Europe Bike + Boat Tour Reviews — 1891 to 1920 of 5065

Ahhh - the Ionian Islands! I've been on a dozen or so tours and I have to say that this was the absolute best cycling I've ever done. Hands down. Everything clicked - Dimitris and Alexandros were exceptional guides. The Med is the bluest of blues and extremely beautiful. The weather was unreal - high seventies to low eighties and not a cloud in the sky. Dimitris told us that this was the best weather he'd seen all season. The riding was also excellent. Wonderful vistas and small harbor towns. Islands with calderas. There were some downhills of about ten kilometers. Man, I was in heaven. Boat was fine - we had the on deck cabin. Food was quite good and very plentiful. We were on the last tour of the season also. Cheryl had a birthday during the tour and our guides found a sinful birthday cake on Dimitris's home island. Good Lord!! Martin (retired German judge) played 'Forever Young' with his guitar. Magical. Doesn't get any better than that. Probably fifteen on a scale of one-to-ten. Go on this tour if you have a chance.
Inselhupfen (Island Hopping) is the German company that handles the tour. This was my third tour with them. They are the gold standard for cycle tours. They have a retreat every for the tour guides - makes sure everyone is singing from the same sheet of music. We enjoyed this so much that we're doing the Cyclades with them this coming summer.
Really great tour.

The boat was comfy and well appointed, the beds were very comfortable, the biking along the river was fabulous with knowledgeable and friendly guides. I also enjoyed the sumptuous dinners each night. One of the best parts of this trip was getting to know our fellow travelers and make new friends.

This is an unforgettable trip that everyone should take! The guides, chefs, crew and captain were all knowledgeable, kind and fabulous!

The cycling, food, and service by ship’s staff were all great! We had the good fortune to meet some very interesting and fun people from Canada and Scotland, attended a couple very good concerts in both Vienna and Prague, and basically saw a part of Europe we never thought we’d see. Budapest, Vienna, Prague were all very interesting, and beautiful cities, and our guide, Thomas, made it all even better! Juergen, the cruise director, was very helpful, as well, finding us when we lost our group at one point and getting us back to the ship. Between Thomas and Juergen, we were able to sample a lot of good food while on the bike rides, and they provided great company at dinner, as well. I believe Thomas ate with us nearly every evening.

A couple notes: 1) I brought pick-pocket proof pants, as I’d heard that we needed to be careful. I didn’t really need them. Probably a better purchase if you’re visiting Paris and/or Barcelona. 2). The 3rd level rooms had balconies, where the 2nd level rooms do not. The room for the balcony is taken from the indoor room space, so you actually pay more for a balcony, but lose space in the room. We had a 2nd level room and the other 2 couples we traveled with both had balconies. They were envious of our extra room. Be sure to take along a travel clothes line to dry your clothes.

We also found the e-bikes were well worth the extra $$. Both my wife and trained using standard bikes, and physically were in decent shape for the bike rides, which were all pretty easy, fun rides. We found the e-bikes let us relax and enjoy the trip a bit more than we might have on regular bikes.
The ship, the Swiss Crown, was in excellent condition. The food was very, very good, and seemed to get better each day, as did the bike rides. The table service on the ship was excellent and the servers were all very personable, helpful, and friendly. One member of our group was vegan, btw, and the ship did a great job of accommodating him.

In all, we had a great trip and would do it again! Thanks to all for a wonderful time!

The crew, guides, and food were great - Thankyou for a wonderful time. The Ave Maria is a very well appointed barge. The trip exceeded expectations and we have taken several bike and boat tours with Tripsite.

The food, the guide and the route and biking were all great. Excellent value for a low budget trip.

My wife and truly enjoyed this tour on the Caprice in 2018. The reviews previously posted are very informative and descriptive about barge life on the Caprice, the itinerary, guides, and dining. We booked early July in order to take pre-boarding day trips to the lavender fields outside Avignon. As with all of our bike-barge tours, we have met and befriended the most interesting and wonderful people. Summer heat and some challenging ascents could be mitigated by reserving an e-bike.

Amsterdam to Bruges was our first bike and barge experience in 2016. The experience of small group travel, seeing villages and countrysides at 12-14 mph, and the coziness of barge life intoxicated us. We have since done six more tours. Everyone unique, quirky, full of beautiful vistas, and future friends from all over the world.
If you are considering this type of travel adventure for the first time, this tour is for you. AND for you stubborn Americans, there is absolutely no stigma attached to e-bikes. In fact, they are prolific throughout Europe.

Our crew and tour guides were fantastic. Not to mention the food onboard was outstanding.

This was a trip of a lifetime for me. Hein and Marjolein were wonderful trip leaders and so knowledgeable about the cities we visited. They made the trip a delight and handled any glitches that arose seamlessly. It helped that they had lived in the area for several years and were familiar with the customs and history of the Veneto.
The food provided by Alberto and Daniele was superb and plentiful, and reflected the cuisine of northern Italy. And Jano was amazing at piloting the Ave Maria through the canals and lagoon. Francesco did a great job anticipating and fulfilling our requests throughout the trip.
The Ave Maria was a perfect vessel for our weeklong tour of the Po River valley of northern Italy. The staterooms were very comfortable and had ample room for two people and their belongings. It was very interesting to hear about the transition of a derelict barge into the sleek Ave Maria that was our home for a week.
I would love to do another trip with this group to explore a new area of Europe in the future.

