France Bike + Boat Tour Reviews — 661 to 690 of 726

Outstanding cuisine, wonderful smiles and life long memories. We have already recommended our trip to many people. Fantastic Elodie!

The trip was one of the best I have taken.

superb all round -organisation, food, scenery , amusing but booking proceedure not very efficient

Our second bike and barge trip with Tripsite. What a lovely way to spend a vacation!

One of my discoveries for this trip was that I think I prefer a self-guided tour to a guided one. The group was larger than what I was really comfortable with, as I like to stop for photos and wasn't comfortable doing that with the large group. (My spouse and I had just finished a 6 day self-guided tour thru Holland). The bikes were fine, but one of our group had constant problems with hers. The food was fine, but I prefer more options, and would have liked eating away from the lunch basket-type of fare we fixed ourselves from barge foods. I loved that the guides gave us interesting evening walking tours.

The price was very reasonable - much below others we considered.

Food was great, would have liked more flexibility on cycling.

The trip was organised very well. The international crew made the trip more interesting. We were glad that Peter had some flexibility in what we experienced. He was an excellent guide. We would have liked to stop at a few more wineries. Also we always seemed to be pulling into villages as they closed for lunch.

The boat was great and we all got the cabins we were hoping for – the food was really good. The girls commented that they weren’t expecting the food to be as good as it was.
• The biking was as easy as we expected, I didn’t like the bikes as much as the bikes we had on the Danube the year before but the bikes were exactly what they said on the web-site. Pretty well all the trails were paved – makes it hard to come back to PEI trails!
• Apparently we weren’t on as pretty a section of the Rhine as we could have been but we saw some great scenery and little villages were so clean, friendly and relatively easy to get around. The crew said they didn’t like this route because it wasn’t as scenic and not as many places to stop. Apparently, they are not going to do the same route next year.
• I don’t think the tour itself was quite as well run as the one on MV Story on Danube IN 2014. I didn’t think the tour guide this year gave nearly as good instructions as the previous year and often it was difficult to figure out exactly which trail to take. The book with maps had a number of errors but guy said that would be fixed. I think they were some translations errors as well.. Last year, the tour guide always biked the route (he would wait until boat left so was always behind us and we knew he’d catch up). This guy said he was always behind us but we only saw him once and very briefly. He didn’t give suggestions of places to eat etc like they did last year. We always found good spots so that was not an issue but not because he provided suggestions. In 2014 the directions were very very clear and the company put arrows on the sign posts to show the directions. That was very helpful but non of that happened this year 2015. Maybe if they had continued the tour they would have done that as well.
• The directions we got for where the boat was docked in Basel were wrong – the directions said to go to West side and that was where the boat was always docked!! Well, it wasn’t there it was on the east side. Thankfully when it wasn’t where it was expected to be, the cab driver knew where it “probably” was. We did NOT feel the cabby took advantage of us as a few other couples has same issue and one of them had taken a bus to the dock!!. Tripsite was very responsive when we explained this and you were very generous in reimbursing us for cab fares (should have been 21 E per cab but was 54E per cab). I saw the meter and he only charged us what the meter said, plus he turned meter off a couple of times. We did give him tip. We took 2 cabs for the 6 of us and they followed each other so we all had same issue.
• We would absolutely go on another Tripsite trip and we all had a great time – just wanted to give you the feedback. If asked, I would recommend the Danube over this section of the Rhine. I would however try a different section of the Rhine and we may look at Holland another year.  SHOW MORE 

This was our 4th trip with Tripsite - very reliable and good value.

We had brand new bikes and the guides had to spend most of their early evening time adjusting the bikes (Brugge to Paris trip) but in the end got all the bikes adjusted so they all ran well. All the boat staff and guides were fantastic.
Love your trips-must do more.

