Europe Bike & Hotel Tour Reviews — 931 to 960 of 1772

The beauty of the countryside. The combination of sea and country. The quiet towns with an old world fee.

This tour takes you through spectacular landscapes and beautiful villages.

My husband and I enjoyed our week long Lakes and Castles cycling tour of rural Sweden and Stockholm. Carmen of Nordic Trails organized a great trip to include a visit to Stendörren nature reserve, Tullgarn Royal Castle, lake swimming, wild blueberry picking, a two-night stay in beautiful Trosa and a return to Stockholm from Mariefred with its historic Gripsholm Castle by steamboat. The tour was mostly on lightly travelled roads and bike trails. We enjoyed our hotel stays in modest inns with friendly staffs. While we travelled with another couple, the trip would also be suitable for families with older children. Carmen's riding instructions and maps were excellent and she also offered helpful GPS routes.
Note: We brought our own road tandem equipped with 32x700 road tires, and we were able to handle the varied surfaces reasonably well. (No flats!)

Crete is a fabulous place - breathtaking beaches, a rich and ancient history, wonderful food, warm, welcoming people. However, the island is rugged and mountainous, and presents some serious challenges for the cyclist. While we were dropped off each morning high in the mountains, there were still many steep sections that were challenging to navigate, and at times the winds at the summits were quite serious. The trip is listed as "easy to moderate", but our experience suggests that it should be in the moderate to difficult category, and - certainly for less experienced cyclists - we would highly recommend renting an electric bike to help with the steeper slopes. In any case, the tour was a great experience - the cycling was rigorous and exhilarating. We enjoyed the chance to ride through remote mountain areas, stopping in small villages, visiting historic sites along the way, breaking for lunch at small taverns with stunning views to the coast. The beaches on the south coast were stunningly beautiful, with crystal clear water and long, sandy stretches of coastline. And the food - indescribably delicious!

Biking town to town is a great way to get to know a country; you see places off-the-beaten trail, ride through tiny towns, national forests and coastal cities, sample local specialties from seafood to wine to dessert. The comradeship, meeting new people was also great.

Suggestions? Drink water and wear lots of sunscreen!

We had a wonderful time. The rides were amazing, although some were very difficult. We could tailor our days to fit us best, and it was easy to find a different way if we wanted to shorten or include less hills. The hotels were all beautiful, top notch places, in the very best locations for each city or town. Ignacio and Borja with Iberiocycle did everything within their power to make sure we were well taken care of. They communicated with us every day, fixed what needed to be fixed and got us on our way. We were a large group, 15 riders, and therefore not so easy to accommodate, but they did. The people of the northern coast were so friendly. Drivers were extremely courteous, even on the very curvy narrow mountain roads where it took a lot of patience for them to make their way around us. Because of the pandemic, we waited nearly two years to complete this trip from when it was originally planned, and we had the very best time. Thank you Ignacio and Borja from the Salty Dogs

We had a wonderful time. The rides were amazing, although some were very difficult. We could tailor our days to fit us best, and it was easy to find a different way if we wanted to shorten or include less hills. The hotels were all beautiful, top notch places, in the very best locations for each city or town. Ignacio and Borja with Iberiocycle did everything within their power to make sure we were well taken care of. They communicated with us every day, fixed what needed to be fixed and got us on our way. We were a large group, 15 riders, and therefore not so easy to accommodate, but they did. The people of the northern coast were so friendly. Drivers were extremely courteous, even on the very curvy narrow mountain roads where it took a lot of patience for them to make their way around us. Because of the pandemic, we waited nearly two years to complete this trip from when it was originally planned, and we had the very best time. Thank you Ignacio and Borja from the Salty Dogs

This was a self guided tour and the directions provided were terrible. Spent a lot of time lost

We liked cycling by the river and seeing the beautiful sights. We were lost a couple of times so would have liked more detailed instructions.
We also liked the places we stopped for the night and some of the side trips like at Hrensko and Terezin.

This was a fantastic bike trip! The weather forecast for our trip was not favorable but we had only 1 rainy day and we were prepared with rain gear. The route was beautiful and very safe. French drivers are very aware and respectful of cyclists. So many beautiful places to see! We highly recommend on the 5th day to visit the gardens and Benac castle. There is a choice to visit 2 other castles that day but the gardens include lots of walking as does exploring the castle. The optional ride in Sarlat is well worth it but don’t miss the canoe on the Dordogne. We did both. We stayed an extra day in Sarlat in June because high season is July so it was not mobbed. A lovely experience! If you do not speak French just try a few words and you will be well received. If you expect a non English speaking French person if they speak English they will say no and not attempt to help you.

Where to begin for a tour that was wonderful for the easy to moderate rides, stupendous for the foods we were given, joyous for the chance for two 60 yr old sisters to be together for our 3rd Tripsite bike adventure! The tour operator, Guilia, was kind and very prepared so we began smoothly and ended the same. In between we had some easy rides, some challenging rides (weather very hot this July!), 2 flat tires and a whole lot of smiles with breathtaking towns, juicy figs, cherries, olive trees and grapes bordering our riding paths. A cold beer or Rose was our prize at the end of each ride! We were given 4 Tastings: wine, cheese factory, Meat/Cheeses, and more wine!! And dinners to make any who love Italian cuisine salivate! We felt safe throughout our travels. Some of the paths could use some work but we are always the "cup 3/4 full" kind of people, so we plowed through everything and were so happy. We arrived in Matera a day early to enjoy its beauty and would have loved to end with an extra day in Lecce had we known how lovely it was as well. We LOVED the places we stayed!

A sign of a great trip... looking for our next tripsite adventure together before we have finished this one!!

