Netherlands Bike + Boat Tour Reviews — 1711 to 1740 of 1799

Was disappointed that there seemed to be less cycling per day that expected from the website description.

With 30 participants cycling I feel it would have been safer and more enjoyable to ride in 2 guided groups. We were initially hesitant to book this, our first group tour
but my husband and i loved the trip. Accommodation and catering on the Magnifique were excellent. The crew and our guide Tom were encouraging and established a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. It was great to meet and cycle with other like minded travellers from USA, Denmark, Germany, Canada and even some other Australians :) We enjoyed cycling on the wonderful cyclepaths in The Netherlands and Belgium. The after dinner town walks gave a great insight into the local areas. We have already recommended this tour to friends and look forward to further adventures! Thank you.

Enjoyed every aspect of the trip.

This was a nice trip which I chose after research. I learned that I prefer smaller groups.

I really loved: Tour guide, boat hosts, food, sights, other guests.
I only enjoyed: quality of bike (could've been a better bike, but it was well maintained)
Could've been better: speed of cycling (while I understand not everyone cycles at the same speed, there should be a ""fast"" group and a ""slow"" group
--overall rating: 4.5 of 5

Loved the trip!!

Overall very satisfied. Felt the food quantity could have been increased but very good.

Cabins were nicer than I expected. We stayed with the guide as found the routes hard to navigate and the guide knew all the great stops. Dinners were good, breakfast and lunches needed more variety by the end of the week. We had fabulous weather and loved the route. Lots to see.

Amsterdam to Bruges was a great first bike trip. Although we averaged 50km/day the pacing allowed much time to soak in the culture and scenery .

We enjoy the international feel of Tripsite and tell our friends about the pleasures of bike and barge.

On some days, we could have biked more. Very pleasant walks in the evenings.
Very small window in our room.

We had a lady guide, who was very quiet and we had a large group (20) which made her job difficult as the people at the back could not hear her. Some of her instructions were not clear and maybe there should have been an instruction on road usage in Europe eg keep to the right hand side of the road (coming from Australia) . Understanding the various traffic lights was also a bit of an issue as we come from a relatively small country town with NO traffic lights and no cycle paths we had to be extremely careful negotiation some of the busier roads as there were 2 sets of traffic lights to negotiate while crossing the roads. It was a wonderful trip and greatly enjoyed by all. The only thing that marred the experience was an unfortunate accident on the very first day which resulted in a serious leg injury.

Our 1st guide was not quite as good as our 2nd. She wasn't as clear on her instructions as she could have been.
On the barge we had to ask for our sheets to be changed after 2 weeks. Everything else was clean and well run. Ours may have been an oversight. This in no way stopped us from having a great holiday. Loved everything from start to finish. Would love another trip on the same boat.

We really enjoyed our trip, our guide Thomas was excellent. As always with group travel, the mix was interesting and generally older than us and less fit. We have travelled with a group before but usually we are the oldest so this was different dynamics and did set the tone somewhat. Would look at a trip again when we are older or with our own group to fill the barge.
Thanks,
Lynn

Marcel is a great guide/tour leader.

The Wadden (Frisian) Sea Netherlands sail/bike trip was tops. From the initial greet to the end of trip farewell to "old friends", my only recommendation for improvement could only be that one uncontrollable element - weather. Most days were punctuated with moisture but this did little to dampen the spirits of all who took advantage of this wonderful excursion.

There was some disconnect in passing along information. For example the barge had to leave earlier than 6:30 but info was not passed on. Fortunately my friends and I arrived and boarded the sister ship and got the info that the Angela Esmee was instructed to leave the port due to some Dutch holiday celebration. Good thing we took the initiative. There was no one waiting on the dock to give us this info.
Info about running a tab for drinks was false. We had to purchase tokens from a machine to use at bar. Bikes were somewhat rickety, having seen their 2nd season (according to a mechanic I talked to). Mine and some others made a grinding noise the entire time. The mechanic tried to fix it, but eventually I just tolerated it. I heard one mech say the bikes had a couple more trips this season. Good luck to the next owner.
Food was very good and the staff were very friendly. I would recommend a Bike and Barge trip to friends, but we ran into another group on a similar tour riding green bikes...they LOVED their bikes. We couldn't come close to saying that about ours. The green bike tour paid similar costs.

