible from the saddle at a family-friendly pace.
At the heart of it all, touring with kids isn’t about ticking off kilometres or conquering landscapes. It’s about watching children build belief in themselves - discovering they can meet challenges, work as a team, and arrive at the end of a long day proud of what they’ve done together. Those lessons travel far beyond the bike.
If you’ve ever thought that bike touring sounds amazing but that you’re somehow “not fit enough,” let me reassure you - you are. You don’t need to be fast. You don’t need to be extreme. You don’t need special credentials beyond a willingness to slow down and start small.
And if you’d like help figuring out how bike touring could work for your family - from choosing routes to dialing in bike and bag setups that suit your kids’ sizes and abilities - come have a chat with us at Bicycle Junction. We love helping families make their first cycling holiday feel not just possible, but genuinely exciting.
