Our European travel group chose the Tour de Suisse for our 2004 trip. Rather than using a tour company, we decided to do this one on our own. It required booking hotels near the race route and renting a car. It required a lot more planning than past trips. There are pros and cons to following the Tour de Suisse over the Tour de France. The biggest advantage is the lack of spectators on the race route and not once were we thrown off the course while riding our bikes. The only real disadvantage is that this is a less prestigious race as compared to the TDF and Switzerland is very expensive.