I found the conditions of the bikes quite poor. They were obviously wearing out after a season of use. The food was adequate but not spectacular. The information about how to get clean towels was given 5 days into the trip.
The routes were well described but I would have liked further information about the towns we were passing through and where we were staying the night. Our group happened upon a cemetery with Canadian war dead but it was just luck. That type of information should be included I the route description of the day. Despite the things mentioned I did enjoy the trip and would recommend it to others.

I had a lot of trouble with the bike seat. That created pain/discomfort for the whole week. We saw other barges participants en route with much better bikes than we had. Ours were quite old and clunky but they worked OK when you got used to them. The bike mechanics were great. The seven gears were adequate for the terrain.

We should each have our own maps and route descriptions, not just one per cabin. You don't necessarily cycle with your cabin mate and sometimes people get separated from cycling partners during the day.

Our guide Marcel appeared to have a very arrogant attitude towards guests, particularly those who asked for clarification of various things. He was rude to me when I asked a question about the availability of public washrooms along the way - and what was customary in Holland. He snapped "So you think Dutch people don't go to the toilet?" He seemed to make a lot more effort as the week went on and was quite knowledgeable about a variety of things. He got off to a bad start with quite a few people however.

Re Food: The food was good and varied. We had a lot of salads/vegetables (generally overcooked) which I appreciated. Tea, coffee and water should be available for free all the time, not just till 4. A euro for hot water and a tea bag is chintzy.

I enjoyed the trip and the route. The route was quite varied in a lot of ways and very beautiful. Luckily the weather was reasonably cooperative and our group had a great time. The barge is a fun experience, and I would recommend it and consider another trip for myself as well.

Marcel was a very good guide-Johnan helped keep our bikes in very good order.

I already have, but warned them about the wind! Which I personally found made the cycling very difficult. I will opt for an electric bike next time.

We had a great time and plan on another bike-and-barge trip sometime. We loved the mix of passengers from different countries. Some of the other passengers, using other tour companies, had a few more details of the ports of call, and this would have been helpful for us, and may be a useful selling point for Tripsite.

I loved everything about this trip from the boat, the staff, the bikes and, of course, the scenery. I highly recommend this trip for anyone who likes to take a trip up close and personal.

This was my first biking trip - truly enjoyed it and am looking forward to my next trip.

1) In the boat is possible to rent helmet for EU$ 5/week. This renting is good for travelers that spend more time in Europe. I'm not sure if this information is available in the Tripsite's site.

2) I ordered a E-bike for my wife. In the boat I saw that 2 kinds of E-bike are offered to the customers. My wife would love bike in a more comfortable E-bike.

3) According to the staff of the boat, I should speak German. I don't know the source of this information. This information is used to organize the passengers in the restaurant.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are already planning another bike and barge trip. It would have been nice if there were a better split in English speaking guests as most of the guests spoke German and we didn't get a chance to mingle much. Tripsite was very good to work with and we would use this company again. "

We had a fantastic trip we loved everything about it. I would recommend this trip to anyone. The people we met were so nice and helpful and friendly. Our Polish chef on the boat was fantastic.

We were overall extremely pleased with our trip! The only downsound was the infestation of bedbugs... The staff had bites and my husband I had bites as well. The staff took this very seriously and called a Pest Control Company ...they had their rooms treated and ended up treating our room as well. We ended up having to treat our luggage and all personal items upon our return home to Canada.. To make sure we didn't bring any into our home.....Which was quite a chore and inconvenience.

Other than this, it was an awesome time.

My husband and I(in our 60"s) were on the Sailing Home a month ago with 6 friends from Bruges to Amsterdam. We had the most wonderful time. Everything about this trip exceeded my expectations. The boat, our accommodations, the food, the crew were all excellent and I can't say enough about our guide Hugo. He was amazing and really made our trip memorable. He was funny and very knowledgeable about everything we saw so we got info about the countries and the politics. I highly recommended this fun trip for all ages and biking abilities.

We had an amazing experience with Sanders and Els in April 2015 and I can't wait to do it again! The food and bicycles and itinery were all excellent! We had great weather although the northsea beaches were a little windy. I liked being able to pack my lunch so that we had more time exploring delightful Netherlands! Thank you for this fantastic opportunity. Feel free to share our experience with anyone interested in bike barge tour in the future. Thanks again! Loretta Bendz