The trip was awesome. Everything was 1st rate. We loved all of our staff. Each person on the staff went the extra mile to make the tour very special!

This was our second bike and barge with tripsite. It exceded our expectations. The room had plenty of storage, the staff was outstanding and the meals were all excellent. Our tripsite vacation was perfect.

This was our first Bike & Barge, but it won't be our last! The whole trip was fabulous, the biking, the crew, the food, the other passengers and Tripsite for organizing it all!

Ave Maria is a beautiful comfortable well equipped boat. The staff was courteous, helpful, pleasant and efficient. The food absolutely the best! plentiful and with great variety. Our tour host Hein and Mayleine were awesome. They were well informed about the historic and local areas that we traveled thru and were humorous, kind and considerable for all the guests needs and abilities.
The tour was a well planned route thru some lovely back roads and small towns and cities. The bicycles were very good and easy to ride. It is very difficult to choose just one memorable part of the trip it was well worth the time we waited to enjoy the Boat/Barge.

Bicycling through the beautiful vineyards and the opportunity to visit picturesque towns.

Seeing venice on a sunny day from the roof of an historic building.
Biking through the countryside and villages.
Excellent food.

There were several memorable parts:
Both Strasbourg and Nancy are beautiful cities with a great deal of medieval charm; the Valley of the Locks with its dried abandoned channels and locks, and of course, the St Louis-Arzviller lock, where lock, water and boats are lifted (or lowered) 42 m, replacing 17 locks we saw abandoned; our boat, the Clair de Lune and its friendly and competent crew, the smallest barge we had ventured in till then, but that it showed us the efficiency of its cabin layouts to remove previous concerns about barge size to the point that we are booking another trip on a similar sized barge next year.

Arriving into Venice on the Ave Maria. In beautiful Lido we turned in our bikes and by the way they were terrific bikes. I even named mine. I hated to to see "Lisa Marie" go into storage but what came next was even more spectacular. To arrive in magical Venice by boat on a glorious fall day with brilliant sun glistening off the buildings and the water was breath-taking. The fact that the crew had arranged pizza and cocktails only added to the experience. And then that sunset! What a day!

This was my fourth bike/barge tour with Tripsite, and it was just as amazing as the other trips. Loved every moment. The ship and crew were simply outstanding. The only disappointment is that the itinerary said we would be in Metz for the evening, to even include a walking tour. We were greatly looking forward to it. However, we left Metz within an hour of boarding. It was a great topic of conversation among many passengers, who were also disappointed. So I’m not sure why we even started in Metz, to only leave right away and travel quite a distance to our first port. Other than that, it was as wonderful as each of my other Trip Site vacations.

For me, the most memorable parts of the trip were the moments our trip guide, Hein, stopped, got us off our bikes and took time to do some interpretation of the landscape, or when he brought us to little known local places. One example was a local museum for traveling entertainers and amusements. In the states we would call this a circus museum. Hein described life for us in the walled and protected castles and the city-states of Italy before there was an Italy, and the power of the family heads in the se little kingdoms. He took us on a tour of one of those castles that is not generally open to the public. I also appreciated the 90-minute guided tours by Christina in Mantova and her counterpart in Venice. Passionate about the cities that they call home, they both really brought these special places to life for me.
Not to overlook the moderate exercise we got on bikes everyday, which was helpful because the delicious food our crew served was difficult to turn down. I would have preferred longer distances, but the biking was as advertised: easy.
A couple of tips: take precautions to protect yourself from Covid. If you choose a water taxi to get you around Venice, ask the boat driver when reserving your ride, and again before you board the boat, what the fare is; the cost tends to inflate when it comes time to pay the bill. And ask your tour guide to reserve tickets in advance to see the interior of San Marco Basilica and the Doge's Palace in Venice. I didn't do this and was unwilling to wait in a long line to get in, so I missed both. But we did see a number of other unbelievable churches from the Rennaissance era all week in Verona, Mantova and Venice.

The food by Sylvia and Irena was delicious and the daily movies by Hugo gave us a sweet memory .

The itinerary was terrific. We had fabulous guides who gave us lots of information about the sites we were visiting. The boat was very comfortable and the food was great. We had just 20 participants and everyone was very interesting and friendly. Can't wait for our next trip!

I wish the group leader an responsible for eight people signing up for this trip. Guides were good, response from trip site was horrible when our bags did not arrive another party that we had signed up also did not have their bags arrive. Very disappointing with no bike clothes no pet it shorts no pedals etc.

The islands and the guides on the boat!
This is a moderate to difficult ride even with e bikes.

I worked with TripSite to plan this trip for 20 friends and family and they were fantastic to work with: flexible, friendly and professional. And the trip costs half of similar trips offered by US based bike tour operators. The Iris was a superb boat in great condition and the crew were amazing, with a special shout-out to the fantastic food! The riding was hard to believe: miles and miles of flat, scenic, history drenched wine country. Every days ride was enjoyable and had nice prizes and surprises along the way. Some of my group decided to stay on board for one or more days and got to relax and watch the castles go by, read a book, drink some great local white wine, and chat with the friendly crew. This particular tour: the Mosel between Cochem and Metz, was referred to me by a good friend who has done a dozen packaged bike tours and said this was his favorite. Now it's ours!