Germany Bike + Boat Tour Reviews — 1171 to 1200 of 1340

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.

Overall great trip, really loved it. Did feel the duration and arrival time in Vienna was disappointingly limited - nowhere near long enough to see sufficient in daylight hours.

Unfortunately one major problem became apparent. The tour director was charming and affable when presenting to an audience, but his manner often vacillated (changed) when talking with individuals. On many occasions he was rude and dismissive, including sometimes making derogattory comments. Due to his public persona (welcoming and friendly), I was really shocked by this. At times he gave the impression that he was putting on an act, that he really did not like or enjoy his job and the guests were an infuriating annoyance to him. Even allowing for tiredness and stress, I do not think there is any excuse for rudeness to friendly (and paying) customers. I was not the only one to observe his changeable attitude or bear the brunt of his dismissive rudeness. As it wasn't possible to pick what his response would be (ie positive or negative), I only spoke to him when spoken to. I shudder to think of his treatment of the genuinely lovely and diligent cleaners and kitchen staff. Perhaps it's time for Leslie to retire.

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.

Food was not we are accustomed to on trips of this type.

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.

One problem became evident at the time of the one significant incident when one client while riding her bicycle down a sloping gravel road ineptly/incorrectly applied her front brake only, and somersaulted, leading to a serious leg injury. The group problem as far as I am concerned was only the lack of easy communication between the cycle group leader and the last riders in the group. The designated last rider needs a device such as a small UHF transceiver, or where mobile phone coverage is a certainty a tested/checked cellphone link, to be able to immediately alert the leader of any problems behind.

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 had a great time; the bike guide (Tom) did a super job. Hope we have this same great experience on our next trip.

Bicycle and boat are the best vacations ever! Can't wait for my next tour! Hope to make this an annual thing. :)

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.

Overall we enjoyed the Bike and Barge along the Mosel River. However it seemed to be too much effort for the guide to interact with the English speaking clients.
Maybe he's been doing it too long.
Thank You

We did have rain quite a few days on her trip. But we were prepared and so we wore our raingear. Our guide Pieter, was very good at watching the weather and getting us inside or out of the rain if he could

This is the 3rd travel group I've put together through tripsite and each was very enjoyable. My groups ranged in size from 3 to 12. The first was a land bike trip in Provence, France and the next two were bike and boat trips on the Mozel and the Danube. I am not associated with a tour company but found working with Tripsite personnel, Mary, Carla and others, to be easy even for a novice like me to put together such trips. I have worked with other agencies but have found Tripsite to be more "reachable" and available at any time I had questions. I will continue to use them for future group and individual trips.

There was a chemical odor in the hallway outside our room, and the food was not good.

Was not always easy to "stay on course" on the bike tours. Directions and/or course markings could have been better.

All of your staff at the office are fantastic! We love talking to you and we truly appreciate your efforts and quick response to our questions and requests. Looking forward to Bordeaux next September.

We had an absolute blast on this trip and made great friends with the other English-speakers. The route was beautiful and full of things to discover, and the biking was very manageable, even for my 75 year old mother. The downside was that our boat included a very large group that had booked together, so we felt slightly apart from the majority of the passengers and the separate language orientation sessions intensified this. I know you don't run these tours, but I wonder if having the sessions together and providing English language translation in writing on the Power Point would be another option? Encouraging switching up the seating at meals might also help. One last comment is that it would be helpful for the maps to include information on the location of public toilets along the route. We are not comfortable using the riverbank as our toilet as our guide recommended.

Have taken several trips with Tripsite......not one of my favorites. Biking wasn't as interesting as many of the other trips you represent.

Awesome experience! Can't wait to plan my next adventure with you.

Some of the routes were complicated, but we had good backup from our staff, and possibility of getting lost was reduced considerably. The bikes were in excellent condition, the staff were friendly and very knowledgeable--it was a very enjoyable trip and I would do it again.

Have recommended the 2 trips we did to all our friends and they are very keen to go.

A wonderful experience made even better by the friendly and so very helpful staff. Thank you!

Guides should have provided a little more detail (distance between turns, landmarks, areas to pay extra attention, etc)

My wife & I had a wonderful four country bike-boat trip on the Danube. Saw wonderful little towns, met good friends on the trip, and enjoyed good food and wine.

I enjoyed staying put at night better than the barge moving at night. We have done both and I enjoy walking around in the evening.I also would not have so many ferry crossings in the next trip. Puts a time factor in the ride.