5 Star Along the Danube - Four Country Tour Tour Reviews — 301 to 330 of 367

The people I was on the trip with we all had a just terrific time. A truly wonderful trip with a great staff great a wonderful trip.

The trip was very nice. Everything was nice. If I can figure a route will do it again next year!

Biking thru Wachau valley. Our guide, Hugo, was not real informative. We had to drag info from him. He was better later in the week when we kept asking. Wine tasting was fun. Loved quaint villages.

The e-bike option really made the trip for me. It allowed me to bicycle each day, get plenty of excercise, and not overdo it. As a result, I was able to enjoy the sites and experience much more.

The incredible countryside through which we traveled both by boat and on bike as well as the wonderfully hard-working, pleasant and attentive staff who made my trip so memorable. Lastly, the food was fantastic!

Sometimes we were unsure if we were on the route or not. Maybe could have had some additional signage along route.

The trip overall was great. The boat is showing its age, and the cabins are adequate but not overly comfortable.
The route descriptions provided by the cruise director could have been much better. Simply using visuals to indicate map directions would have helped a lot. There was some unnecessary confusion on our trip. A friend who took the trip two weeks earlier on the same boat with the same crew made the same comment.
Overall the lovely scenery, the interesting people on board and the beautiful cities we visited made this trip very worthwhile.

I loved every moment of the trip. The boat and the meals were far better than I had expected, the staff was super friendly and the fun activities were great. I look forward to booking another trip. I recommend that people read their information prior to daily outings as there is a lot to absorb. Also, take time on the first day to be sure your bicycle is a good fit. It was a magnificent adventure!

We found the boat comfortable and the staff really helpful and friendly. The trip was most relaxing and a good insight into the Danube countryside.

The most memorable part: The staff on board the ship, our guide, the beautiful sights and most importantly the people we met in the countries we visited. They were warm, welcoming and really made you feel like a special visitor.

Started our tour July 17th. Things went smoothly after they had gotten the engine fixed which caused a change in our first days agenda. They really came through in making up for the inconvenience. Staff on the ship and Stephan our Rad and Reisen rep were great.

All in all it was an excellent vacation, very well organized. All the ships staff were friendly and willing to go that extra step to make it a great experience. The food was wonderful, accommodations great.

I thought our Rad and Reisen biking guide Hugo did an excellent job navigating our group from spot to spot. Despite having quite a large group( English, German and Dutch speaking) he was able to spend time with all of us making sure we had a great experience. He was very personable and got our group from point A to B safely, making sure we had time to see and experience the many special places communities along the Danube.

He even went above and beyond to make my experience extra special. Having MS meant that I could not participate in the walking tours. He took it upon himself to make sure I was included by providing me with my own tour using bicycles. This would have been a night off for him and he knew that I would not be able to take part due to my limited ability to walk any distance due to my MS. It was one of my more memorable experiences thanks to Hugo.

He certainly looked after all of us and was accessible day and night to answer any questions and assist to make our trip an experience of a lifetime.

Boat: My Story

Was a great trip. Boat and tour guide were outstanding. Some of the staff were a bit stand-offish, but within reason. Just didn't make you feel 100% welcomed all the time (made you feel more of a guest than family) but again, well within reason. Got lost a few times so perhaps the maps could be a bit more directed, but again, not bad. Overall, it was a great experience and I would highly recommend it. Thanks - Larry

Only bad was some hills and a very long bridge (wife is afraid of heights and had to walk the over mile long bridge).

The bike path signs were sometimes hard to follow and we got off course a few times.
The staff of the boat, The Normandie, was fabulous. The food was better than we expected and they were very accommodating with our lunches. The wifi was very disappointing.

It was better than I could imagine! Thank you all.

We found this to be one of our best trips ever!

I know that there was a mid cruise change of cruise directors and neither were particularly helpful. We basically did the routes ourselves and there could have been better instructions. We had a wonderful trip though.

Biking - generally excellent. There is one day - Budapest - that is described as a biking day in most of the material we saw but when we were on the boat the tour director tried to discourage us from biking that day. There was a good reason for that - the route was confusing and included a VERY busy road for a few km. It should be removed from the promotional material as a biking day,

Boat - another boat broke down and several people were transferred to empty cabins on our boat. I think as a result there was more people on board than could be handled at dinners. Dinners went on for 2-3 hours just because the staff couldn't deal with all the guests. The good itself was fine when it finally arrived.

