Algona 

The RAGBRAI Monday night stop is bordered on three sides by the Des Moines River.  Algona will be Brancel Charters first repeat overnight town. 



Fun Fact:
Bob has been in all 50 states, Debbie in 49,  Nicole in 43 and Emma in 7.




 

Selecting a Charter...

We want to provide you our opinion and experience with charters to help people decide what charter is right for them or if they need one at all.  (We are obviously biased but also love to analyze everything.)  There are a lot of great charters on RAGBRAI that vary in size and services offered. 

 

Hopefully if you are looking for a charter this can get you started on what questions to ask when you call a charter. 

 

Do I need a charter or should I use the RAGBRAI luggage semi?

 

We have done both when we rode RAGBRAI and either one works it just depends on the amount of services that you want.  We do believe for first time RAGBRAI riders it makes it easier for you if you do use a charter.  There are people there to answer your questions and you are part of a smaller group which makes the ride less overwhelming.

 

How are camping locations determined?

 

RAGBRAI establishes a date when the charters are allowed to contact/visit the overnight towns.  If a charter gets to a town and finds a spot they contact the campground chair of that town and let them know what they would like and then hope to get that spot.  Each charter wins some and loses some but no charter can get the best spot in every town.  We visit each overnight town at least twice prior to the ride. 

 

How many people do you take on your charter?

 

Another question to ask a charter is how many people do you take?  When the ride visits smaller towns that have between 2,000 and 10,000 people there are not as many options available as you get bigger.  We limit our charter to a size which lets us fit in a one city block park and over the years this has allowed us to get the sites we desire.  Of course, if we were smaller there would be other spots we would fit into that we currently do not. However, if we were to increase our size that would limit the number of places we could fit into as a group.  So that is why we limit our campers.

 

Do charters locate near showers?

 

Yes, most charters try to locate near a shower facility and in the six years we have been a charter we have been within a few blocks of a shower every time.  The charters I talk to all put a big priority on being located near a shower.  The towns also try to disburse the showers throughout the city.  The individual towns determine shower locations so a charter can not dictate shower locations or where a mobile shower unit sets up. 

 

The average cost of a shower on RAGBRAI is $5.


What services do charters provide?

 

Charters provide a variety of services so it is up to you to determine which services are important for you.  The charters all provide transportation with your bikes to the starting town either before or after the ride.  The majority also transport your gear during the week and have a designated campsite with canopies, chairs and beverages.  From there, the additional services vary.  Ours are discussed on our home page. 

 

Am I going to have a hard time finding food?

 

Finding food on RAGBRAI is like finding a fly at a summer picnic.  It is more a question of where and what you want to eat versus “will there be food?”  Many people refer to this ride as eating your way across Iowa.    

 

However, for our campers last year we offered an optional Pig Roast one night at our campsite.  We purchased the food from an establishment in the overnight town. This was well received and we plan on doing something similar this year.  The campers enjoyed not having to leave camp for one evening to get food and there were several other nights we were very close to food as well.

 

Is it hard to find entertainment during the week?

 

We have surveyed our customers about entertainment and they had little or no interest in a charter providing this because entertainment is everywhere.  Every town has an entertainment committee that is bringing in a variety of bands.  We don’t want to take away from the towns’ efforts to show off how well they did at providing you quality entertainment.

 

Through my years of biking I have done many organized bike rides including cross state rides, MS rides, and other long training rides that were supported.  On several of these rides I did struggle to find food and entertainment.  However, RAGBRAI is not like that.  If we thought there was a need for food and entertainment we would provide it without question. 

 

Final Thoughts

 

We know that it can be difficult to choose a charter when there is so much information out there.  Hopefully, this page will help people decide what they want from a charter and which one is best for them.  No matter what your decision, have a great ride!

 

Sincerely,

Bob and Debbie Brancel