HOW WE GOT HERE
Our Journey to Becoming the Premiere Biking, Hiking and Kayaking Experience Throughout Sonoma and Napa Valley
Getaway Adventures started as an accidental business. It all started when I, Randy Johnson, founder and owner, blew out my knee in a skiing accident. A ski bum by trade, the knee injury forced me to convalesce in Calistoga while I healed. My doctor told me to build up my quads by either swimming laps or riding a bike. After a couple of weeks in the pool I got bored with laps and decided to start riding my bike around the area. Now THAT was fun! I loved being outdoors in the fresh air and seeing all of the beauty of the area up close and personal. I rode all over–from Calistoga to the Coast and everywhere in between. After about a year my knee was finally healed, and it was just in time for my uncle’s annual wine-buying trip in the Napa Valley. He thought it would be a fun idea to make the rounds to his favorite wineries by bike (and I thought he was crazy!) However, on the trip my Uncle Teney taught me the finer points of sniffing, swirling, and sipping fine wine while I showed him the joy of a casual bike ride to the small, family-owned wineries he loved.
I realized what a magical combination we had discovered. When Uncle Teney got back home he told all of his colleagues about his bike wine trip, and in short order I got a call from someone else who wanted to repeat the magic. Three new groups came out and toured with me that season, and each trip was better than the last. As snow season approached, I got excited about returning to the slopes. I got a call from another one of Uncle Teney’s coworkers asking me to take a group on one of my tours, but I told him I couldn’t because I was headed back up to Tahoe. “You don’t understand,” he pleaded, “I’ve got my boss and some key clients coming with me and they are expecting this trip. They’ve heard so much about it! I’d even be willing to pay you!”
And AHA, the Getaway Bike Tour company was born. I thought Getaway Adventures was the perfect name because I wanted to take people on a trip that let them get away from it all–the stresses of life, the busyness of downtown, and I definitely wanted to stay away from the places where all of the big tour buses stopped–and focus on the beauty of Wine Country and the special small boutique wineries I had come to love.
We focused on our guests, and word steadily got out, and we grew into the premier Wine Country adventure tour company, changing our name in 1999 to Getaway Adventures/Wine Country Bike Tours. We also expanded our tours to include kayaking, hiking, and van tours. Our company enjoys a stellar reputation, and we work with all of the top hotels in the area as either their official tour provider or one of their preferred suppliers.
Getaway Adventures is a labor of love, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Getaway Adventures is here to share in the wonder that is northern California’s Wine Country. We aim to guide our guests, show them our favorite spots, share local secrets, and make new discoveries. We want them to have fun, relax, learn about wine, take in the beautiful sights, and explore and discover the best of the best in Wine Country. Our hope is that our guests arrive as clients and leave as friends.
OUR VISION STATEMENT
We want to create an environment where people can learn through first hand experiences that eco-travel is not only easy, but the best way to travel. We use the word sustainable a lot–we believe it can be applied to any business, and we realized how important it is to focus on the long term well-being of the world that we come into contact with.