Europe Bike Tour Reviews — 1171 to 1200 of 1745

My wife and I did the self-guided Camino tour. It did not start well, as promised reception at airport did not appear, definitely the fault of Trip Site staff, who were barely apologetic. Level of difficulty was billed “easy” to “moderate,” but for this weekend biker it was more like “moderate” to “difficult.” Nonetheless, it was a really gratifying experience. Our e-bikes were top notch, and with GPS we were able to navigate pretty well along the route, some of which was definitely “off the beaten track.” When the description of route says "hard surfaces," implying smooth going, what they often mean are hard-on-the-butt cobblestones Cannot say enough about Sergio and his team in Oporto. Maybe it was because we were older and didn’t look like Tour de France candidates, but he made it a point to check in with us 3 or 4 times during the week to make certain we were ok. If anything had gone wrong, we knew he’d be there in a flash. The accommodations were excellent, and the gratification of making it into the cathedral square at Santiago de Compostela was profound. If your purpose in taking on this challenge is at all spiritual, highly recommend.

Whole trip end to end was fantastic! Sergio and his crew of Tiago and John were amazing ensuring that we had what we needed including a tour of Porto. Sergio in particular was extremely responsive and went above and beyond to provide a great experience.
The views were incredible, nice camaraderie with the walking pilgrims and the accommodations were incredible really augmenting the trip experience. Highly recommend this trip however, just know of the hills and elevation changes as you train pre-trip.

The Portugal Silver Coast bike tour was one of my favorite vacations ever! I and 7 other people took the guided version of the tour in early June 2019. The more urban sight-seeing highlights included the city of Porto, with its very unique architecture and charming neighborhoods and cityscapes that cascade down the walls of both sides of the beautiful river valley, providing memorable photo-ops everywhere you turn. We toured a port distillery and tasted. Also noteworthy was the town of Aveiro, with its canals inhabited by gondolas and its colorfully tiled town center. And finally the university town of Coimbra, with its extraordinary 16th century library and its charming town square where groups of university students wearing darkest black perform splendid music (instruments and vocals) in various Portuguese traditions, such as Fado. Rural high-lights included beautiful beaches, pine forests, and amazing villages of stork nests, some constructed on high-voltage power distribution towers.
Food highlights included a seafood and rice stew served at a little café in Miramar right near the chapel on the beach. Also, standout was a sports bar named Núcleo Sportinguista in Figueira da Foz where we feasted on sardines. Our server was a gem! She was so friendly and patient with our rowdy group that she deserves some sort of prize! And on the final night, we enjoyed a really extraordinary meal of lovely tapas and wines at Taberna Urbana in Coimbra. Just excellent!
Many thanks to our guides, Sergio and Henrique, for their generous hospitality and flawless attention to detail. It was a joy to have them along on the trip!

We just completed this trip in last week of May 2019 & had so much fun that I’m ready for one more right away. The process to book this trip was so easy & quick with excellent communication at all times. Once we landed in Lisbon Sergio picked us up at the airport & gave me a ride to the hotel which was excellent. The bikes they provided were really in good
Condition. Before we began our trip they gave us GPS route info & guidance which helped us tremendously in ensuring our trip was safe, enjoyable & exciting. I highly recommend this. Have fun.

We just finished this tour of Crete, and for context I should say we are both in our 70's and ride quite a bit. So, Crete: The scenery, mountains and beaches are beautiful, the people are friendly, warm and accepting, the food is out of this world, and the biking was great for us. Some thoughts about the bike tour itself:
We were provided with new Ideal eBikes that were exceptional.
The routes were varied and generally perfect for us.
Routes were described adequately, but GPS directions were great.
Total elevation gains were substantial, but ok with eBikes.
We were driven to each daily tour starting point, generally at high elevation.
Our driver driver was excellent and extremely helpful.
The price of the tour was very reasonable.
We should have upgraded the hotels - some were minimally adequate.
Overall we give the tour a thumbs-up and are very glad we went. The operator is very competent and provided a wonderful experience.

We loved our bike trip and will definitely go back to Portugal. We would love to do another bike trip supported by Sergio and his team - we highly recommend them!
Our trip was in April 2019 and from the moment we arrived we were warmly welcomed - with an airport pick up. We were given the best walking tour we have had which was done in conversation style allowing us to both learn about the rich history of Porto and to ask questions vs. being "talked at". A port tasting and tour was also included and was equally well done. Sergio and his staff treated us with incredible care all along the trip even though we were self guided. The bikes and Garmin GPS were top! The suggested restaurants along the way provided delicious food (that says a lot because we live in France and we are quite selective). Hotels were very comfortable some with spa facilities which were appreciated after being in the saddle. The route was varied - mostly coastal yet some forests. We enjoyed the visit to Vista Allegra to see the porcelain factory including the artists at work hand painting porcelain. We saw many birds along the route including nesting storks. The surface for cycling varied from paved bike routes, dirt trails and sometimes a bit of sand covering the route due to some wind. We strongly encourage you to treat yourself to this trip!

