5 Star Austria Tour Reviews — 631 to 660 of 713

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

Ok so.... all the hotels were perfect and suited to the atmosphere of our biking trip except for the Einstein Hotel in St. Gallen which was not in keeping with the "atmosphere" of the trip...a little too fancy if you get my drift. Also some of the breakfasts left a little to be desired but this could also have been from us just getting tired of eating the same type of food every day. The people in the hotels were all so friendly and accommodating! The bikes were perfect especially for my 6'2" husband. I had trouble with my gears one day, the next day a new bike arrived. Best service! The first ride (I think 65 kms from Lake Constanz to Zurich) was long and boring! Bike path most of the way. Not sure what could be done about that. The rest of the rides were awesome through little towns, gorgeous scenery. We will be booking our next bike tour with you next year!

We very much enjoyed coming back to the Theodor Korner each afternoon and the camaraderie on board this boat. Previously we have been on hotel to hotel cycling trips, which we have also enjoyed, but this time we enjoyed not having to pack up each morning. The staff were all delightful, the meals excellent and the cycling / sightseeing just right for us. Even the rain a couple of days didn't dampen our spirits. The only thing to mention that Tripsite had wrong on the info we were sent was that we were told that credit cards could not be used for purchases on board. In fact we were able to use a credit card.

The details of the transfer from Munich Airport to Passau was not described in the online information, but detailed in the updated information leaflet found in the cabin once aboard (too late). The online leaflet needs to be updated with details of where the transfer desk can be found at Munich Airport.

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.

Really liked our trip director Andreas. The Theodor Koerner excellent boat with superb staff.

This has been one of the greatest vacations for my husband and I, due to the luxury quality of the ship-hotel and the superior quality of the staff/services. The "Very satisfied" has to have 5 more stars! Thank you very much! We fervently advertise it among friends and beyond!

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.

WOW!!!!
Everything was outstanding. All my fears were for naught...
Hotels knew to expect us, knew where to store our bikes, and knew our names!

Bratislava, as someone mentioned, was under construction, but should be ok by summer 2016.

18 thumbs up! Will do this exact trip again and again if I could!

This was the most amazing vacation we have had. For our 40th we decided to do a self- guided bike tour around Lake Constance. The first day was a struggle due to many hills, but that was by far the most difficult day. The hotels were clean and the breakfast was fantastic. When biking you see so much more of the countryside, the historical towns were simply breathtaking. On one day we needed to take a boat from point A to B due to an injury and it was very easy to access. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone.

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!!

Bicycling Passau to Vienna with the MS Normandie was a great experience. The bicycle route was mostly flat and in top condition. The views along the way were scenic and enjoyable. The small villages were charming and the larger cities were very beautiful. Our accommodations and meals on the boat were wonderful. One of my favorite experiences of the week was the optional trip to the opera house in Vienna. I am especially glad I didn't miss it. This was my third Tripsite tour and overall this adventure was everything and more that I had hoped for. I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves cycling. I think it is suitable for all skill levels. I will say that on this tour the guides daily instructions were minimal. His input was very basic and quite a disappointment compared to past guides. No photo slide show with instructions such as, "when you see this landmark or sign be sure to turn here." The guide books with maps that were provided were of great assistance, however, and we were able to compensate for the most part by carefully following these written instructions. There was also a small tourist guide book in each room from which you could read about points of interest in each city and village along the way. As I said, overall this was a fantastic week and my friend and I loved every minute!

Wonderful trip. Our room smelled really bad when we arrived. Mentioned it to the cleaning staff and they said it was the air conditioner. They were on the problem immediately and made sure we had no further problem. Bit of confusion with bike insurance, but on contacting Tripsite on our return this was dealt with immediately (thank you!). Might want to consider having a basic first aid kit onboard I fell in Vienna and badly sprained my ankle - no breaks fortunately. Had to get ice from he bar as there was nothing else available they couldn't give me much as it was needed for the drinks.

Great trip, through beautiful area. No problems with bikes or hotels. Staff at all hotels was helpful, accommodations great and all our luggage was always waiting for us.

Strongly recommend emailing pdf version of bike route maps and direction two weeks prior so they can be read and the directions studied. This is especially important in the city of Konstanz and suburbs due to lack of bike route signs in those areas. Had it not been for some friendly English speaking locals, we would have been seriously lost several times.

Also would be a good idea to provide directions to the next bike path segment from the each hotel as well as the from the end of each bike path segment to the next hotel.

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.

The first day out, my e-bike had a low tire and faulty valve - not a great start, but the rest was very good. Sometimes, the route was to as clearly marked as we would have preferred. Nevertheless, I've told several friends about this trip and one is considering booking reservations! Thanks for everything.

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.

Never brought it up to the bike staff, but gears on my bike were difficult to manage. I attributed it to my having small hands, but I also thought the gears should be replaced soon, for the next "small handed" guest.

It was a wonderful experience and we were fortunate to have beautiful weather the entire week.

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.

We had a fantastic time it was a highlight of the trip; can't say about the bikes as we had our own.

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!

We could not have had such an amazing trip without the help from Tripsite. Anna from Tripsite worked with me on all of my hotel request, allowing us to customize our trip. We were able to choose the towns we preferred to stay in around the lake. Anna recommended hotels over other hotels and reserved lake view rooms which we requested. Our biking trip around Lake Constance would not have turned out as spectacular if it were not for Anna's hard work. I don't think we will use another tour company. The Barge/bike trip offers it all. An added bonus of traveling by boat is that you don't have to pack up every morning like you would have to with other tours that move your stuff from hotel to hotel with a van. The stress of packing up every morning is not there with this tour.
On the Barge/boat trips you simply wake up, go have your coffee and breakfast before you set off on your bike no packing required. When you return to the boat after the day's biking there is no unpacking or waiting to be assigned a room, it is off to the showers and out on the deck to join your new friends. We love the friends from around the world that these tours have allowed us to meet. It is a cultural exchange and add to the interest factor of traveling abroad. Thanks Tripsite, the Oppenheimers will be finding some more boat/bike tours that Tripsite offer, maybe Turkey or Greece.

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.

We enjoyed the trip very much and are planning another. We enquired about the the free shirts for repeat customers but haven't gotten them. The website is not clear about ordering them.