Wild and Wonderful Western Canada

After the long flight from Singapore to Vancouver, you won't need to do anything clever with your luggage or your bike box, because there isn't one. Your Brompton folds down small enough to wheel straight through arrivals. By the time you check into the hotel and freshen up, your Brompton will be ready, unfolded and waiting for its first proper look at the city.

That first afternoon, we'll keep things gentle. A short spin along the water, past the seaplanes taking off from the harbour, just enough to remind your legs what a bicycle feels like after eighteen hours on the plane. Dinner that evening will be relaxed. No one will be expected to talk about kilometres yet.

The next morning is when Vancouver really shows off. You'll ride the Seawall, the longest uninterrupted stretch of waterfront path in the world, and for a good while you won't believe you're still inside a city. Stanley Park will have you cycling under old cedar trees with the water on one side and the mountains on the other, and there's a speed limit built into the path itself, so nobody in the group gets left behind chasing anyone else. You'll stop at Prospect Point for photographs, the North Shore mountains laid out across the inlet, and by lunchtime you'll have folded your bike outside Granville Island Public Market and be deciding between three different kinds of oysters. In the afternoon you'll carry on to Kitsilano Beach, and if the weather is kind, which it usually is in late July, you'll wonder why anyone would holiday anywhere else.

But Vancouver is only the opening chapter. On the third morning, you'll fly to Calgary, and from there it's a drive of about ninety minutes into the mountains. We won't pretend this part is glamorous. It's a travel day. What we will promise is that the moment the Rockies come into view through the window, you'll understand why the day was worth it.

Banff will feel like nowhere you've been on a Brompton before. The air is a few degrees cooler, the light is different, and the mountains don't so much frame the town as loom majestically over it. That first evening, once you've settled into your hotel, we'll take a short easy ride out to the Vermilion Lakes, timed for golden hour, when Mount Rundle turns upside down in the still water and every single person in the group will stop pedalling to take the same photograph. Dinner on Banff Avenue afterwards will taste better for the ride.

Your first full day in the mountains belongs to the Legacy Trail, a paved path that runs all the way from Banff to the neighbouring town of Canmore without a single car in sight. It's one of our favourite rides anywhere in the world, partly for the scenery and partly for what it says about the bike you're on. Some visitors ride the trail one way and take the bus back. but the local buses only have room for a handful of bicycles on their racks. Yours will simply fold up and ride inside our private support vehicle. You'll have lunch in Canmore, the Three Sisters peaks lined up ahead of you the whole way in.

The following day takes you out to Lake Minnewanka, on a quiet paved road shared with the occasional car and, more often than not, a small herd of bighorn sheep who won't seem especially bothered by your presence. This is the hilliest day of the whole tour, and we won't hide that either, but the climbs are gentle rather than punishing, and the descents will make you whoop like a child. If you want to skip cycling the accent, just fold up your bike and hop into the support vehicle and hitch a ride to the top of the decent. Two Jack Lake will be one of the most photographed spots of your entire trip, and if you fancy a proper break, Johnson Lake is a short detour away with a good spot for a swim. We'll pack a picnic from a favourite Banff bakery and eat it by the water at Cascade Ponds, and enjoy the glorious summer day in the Rockies.

By the time your third Banff morning arrives, you'll fly back to Vancouver, and the city will feel different the second time round. Familiar, almost. You'll take one more ride, a shorter version of that first Seawall loop, unhurried, more about saying goodbye to the water than covering distance. Somewhere along the way, probably at Granville Island again, you'll realise you've been on a bicycle in two entirely different corners of Canada in the space of a week, and that your legs, remarkably, still want more.

Your last night will be a quiet one. A good dinner, a look back through the week's photographs, and a bike that folds up one final time before it goes back in your bag for the flight home.

That's the shape of it. Flat water in the first couple of days, rocky mountain highs the next, and a small folding bicycle that made both feel entirely natural.

If this sounds like your kind of holiday, message us on WhatsApp at +65 8925 7912, or have a look at bromptonexperiences.com for what else we've got planned.