The wealthy winemaker from Chile strolled into Pedal Bike Tours Hawaii’s Waikiki shop with his wife and two teenage daughters and booked a Hidden Honolulu tour for the following day. They were told to come in clothes they would wear for a walk around town.

"He showed up in slacks, a silk shirt and shiny leather Ferragamos, and his wife was decked out in pearls and a lovely dress," said Lota LaMontagne, the company’s co-founder. "His daughters wore stylish, more casual clothes but with lots of jewelry. It was the first time we’d had such well-dressed people on a tour, but it worked out just fine. In fact, after our tour, they rented their bikes so they could continue cruising around Honolulu. They must’ve been quite a sight!"

LaMontagne and her husband, Todd Roll, started Pedal Bike Tours in Portland, Ore., in 2008 with just four bikes and an office in the back of Roll’s brother’s bike shop. The business proved so successful, they decided to expand to Honolulu and launch Pedal Bike Tours Hawaii in February.

According to LaMontagne, Hawaii provides the perfect setting for cycling. In addition to safe, level roads and great weather pretty much year-round, she notes there are wonderful discoveries to be made off the usual tour bus routes. Unlike large motor vehicles, bikes are very maneuverable, enabling riders to make sharp turns, go around obstacles and coast down narrow alleys.

"We’re here to encourage people to sightsee on bikes, so they can breathe fresh air, get a little exercise and learn about Hawaii’s culture, history and lifestyle in a way that has low impact on the environment," she said. "Our tours are geared to families and novice riders. You don’t need to be an athlete or have special gear to bike."

Hidden Honolulu is a guided 12-mile ride on flat terrain. Stops are made about every 15 minutes during the three-hour tour, so the pace is relaxed.

"We tell guests, ‘If you can walk a mile or two, you can do this tour,’" LaMontagne said. "Biking is easy, safe and fun for people of all ages."

At first, Hidden Honolulu appears to be a misnomer because it includes major attractions between Waikiki and downtown Honolulu, among them Ala Moana Beach Park, Kawaiaha‘o Church, Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, Iolani Palace, Chinatown and the Kamehameha Statue in front of Aliiolani Hale, where Hawaii’s Supreme Court convenes. But the tour reveals cool little-known sights beyond that.

One highlight is the 2.5-mile bike path that borders the mauka (toward the mountains) side of the Ala Wai Canal. Only a few spots along the way expose cyclists to traffic, and they enjoy gliding through a banyan tree tunnel, watching ducks play in a stream that flows into the canal and saying hello to people tending their crops in a community garden.

Once a drab industrial area, Kakaako is undergoing a renaissance. Bikers cruise down side streets brightened with murals on the walls of buildings. LaMontagne’s favorite — a whimsical depiction of two dancing bananas, one wearing an aloha shirt, the other in a grass skirt and coconut shell bra — covers the back wall of the Cutter car dealership on Ala Moana Boulevard.

Avid surfers gather at Kakaako Waterfront Park’s Point Panic, so named because waves break on rocks close to shore, requiring them to pull away quickly to avoid getting hurt. "Besides the thrill of watching the sport that’s synonymous with Hawaii, you can see an amazing view of Waikiki from there," LaMontagne said. "The park is big, quiet and uncrowded with grassy knolls, so you feel like you’re far away from the city even though you’ve ridden just a few miles."

Entering the core of downtown Honolulu, the group pedals up a ramp into the open-air center of the state Capitol. Its cone-shaped legislative chambers represent the volcanoes that formed Hawaii, the surrounding reflecting pool symbolizes the Pacific Ocean and, shaped like royal palms, the eight columns at the front and back of the building stand for the Aloha State’s main islands.

LaMontagne asserts those who have driven by such landmarks would appreciate them much more on a bike. "Being on a bike engages all of your senses," she said. "When you get out of the bubble of a car or bus, you feel the cool breezes, you hear the laughter of kids playing at the park, you smell the plumerias along the Ala Wai Canal and you taste the salty air by the ocean. It’s easy to pull over and buy a doughnut from a neighborhood bakery on a whim because finding a parking space is not an issue."

Given the choice, LaMontagne much prefers the freedom of cycling to being stuck in gridlock traffic. It wasn’t always that way; in fact, she admits there was a time when you couldn’t pry her car keys from her hands.

Her shift in thinking began eight years ago when her car died and her husband talked her into biking to her job in downtown Portland.

"I remember heading off with my high-heeled shoes in my backpack, looking back nervously at Todd who was waving to me at the front door," LaMontagne said. "I rode over a bridge I had crossed in my car thousands of times before, but instead of listening to the radio, stewing about thoughtless drivers or wondering how my meetings were going to go that day, I saw the city waking up, heard the sound of a boat horn and felt the wind playing with my hair. It was a Zen moment. That’s one of the joys of biking: The ride is often more memorable than the destination."

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.