Overall trip came up to expectations. Crew was friendly and capable. The glitches to be expected on a new boat-new tour were minimal. Daily itineraries seemed to be well planned. Highlight was riding to Eiffel Tower and on to Notre Dame. Enjoyed tunnel cruise and free day in Paris. Meals on board were very good. Small group made dining fairly intimate. Bikes good but not excellent. Mine had a shifting problem that was a minor annoyance. Cabin accommodations were fine given the nature of the bike and barge experience. While this barge was in general less luxurious than those on our prior trips, (Mantova-Venice and Avignon-Comargue) it was fairly advertised as a ""Standard"" and priced accordingly. We thought that riding to the Eiffel Tower was pretty nifty and it became our main bragging points upon our return home. This was our third bike and barge with Tripsite. We recommend this type of experience and Tripsite to all.

We had the best time and have recommended the Around Paris trip to many friends. Loved the small tour group and guides. Two nights rather than one in Paris was a bonus on our tour. We would have liked more time in Arles. Guides and staff were excellent. Tiny berths but we like each other so it worked.

Almost perfect in every way. Only bad was I wanted more of everything.

We have done several bike barge trips in france and europe and other places. This one was just too crowded with tourists. Of course it was August, so that explains a lot. Our least favorite that we have done.

Only the good, no bad. This was our second bike/barge experience and we will do more. On our last trip we brought 12 family and friends with us. They all loved it.

I recommended it to Dave Ford who is joining you in September 2016 with his large gang. Do I get a free shirt?

Our guide was not good, would ride off too fast, often the tail end riders were lost and confused as they could not keep up. Everything else was excellent!

We are return users of Tripsite, we have found both the service from Tripsite and the tours (now 3 in total) have all been excellent. Great tours because of the combination of places, organisation and staff. Am looking forward to taking part in more in the future.

Loved the trip and the Merlijn. Hoping to do another tour in 2017.

Our guide was awesome!

Loved the crew, but Clive (our chef) was the best. I have since done another bike and barge trip with another company and was totally disappointed with the food we were served. I am looking forward to doing another bike and barge trip this year.

The guide was not well prepared with maps and the boat kept changing docking locations. The Rhine is very industrial from Basel to Mainz. The rides were not very interesting or long. It was not one of your better offers.

The bike part was more challenging than in the discription. You have to be a strong biker used to hills. There are many hills and one very challenging hill. So I would not consider this an easy tour as in the description. However it was well worth the effort if you are well trained. Our guide Wiro was awesome and kept us together and on time which was very much appreciated. I would recommends this trip in spring or early summer. By the time we went end of August the vegetation was all dried up and there were no flowers because they had such a hot dry summer. I prefer a comfort plus boat as you have more space in your cabin. These cabins were very small. However all in all it was a beautiful, historic and worth while tr which I would recommend to avid cyclists.

Everything about the trip was as described, well planned and executed.

Great trip. Everything we were hoping for.

Had a wonderful time. Only problem was the weather, very very cold.

The guides are young and very athletic. People who sign up for this level of bicycling aren't usually top bikers, unless they are doing it to be with friends or spouse. I think a bit more thought could be put into the introductory ride the first day, bridge crossings, sudden merging into traffic, sudden turns to go steeply uphill. I've done much longer bike rides, but at this age, I didn't want that much challenge.

I was pleased with the points of interest on the tour (Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Colmar, Breisach), however, the route was very industrial at times and there was just nothing special about it. The maps and route descriptions were terrible and I'd say that was the number one complaint of fellow passengers. I talked to the guide and he said they will redo the route for next year so hopefully with some changes, it will be much better.

The boat itself is nothing remarkable, but quite comfortable and clean. The staff was amazingly friendly. Route descriptions were sparse in some sections so there was some guessing involved. The maps themselves didn't have any road names on them if you did get lost they were of no use. We honestly didn't rely on the maps/route descriptions as much as the info from our daily meetings with the tour guide. There were good and bad days as far as scenery on the rides, a few days were pretty boring with not a lot to look at, while others were quite beautiful. We docked within walking distance to town on all days except one (where you had the option of one lonely restaurant). On board you are provided with maps and flyers for each overnight town. The bikes were super heavy and cumbersome (not bikes I am used to) but this is the norm in Europe. The food on board was excellent. I would recommend this trip as I know the routes are being reviewed and descriptions/maps updated.