This adventure was more than we expected. The boat was very well equipped, and our cabin was comfortable and larger than we expected. The staff was very friendly and dealt with all of our needs, and the meals were fabulous. Our bikes were well maintained and were well suited for the route we rode. The scenery was amazing and we come home with a collection of pictures and memories.

The itinerary was excellent. A nice blend of bike routes and city site seeing along the way. We spent a couple days in Vienna before the trip and then used our Vienna day to bike on the island. Glad we didn't have to cram Vienna into a few hours. It was our cruise director's first trip and his enthusiasm was greater than his organizational skills in his presentations.

Our Normandie trip from Passau to Budapest was spectacular! The weather, the boat, the food, the fellow bikers, the countryside and the bikes were all a delight. We were also pleased to learn that our guide rode each day. He was very knowledgeable; however, under stress was verbally contentious and short with guests. It became almost comical and so we learned to stay out of his way during certain times of the day. Nevertheless, the trip was a dream and we thank-you!!

As this was our 1st bike and boat experience, we did not know what to expect. We are recreational cyclists, not cycling fanatics, and were very happy with this trip and look forward to saving up to do another similar adventure.

I do have 2 comments. The meal situation. It was disappointing not to have the opportunity to mix with more of the passengers as we were at a table by ourselves and had to stay at this table for every meal - even breakfast - every day. As it was a breakfast buffet and not everyone arrives for breakfast at the same time, being free to sit wherever, would definitely encourage more socializing amongst all passengers. Also, some nights, even though the staff was definitely hustling, it took more than 2 hours to be served our main course. It would seem that a few more staff members could help with this loooong wait after a long tiring day.

Also, there was a definite, obvious bias each day towards the larger group of German speaking passengers when it came to the briefing on the bike route. They were always briefed first and always went over the allotted time leaving the briefing for the English speaking passengers a very rushed affair, leaving no time for clarifications and a late start each day. This did result in some people getting lost. Alternating which group was briefed first might alleviate this problem.

Having said this, it was a tremendous trip and I would definitely recommend it to any recreational cyclist. Wonderful scenery with fantastic suggested rest stops made it an exceptional adventure. Thank you for all your help in making this a superb, memorable experience. Your service was outstanding. Thank you again.
Judy.

Ship broke down and we were bused to Budapest vs cycling in, that was disappointing, but not to be helped. Jurgen our guide was very good.

I liked the ease of being in a larger boat vs a small barge. There was plenty of room in the lounge and other public places so we could get some quiet time. Also a little more anonymity on the larger boat and self guiding was fun.

Enjoyed the trip fully but thought there could have been a little better information on riding and expected timeline for rides, as we often rode faster than necessary and didn't know we could stop along the way for sight seeing etc. Our cycle guide was very nice but did not have all the information to answer our questions or help us to maximize our sight seeing experience.

The whole trip was fantastic! I have already recommended it to many of my friends and one group have already booked a trip for next year!

There was a mixup checking in to the cabins on the boat. The boat staff assigned us different rooms than the vouchers from TripSite indicated. Glad I had my voucher, otherwise we wouldn't have been placed in the upper deck room we paid for. I think the mixup affected everyone in our group of 12, and unfortunately some people were not as fortunate as we were and ended up in lower deck cabins when they reserved upper deck ones.

This is the 3rd travel group I've put together through tripsite and each was very enjoyable. My groups ranged in size from 3 to 12. The first was a land bike trip in Provence, France and the next two were bike and boat trips on the Mozel and the Danube. I am not associated with a tour company but found working with Tripsite personnel, Mary, Carla and others, to be easy even for a novice like me to put together such trips. I have worked with other agencies but have found Tripsite to be more "reachable" and available at any time I had questions. I will continue to use them for future group and individual trips.

Some of the routes were complicated, but we had good backup from our staff, and possibility of getting lost was reduced considerably. The bikes were in excellent condition, the staff were friendly and very knowledgeable--it was a very enjoyable trip and I would do it again.

Have recommended the 2 trips we did to all our friends and they are very keen to go.