France Bike + Boat Tour Reviews — 1 to 30 of 754

The Grand Tour was the perfect tour for our family. From booking with the fantastic agents at Tripsite to our final day in Amsterdam, everything was streamline. I wanted an easy introduction to biking for our two 20 something yr old sons and their partners. They are not avid bikers like myself so it was important to do a tour that was fun, easy and would promote the sport of cycling. I got them e-bikes. This tour did it all! The Magnifique X was beautiful. We had rooms on upper deck. The sliding window let in an incredible amount of light and made the room appear a bit larger. The beds and pillows were cozy with a nice size bathroom considering being on a barge. There was a lot of room on boat to lounge around and enjoy the scenic views. The Magnifique X staff were the best. They went above and beyond to ensure our comfort and safety. Our chef was Sidi. Some of the best food we’ve ever tasted came from this amazing Chef! It was the best food on entire trip including Paris and Amsterdam. The BBQ evening and chocolate Mousse were our fave’s. Our bike guides Eva and Caroline were knowledgeable. Safety was always a priority. We had daily updates on the following day’s itinerary. I highly recommend this Family Friendly tour.

We just returned from the Amsterdam to Bruges bike-and-boat tour, and it exceeded every expectation.

The entire experience was exceptional from start to finish. The crew and guides were outstanding—friendly, professional, and genuinely focused on making sure every guest had an amazing time. The service aboard the boat was first-class, yet relaxed and welcoming.

The boat itself was fantastic: comfortable cabins, beautiful common areas, and the perfect place to unwind after each day’s ride. The food was another highlight. Every meal was delicious and thoughtfully prepared, and we looked forward to dinner every evening.

The cycling was exactly what we hoped for. The routes were scenic, well planned, and mostly on incredible bike paths through charming villages, canals, farmland, and historic towns. The bikes were high quality, comfortable, and well maintained, making the rides enjoyable for cyclists of all abilities. The itinerary struck a great balance between riding and exploring.

One of our favorite parts of each day was stopping in small Belgian and Dutch towns for a beer and a cone of fresh frites before continuing on. Those little moments made the trip feel authentic and unhurried.

If you’re considering a European bike-and-boat vacation, this is an easy recommendation. Beautiful scenery, outstanding staff, excellent food, great bikes, a wonderful boat, and an itinerary that lets you experience the Netherlands and Belgium at the perfect pace. We’d book another Tripsite tour without hesitation.

A glorious tour on an amazing ship with super awesome comfy bikes. Can't say enough about the food, staff, scenery, plus there was a festival in every town in Belgium the week we were there which only added to the fun. Thanks to all the staff for giving us a fantastic week!

The terrific barge is owned by a Dutch family and the entire crew was Dutch. That was a plus, they were all excellent and perhaps this factor brought in several other English speaking mountain, e.g. UK, New Zealand and Australia.. This trip surpassed our expectations!

The terrific barge is owned by a Dutch family and the entire crew was Dutch. That was a plus, they were all excellent and perhaps this factor brought in several other English speaking mountain, e.g. UK, New Zealand and Australia.. This trip surpassed our expectations!

Beautiful bike rides through fields of sunflowers and ripening wheat, coffee stops in lovely little villages, wonderful meals prepared by chef Frank, great support leadership and witty information by guides: Wim and Harold, great navigation by captain Erik and staff Milton and Moh.

Boat was well organized, food was delicious Staffs were cheerful,knowledgeable and helpful in all aspects. At the end of the tour staffs and guests were like family, happy bunch.

We loved the guided bike rides, fabulous scenery and an organized attentive guide, thanks Dick.
The food was amazing and plentiful. We were very well looked after by our chef, Lucie.
We were lucky to have a small group, which meant we were individually well looked after by the crew of 4. Thanks also to our experienced Captain, Chiel and Joanna who ensured all our needs were met.

Hard to say a most memorable!
The fabulous crew and leader, Sara, Lisa, Didi and Micky really made this a special trip but so did the group I cycled with. It is a fabulous adventure.

