3 Star Amsterdam to Bruges Tour Reviews — 1 to 15 of 15

There are two aspects to the trip: the booking with Tripsite, and the actual tour.

As for the TripSite portion, I would rate it C minus, primarily because of the lack of transparency in pricing. They price in euros, but obtain payments in dollars. I found their exchange rate was very poor, on par with the worst ATMs in Europe. They charged about 7-7.5% above the official exchange rate. Shame on your, Tripsite!

As for the tour portion, I'd rate it a B. The Magnifique III boat , crew and accommodations were very nice, and the food was excellent. The tour guides were quite good, though I was a bit disappointed that they insisted on us staying with the group -- there were times I wanted t heard off on my own with the Ride GPS app, and my recollection of the advertisement was that we would be able to go off on our own if desired. The mileage each day was appropriate, though there were a couple people on the tour who should have opted for the ebike, since they had a difficult time keeping up with the rest of the group. The bike pace was quite reasonable.

The cycling itself.
Meeting other cyclists.
Certain staff members approach were very appreciative and attentive and others not so much.
Meals were not great. Made mostly from frozen or highly processed food. Lack of availability of free cold drinking water for cyclists was a concern.

The first few days of bicycling around the Netherland were the best, after that it became a bit monotonous with lots of farm land.
The boat was great.
The food was ok but would benefit from more fresh vegetables and fruits and salty snacks after the day of biking.
The hospitality staff were a bit too rigid in applying rules for access to drinking water or coffee. We were refused a glass of drinking water because the kitchen was closed but there was water at the bar!!!
There should be more guides to help with issues when biking. At one point we had one guide for 60 people biking in two different routes! It was difficult navigating at times and would require more support.

Biking was great, even with constant modifications to the initial itinerary. Our tour guide was vigilant and made sure everyone stayed or got back on track! We really enjoyed getting to know our guide, he certainly made our experience more enjoyable.

How helpful the on board staff were. With the exception of Arie, the tour guide, I found everyone helpful and fun. The guys who managed our bikes were awesome, even wiping down our seats in the rain.

Although the guided tour had its frustrations and the rainy - windy weather didn’t help, the experience was worth the trip. However, it was frustrating that more attention/instruction was not given to novice bikers. Firstly, they needed to understand the e-bike, specifically to understand the function of gearing down and powering up when needed. Secondly novice bikers didn’t understand NOT to crowd other bikers and to keep a safe distance. Also your marketing should be clear state that they shoukd be experienced bikers. Some areas were highly trafficked - bike auto and train - therefore novice bikers are at great risk. The guides were unfamiliar with the trail and particularly in the first days were getting lost. Your selection for lunch stops were poor. We ate our sandwiches (which got really boring after the second day) outside in the rain. Suggest you add some lunch stops at some local sheltered restaurants with enough time to enjoy and experience the local fare.

The staff on board the Fluvious was wonderful, especially the chef, Mika. The food was plentiful and great. The dining and lounge area very comfortable. Americans should be advised about the difference in bikes. Both manual and E bikes are heavier than we had experience with and that does effect balance issues around sharp turns. The Amsterdam to Bruge trip is listed as easy on well maintained routes,perhaps a few more qualifiersare needed. We experienced some rough riding - it may have been the result of winter damage- but riding on dirt and a sandy portion of the trail was challenging as are coblestomes.

Another disappointment was that I was only able to ride three days. And on those days we had no special tours. I was especially looking forward to going to a cheese factory which we missed, Much of that was due to the fact that the Fluvious had some problems which effected steering. We did not have a chance to practice on the bikes as scheduled, which made the first day very difficult for some of the riders. Those of us on Manual bikes were separated from the leader and all the e=bikes and often took the wrong turn at a Y. On one day we completely missed a castle and on the first day, the option to hear more about the old windmills was missed due to our being late (due to the boat arriving later than scheduled due to the boat issues). Additionally on the Ghent biking we were discouraged going because of the busy city and no other option was offered ie. bike the countryside and tour Ghent and the canal tour by going on foot or parking the bikes outside of the busy city center.

Our tour guides, Jeroen, Hilco and Linda did an excellent job. I loved the countryside riding.
I did not enjoy riding through the large cities to get to our destination. It is important that when the paths are narrow walking is necessary for safety.

Time spent in Bruges. Bruges is a beautiful small city.
Suggestions: More information for unguided bikers, e.g. places to stop, places of interest

The barge route was very nice and the food was excellent.
The Fluvius is an old barge and had several maintenance issues including; no hot water for 3 days, electrical problems and other maintenance issues. In their defense, the captain did his best to make it up to us with reduced bar bills and a free canal ride.
Bettina was superb particularly since it was her first time on this tour. Tom seemed to want to be elsewhere. His communication issues were almost nonexistent and attitude gruff.
Ride with GPS was very good though those of us who chose self guided were pretty much on our own.
The patch kit provided did not include a wrench so fixing a flat would have been tough for a bike mechanic and impossible for any other.
We did have wonderful entertainment one evening. I would have loved more history as it is such an important part of these countries.
All in all, if the Fluvius had been in better shape and Tom not so gruff, it would have been a wonderful tour.

The Magnifique II was fine and the food was good. One thing I found odd was the staff joined us at the bar at night. The bar had limited seating and they took up the stools while passengers stood. Not cool. I found the biking boring. There were no interesting stops other than the cities. Amsterdam, Ghent and Bruges were very nice. The Netherlands were rather dull. On other tours we stopped at wineries, Chateaus or interesting landmarks. Here the guides just stopped and said there is coffee or a church you can visit. Not very organized. Their goal seemed to be to keep us out long enough to reach the boat. I would not recommend this tour.

Overall, it was a great trip - boat and crew, bikes, guide, fellow passengers. Where this trip fell short of a previous bike boat trip that I did, was that this trip lacked interesting stops along our cycle route. It felt more like getting from point A to point B with a brief coffee or lunch stop - no tours along the way. From my understanding in talking with the boat owner/captain, the cycling routes and stops are planned by the local partner.(https://www.tripsite.com/about/our-partners/).

Book from Brugge to Amsterdam to avoid headwinds. Expect riding in country with nothing special to see.

My wife and two other couples did this trip in August 2017. The crew was great the boat is very well appointed, the rooms are small but function well. The evening meals were great, breakfast was limited most days to bread cheese and cereal.
Now the bad part:
The crew turns off the air conditioning at 10:30 at night and does not come back on until the morning. So one would wake up in the middle of the night sweating and not be able to go back to sleep, The bedding, our clothes and all other items in the room would get moist and moldy from condensation.
The Bicycles were not the best, they were quite used and most of the seats were loose and could not be tightened which made for long days of riding...

In Ghent, too far from city centre to explore after biking unless take a taxi into the city. Antwerp museum was closed, as it was a Sunday. Very disappointing. Breakfast and lunch meals were almost always the same, got too uninteresting.