As my family of five and I embarked on an 8-day bike tour. We started in Dublin. Landed in Enniskerry, Aughrim, Laragh (Glendalough) and back to Dublin. I would have to say the Irish emerald green countryside is the most beautiful I have seen. Our favorite place would have to be the stop in Laragh. We walked to Glendalough a whopping 10-minute jaunt. We were awestruck by the amazingly preserved Monastic City. This city was founded in the 6th century and what a sight to behold. There was St. Kevins cathedral, tower, cemetery, and an old copper mine. These were all nestled in between two mountains with a lake at the edge. Worth the trip.

May 2019 - Review of the Salzburg & Bavaria Bike Tour, or "Mozartradweg". With a really varied cycling terrain, but with the Alps on constant display, this was an extraordinary choice for a bike tour. It was a joy to cycle this part of Europe. Highlights for me were the towns of Wasserburg, Berchtesgaden, Kufstein, and Salzburg. The landscapes connecting these towns were just breathtaking. My only complaint would be that due the amount of time required on the bike, there was little time explore many of the sights along the way, such as the islands in the Chiemsee, Seeon Abbey, the Eagle's Nest, etc. I really enjoyed my few extra days in Salzburg and would have added another day or two in Berchtesgaden if I were to do it again. For the practical points, the bike was good, as were the hotels. And while the path itself was signposted extensively, (as "mozartradweg"), I would not want to rely on the maps and directions provided. I paid the thirty euros for the GPS tracks for the Komoot app (which easily transferred to my Garmin). I would really highly recommend this, and Komoot app turned out to be great. I chose early May with the intent of experiencing the Alpine meadows and chestnut trees in full bloom. And while they were, there was near constant rain, and even one day that it snowed. I was lucky I had packed thermal gear, but even so, the weather wore me down and I cheated and took the train the last day (which was easy to do, and the bike was free). I would go later in the Springtime or in the summer were I to do it again.

We toured Barolo wine country. This is a prosperous part of Italy but the young women wore tattered blue jeans. We had great food and wine. The countryside is beautiful. There were some parts of the route that were on roads with big trucks and others on gravel or dirt (in our case muddy with rain) road. There were long uphill climbs with 16% grade, thank goodness for the excellent bicycles. It was a great experience that I recommend. We have done multiple trips with Tripsite and all have been wonderful.

My wife and I really enjoyed this bike tour; everything from the hotel in Porto, to the gps guide, luggage transfer and our final transfer to Lisbon was excellent. Carlos briefed us about the tour, introduced us to our bikes and our gps "tour guide"; actually made us do it before he left us. Since we had an extra day in Porto we practiced using the gps by doing its walking tour of Porto. Appreciate the Emergancy phone provided, even tho we did not use it. Weather was perfect. The only downside is the tour goes thru areas that were burned a couple years ago; very sad; made us really appreciate the beautiful unburned forests we rode thru. The tour booklet provided a good overview of each day's ride; there are some sections where finding food & water at mid day may be a challenge. A good tour

My wife and I have done several of these bike tours. They've all been amazing, Umbria, Sicily, Dali Country, etc. Mallorca was the most relaxing. You are on beautiful country roads nearly the entire time. Coming from California where you are constantly dealing with cars, this was a huge treat. The weather in May was perfect. The inns and food were spectacular as well. A truly great trip. Sean

The sheer amount of interesting things to see and do along our route, so much so that we did a lot of hiking in wonderful scenic countryside. My tip for others is that this is a cycle route that you must do! We plan to revisit it again in a couple of years. It was that good.

Most memorable parts: The guided cycle tour around Prague and then the Elbe Sandstone Mountain Range and the region around the border between the state of Saxony and the North Bohemian region.

Best Parts? The spring landscape & scenery. The mix of sights and history along the route.

Prague guide was fantastic, was very interesting and could not do enough for us

We took the self-guided "Sport" tour from Passau to Vienna, starting on 2 April.

A. Here are our suggestions for anyone looking at the tour options for Passau to Vienna.
1. Don’t ever sign up for the “Sport” version of the tour because it requires 50+ miles every day, and leaves no time for exploring or resting.
2. If you are doing the self-guided trail, do yourself a favor and get the e-bikes. The bikes given to us were really inadequate for the distances.
3. Consider doing the bike & boat option rather than biking the whole way. The reasons? If on a boat, you won’t have to pack and unpack every day; You won’t have to search for the hotel in the evening, and you can look forward to relaxing on a boat every night. Another big plus is that from the shoreline, you often cannot get a good perspective on the scenery. When the cliffs rise overhead and you are below, you can’t see them at all. And you may be able to avoid some of the on-road biking that we encountered.

B. Here are the things we liked about the Tripsite planning and execution:
1. They booked all of the hotels and moved our bags every day. The hotel choices were excellent and the hotel owners all served good meals and provided nice rooms.
2. There were no surprise expenses.
3. Tripsite pretty much delivered what they promised.