The cycling was phenomenal: beautiful scenery, wonderful paved designated cycling paths. Our guides were friendly, experienced, just excellent. Our boat, the Magnifique X was beautiful and very comfortable and the excellent staff prepared delicious food and took great care of us.
Definitely one of our best bike and boat trips - this was #9! Hopefully more to come!

I had a good time but I think a lot could have been done better. I was concerned about the health and safety of those participating, including the guide. The weather during the tour was very hot, yet the guide said there was no heat protocol in the company. I worry about the next group that would have been cycling in +40 C temperatures. There was a bit of discussion every evening about the heat and consequent route modifications, and everyone was offered an e-bike because of it, but the young people in the group (and some of the older ones) mostly wanted to take the preestablished route. That meant that I spent half of the trip on the boat. Why wasn't there a system where the cyclists could leave considerably earlier to avoid the afternoon heat? There were various arguments given why this couldn't happen, but none of them seemed very convincing. On one day it took the barge a long time to get to the destination, so the argument was that we'd be waiting at the other end in the heat for the boat. But from a health perspective, waiting in the shade for the boat would have been safer than cycling through the very hot afternoons. Other days the boat got to the next destination early. We could have done our circuit and gotten back to it early.

The company should have had systems in place to deal with the heat. The only one they offered was an e-bike (I had already paid to hire one, so this wasn't a modification for me). The tour guide was a nice guy but his favourite expression seemed to be 'what can you do?'. I would have much preferred someone who took charge, recognised the dangers, and was more forward in suggesting modifications. Overall I felt quite unsafe.

As an example of feeling unsafe, on one day I was left behind by the group because I faced a large deal of traffic. Even the 'sweep' went ahead of me. Eventually the sweep saw me and waited, but we had lost the group. I was amazed that the sweep didn't have the phone number of the guide or the ship. Why wasn't it mandatory that we all write this down/create a contact, before we embarked on the first day. The tour guide said his number had been on the board since the beginning, but had never urged us to write it down. It would have been such a simple thing to do.

There was also poor route planning. On one day the route took us up a very steep potholed path (to the Sancerre village), and three cyclists came off their bikes, each with considerable bruises and cuts. My friend was one of them. The tour guide washed her wound at the top, but wasn't aware of the catastrophe on the route till we all pushed our bikes to the top. He was quite hard of hearing, so I'm not sure if he didn't hear from others what had happened or was himself too exhausted to descend to give help. On this matter, he wasn't young, and I worried for his health having to ride in the very punishing heat too.  SHOW MORE 

Great guide (Paul). Food and cabin only marginal. Dinners were almost always cold.

This was my ninth bike / barge trip and I have enjoyed all of them, but this one was my favorite thanks to the dedicated crew which worked hard to ensure the success of the trip. Diana, Mickey, Virginia and Jeoffrey were all top notch.

Except for one day of peddling through a very industrial area, the scenery along the Rhine was beautiful. For the most part off road on dedicated wide cycle paths. Each evening the tour director/convenor provided an orientation for the route the following day. The food on the barge was excellent. No complaints at all. Very good value.
Note: The cabins at the back of the barge seemed a bit more cramped and noisy.

The staff and the tour guides made this trip awesome. I would have given it a 5, but we were stuck on the boat in Auxerre for the week due to a broken lock on the Yonne river, so I can't rate what we didn't see. That said, our tour guides developed a beautiful series of bike rides based in our near Auxerre (all on the fly). The staff on the boat were awesome too - working together as a team and making relationships with all the guests. I can say with certainty that all 22 guests had a fantastic week.

Everything on his trip was wonderful! The boat was the best one we have been on, the cabins were large and they had sliding doors that opened to the river, the food was gourmet quality. The rides took us to wonderful cities which we walked through and toured from canal boats. The scenery was delightful and changing every day from river views to farmland and small towns. When we got to Paris one of the guides stayed there and was so helpful in getting us to the places we wanted to see.Like our own personal concierge.

Unusual and excellent itinerary starting in Amsterdam and ending in Paris. Beautiful barge with lovely accommodations and amazing, stunningly presented food. Nice group size.

