Our history

FunActive TOURS and its founder Freddy Mair.

This is not possible to talk about FunActive TOURS without mentioning Freddy Mair’s life, so much the two stories inextricably bind to each other.

Freddy Mair was born and still lives in Villabassa – Niederdorf in Alta Val Pusteria, in South Tyrol in the province of Bolzano. Here, between the peaks of the Dolomites and the fir and larch forests, he spent his childhood and youth, skiing in winter and cycling in  summer, discovering and cultivating his passion for a healthy sport and his love for life in the open air, surrounded  by nature and among people.

In 1988, during his military service he began to dedicate himself to mountain biking, being part of the Carabinieri sport group.
From then until 1998, when he left the competitive activity, he was several timen selected for the Italian representative participating in the World Cup, he won several titles in the Italian championship and in the “Kenya MTB Ralley”.
In 1995 he took part into the famous first edition of the “Crocodile Trophy” in Australia concluding the race at the third place.
It was right in that year that Freddy designed a route for a MTB race for a length of 105 km  and an altitude difference of 3,000 meters in the heart of the Dolomites:  the first edition of the “Crocodile Trophy” took place on July 9. This was the “Dolomiti Superbike”, which over the years become a sportive event of great importance. This was his idea and his creature! After having participated again in the “Crocodile Trophy”, Freddy left the competitons but he staied faithful to the bike and its universe.

In fact, in 1999 he started working in the cycling tourism sector for a renowned tour operator well-known all over Europe  being responsible for the elaboration, organization and assistance of bike trips in Italy.
It was an exciting and rewarding experience, so much so that Freddy began to think about developing his own business dedicated to cycling tourism, active tourism and  outdoor activities. With the stubbornness typical of the athlete and the characteristic love of his people for their land, in 2002 Freddy  founded a new company in his small town called “FunActive TOURS” and began to organize bike trips in Italy and Austria. The first tours elaborated and offered by FunActive TOURS are: “The Drau Bike Path – From Bressanone to Villach”, “From the Dolomites to Venice” and “From the Dolomites to Lake Garda”.

These  proposals find favor in the cycling tourism market and in 2003, due to the growing interest in cycling trips by Italian bike lovers, Freddy widens its scope and offers tours all over Europe with great success: Holland, Germany, France and so on. And in addition to bike trips, he starts organizing the first trekking tours (“La via della castagne”, “I parchi naturali delle Dolomiti”) and winter weeks on cross-country skis (“Sci di fondo – safari in the Dolomites”).

In the meantime  the office in Via Frau Emma in Villabassa became too small and in 2008  FunActive TOURS moved to Via Stazione 3, also in Villabassa.
The company selling  bike trips grew exponentially and Freddy was forced to hire a team of collaborators: after only two years, in 2010, the premises of the new office were again too small for the team so that in Dobbiaco, the capital of Alta Val Pusteria, a branch of FunActive TOURS was opened in the renovated premises of the railway station, right at the starting point of the famous “Dobbiaco/San Candido -Lienz” cycle path.

And the story continues…