Most Memorable Part: Radio Howitt

The most memorable part was the quality of the bikes. Negatively memorable. They were very heavy. Definitely not of the same quality we had on the barge. I recommend a different supplier. Otherwise enjoyed the area and the hotel.

Beautiful countryside, wonderful chateau’s. We stayed at the Hotel la Breche which is 2 blocks from the train in a quiet residential area and a short 10 minute walk to town. Included was an unbelievable 8 course meal. It was very fancy and fun to try French cuisine. Breakfasts were wonderful also. Hosts are very hospitable. We enjoyed sitting in the gardens when not in use for the restaurant.
The bike routes were great in that we were mostly on bike trails. It was great to have a focus for the days ride. We found the directions co fusing and had a hard time figuring out which voucher for chateaus went with which day tour. The bikes were also very cumbersome. They had a deep V and there was no room between the V and the water bottle so it was hard to get on and off and to stand. Once on them they did work well.

Most Memorable Part: The castles, garden, beautiful paths for biking.

Best Part? Scenery and trials we traveled on and some of the accommodation we staying at.

Each day had a different riding experience it would be difficult to choose one! The food was amazing, the biking was varied and unique, and the people that organized our trip were meticulous with their directions!
Additionally they were always there with an answer and we always knew they could assist us if needed. Excellent people and a huge shout out to Tour Adventura !!!
Portugal was wonderful and we’d do it again in a heartbeat!!

Trip was a beautiful journey through northern spain with stops in Beautiful small villages. Every hotel was the best in the town and welcomed us. A great trip. Use ebikes unless you are quite fit.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Offer a less congested route out of Amsterdam. The route we were given took us through the areas with the most traffic and a lot of confusing turns. An alternative route could easily be offered and would have made the first day's ride a lot less stressful.
2. Several of our bikes had problems with shifting and other things. My bike often would shift down and up with no input from me other than pedaling. Two other bikes in our group of four had shifting issues. Also, my seat kept tilting forward on the seat post, despite the fact that I had a multi-tool and would crank the Allen bolt as tight as I could. Unbelievably, there was no interest from Dutch Bike Tours in identifying which bikes had problems.
3. Although most hotels were nice (we had the upgraded package), a few were very disappointing. In particular, the Woerten Best Western and the Vlissingen Hotel Piccard were quite bad and depressing, with tiny rooms and no charm at all. These were unacceptable.
4. The ride was scenic and very pleasant-- the bikes themselves and a few bad hotels were the only bummers.

Just returned from this cycle tour and had a wonderful experience. The castles just kept getting better each day. Our favourite was the Leonardo portion. We stayed at Le Breche which was very comfortable. Our one dinner there was amazing and have never eaten like that before! The court yard was beautiful, large and private and the owner allowed us to being our own wine and snacks to enjoy before the restaurant opened. Our only complaint was the bikes! They were extremely heavy and way to large for our lady group. The water bottle holder caused a lot of leg bruising and after the first day we had to remove it. Once we were able to get up in the saddle they rode ok. Countryside was lovely with all sorts of crops and vineyards. The instructions were ok and only had a couple hick-ups. The roads wondered through small villages and roads with very little traffic. Over all a good trip.

From start to finish we had a great time and definitely lived up to all expectations
will definitely do another trip next year and for longer
communication with staff on arrival (Paul Garcia) and luggage forwarding was very good
accommodation was excellent in Dijon at Hotel des Ducs and Chateauneuf was charming
I would definitely suggest air con as essential at that time of year, we had two hotels without and suffered as a result
Directions around Nolay were very confusing and we lost an hour & a half trying to work it our but I can think of worse places to be stuck!

This is a very beautiful and historic area of Spain. We were enchanted by the scenery and the antiquities. The people are very friendly and helpful. We certainly needed that friendly help several times as the information provided by Cycle Catalonia was not accurate, often mixing left and right, or direction to turn but there were two or more possible turns in that direction.

The trip was excellent begging to end overall. We made it a day longer as offered. If I was offering suggestions to the tour operator it would be as follows. Have somebody explain how the electric bike works, including the locking system, locks, and battery removal. We had the aid of the hotel employee who came down and helped us out. I would also highly recommend the GPS as many signs or markers are missing, especially getting in or out of Amsterdam and some of the towns along the way. All hotels were great except Vlissingen (that one was a huge let down). The breakfasts at all the hotels were good as were the staff in all of them including V. I would pay more if the all hotels were like the Zierikee location, hotel names are alluding me. The tracks chosen were excellent and we did the long route each time. Some great little towns for a beer or lunch along the way. The rides are extremely easy and relaxing. Never a busy trail. Will be booking another one ( take the better hotels if offered). The whole trip was memorable.

Everything is memorable

The perfect holiday!
The route is amazing, the variety in scenery, scent and sounds - always something new to experience. It is a bit hilly but we had the combination of e-bikes and hybrids so everyone was comfortable at the end of the day. The accommodation varied a lot with the small hotel in Santillana del Mar standing out in terms of service and comfort. The support team on the way was no short of exceptional: punctual, always ready to assist with advice, bringing extra items for the bikes or picking up small things we had left behind - everything with a smile on their face.
We highly recommend this tour and the operators to anyone interested in exploring Spain.

Once we cleared historic Porto and hit the bike trail along the seaside, we enjoyed visiting the small coastal cafes and seeing the beautiful long beaches. Along the route, the size and quality of the beaches blew us away!

Absolutely a great trip and the service was 100%. Beautiful nature and good bikes.
Would love to go again.

Beautiful beaches, great rides in the country.
Download maps.me before to help you with directions. Invaluable…