We had an excellent on-barge experience. The crew—Didier, Omar, and Sara—were fantastic. Our captain, Didier, a fifth-generation (!) barge captain, was delightful and engaging. Omar anticipated every passenger's need, whether spoken or unspoken. Sara was an inventive chef who brought fantastic energy to the boat; her nightly descriptions of the menu made every meal feel like "dinner and a show."

Additionally, we were lucky to have an exceptional group of passengers. Our four-person group from Boston clicked immediately with the travelers from Canada and Florida. In addition to enjoying our time with them on the barge, we collaborated well during our rides to ensure everyone stayed safe, which truly enhanced the trip.

While our experience with the tour guide—an experienced biker but not a natural tour leader—was less positive, it was not enough to dampen our overall enthusiasm for the journey.

Out cycle guide was excellent! We were less satisfied with the Arosa Stella. Promised free internet was not provided and paid internet was poor. Some issues with no AC in rooms, and intermitent hot water. Food was good but were expecting more local French meal options. The food was very German, probably because of large Swiss German and German numbers on the boat. Just seemed to be less of a Provence France experience with very German buffets.

Being the Madian voyage with the crew was a fabulous experience. Great guides, amazing food and wonderful experiences.

Our bike-barge trip from Aigue-Mortes to Avignon was fabulous. We rode through beautiful countryside and could see why the great painters chose to create their masterpieces in Provence. The wildflowers, farms, vineyards, and white horses were spectacular. Our guide, Gabo, was excellent and shepherded us very well through all kinds of terrains and experiences. He was knowledgeable and prepared. Sara, our chef, made wonderfully delicious, creative meals that we greatly enjoyed. The boat, L'Estello was comfortable and a great place to relax after our long rides. Omar attended to all the details and the captain managed the boat well. The bikes were in excellent condition and were well equipped. We felt it was a great experience.

The cycling was great. It was hard to say which day as each experience was great. I did love seeing the Carrière luminaries.

Biking the back roads in Provence were the highlight of the trip for me. Stella is a comfortable boat and rooms were comfortable. Crew on the boat friendly and efficient. It would help the breakfast lines if there were two grills cooking eggs because that area became a bottleneck. The WIFI on the boat was terrible. It's one thing to have poor and inconsistent WIFI but to be charged for it is bad business practice.

The trip was everything we expected and more, a special shout out to the crew of the L’Estello who went above and beyond to make our trip such fun! Our guide Gabo was both knowledgeable and entertaining.

This was a great trip because of the great guides, great crew, and great cook.

Our bike/barge trip surpassed our expectations. The crew was great: the captain, the crew who took care of us on the boat, and our two guides. We really enjoyed the bonus of stopping along the route to see interesting sites or to have a treat and tea in a pretty spot. The Moselle Valley is so beautiful, and in October the colors were unexpectedly beautiful. We would definitely recommend this!

Enjoyed the camaraderie knowledge of the staff. Iris had a wonderful layout but maybe not a round sink in bathroom w faucet in center so when washing your face water goes all over

The wonderful boat, delicious food, fantastic scenery, and amazing crew and guides made for an outstanding trip!

Hein was an absolutely amazing and interesting guide; the crew was fantastic. Special kudos to the chef (Geovani): best food by far of any of our 3 tripsite boat/bike trips so far. And we LOVED Alicia (our overall helper etc). So personable and friendly and wonderful that she shared her artwork with us! And a great group of fellow travellers/bikers to share this with. Just a fantastic trip!

Overall the trip could have been better. Our tour guide and the staff on the barge were outstanding! Knowledgeable, attentive and friendly. But the barge is too small for the 21 people on the tour. There is not enough seating in the common area for everyone. There is no wifi in the cabins, only upstairs in common areas, where again there is not enough room. We packed our lunches everyday and brought them with us but I would have liked more variety in the offerings. It was the same thing every single day. More variety in the breakfast would have been nice also. My biggest complaint is that there was no tour sweep rider provided on our bike outings and there should have been. Someone had to volunteer each day for it. Not having a professional tour sweep caused many problems.