C. Here are the things we did not like about the Tripsite planning and execution:
1. The materials and the bikes were delivered on the first morning of the trip. The trail book has lots of detail and routes on both sides of the river. Receiving the book as you are departing for a 350 mile journey is ridiculous. The company who publishes the maps (esterbauer.com) probably could provide a PDF far in advance.
2. The trail map was outdated. We encountered sections, starting on day 1, where the trail signs said the trail ended. Several times we were traveling on busy highways with no bike lane, no shoulder, and with semi-trucks screaming past us. On one section, we had to peddle for several km on soft sand past the trail closed signs, because the alternative was riding on an autobahn-type highway.
3. We purchased the Komoot iPhone app with the trail, thinking it would help us. Sometimes it did help. Other times, it tried to route us onto busy roads. It does not work well for this kind of trip, because the hotels are not on the route. We used Komoot to help get us from the trail to the hotels and Google Maps worked at least as well. I think Komoot is a good product, but not implemented well for this application.
4. During our entire trip, we encountered very strong headwinds that made progress painful. We expected that 21-speed bikes would be ok, but the gearless bikes performed very much like 7-speed bikes and is the source of complaints from others too. We concur. We should have ordered E-bikes.
5. On the second day, we called and asked to replace our bikes with e-bikes. Rad-Reisen called back and essentially said it would not be convenient for them to make the change. Trying to ride 50 miles into a strong headwind with the equivalent of a 7-speed bike is not good. I was sometimes limited to 11-14 km/hr (7-9 mph) because of the wind.
6. We signed up for a bike-tour of Vienna and stayed an extra day in Vienna. That day there were 25,000 runners in the Vienna Marathon, so we asked to cancel the tour. We found that the tour had already been cancelled for us, but we did not know it.  SHOW MORE 

Just completed this tour - May, 2019. We were a group of 12 (Canadians) and were looking for a reasonably easy bike journey. The terrain was - as advertised - very flat and never strayed very far from the beautiful shorelines of Portugal. (one significant hill - character builder) Early to mid-May worked well and we could only imagine how crowded the beaches and communities would be if the trip were taken in high summer months. Many of the small towns we passed through were almost dormant - very little life or activity, and many shops seemed closed . If you take the trip - be aware of Sunday closings and fewer selections of restaurants in Portugal. Sergio, the organizer and supporter, was helpful in every way with the organization of the trip, gps devices and bikes. He was available at all times if needed. We did not require that sort of support - and we were non-guided. The actual surfaces of land that we biked upon were variable - ranging from excellent bike paths to rural, remote dirt roads - but all very passable.
Not enough can be said about the hospitality and consideration of the Portuguese people we encountered. Bike travel is not as abundant in Portugal, and not as much a part of the culture, as elsewhere in Europe - but the gentle ways of the Portuguese are a pleasure to encounter. lb

This was tour #6 for me and it was completely different than my former experiences. My previous tours were full of tourist sights and charming villages with little shops, coffee/tea/bakery cafes, and restaurants (with restrooms) to stop at along the way during the day and actual bicycle paths. Krakow to Warsaw (Warka) Poland tour was very unique. Positives: Krakow is absolutely charming and has some interesting day trips available to the salt mines and concentration camps. Once on tour the bicycles, hotels and food were excellent. The forests and farmlands were lovely. The birds were singing, roosters crowing, and the spring blooms were abundant. We saw wild boar in the woods the first day and wolf tracks another. The route maps were detailed and easy to read. The tour company was quick to work out any issues such as transporting us on day 2 of cycling due to severe weather and flood warnings. This being said, I must point out this was not a bicycle path but a bicycle route utilizing narrow roads with usually light traffic (but some sections were busy), logging roads, dirt and gravel (possibly rutted), and horror of all horrors...soft sand. The third day of cycling was bone jarring at times and though only 40km we were exhausted. The last day of cycling was 65 km instead of 55km listed. We traveled all week through extremely rural areas with no restrooms, restaurants, shops, or tourist sights during the whole cycling part of the day most days. (be sure to take snacks!) When a village appeared on the map it normally meant a group of houses and a church...but no commercial establishments. Friday we did see a few businesses but it was a holiday so they were closed. If there were castle ruins at the beginning we didn't see them. The bunker mentioned on day 6 was closed. The Abbey/Castle was closed for renovation which was a major selling point of interest when booking (we were put in a nice hotel as a substitute). The last hotel though nice was very crowded with young families and it was very noisy late into the night. It also required a taxi drive to town. This tour takes you through the former soviet block section of Poland. Overall my friend and I didn't mind doing this tour since we have experienced the other tours first, but feel you should be aware of what you are signing on for: remote cycling in non tourist/commercial type areas over possibly challenging surfaces.

We are a group of ten seniors who arranged a modified 8 day trip with guide and van support for this tour. The tour was first class, the guide was excellent and very knowledgeable about all three countries. The van driver was very good as well and a character!
I wouldn't recommend abbreviating the tour as we did because it involves too much riding in the van but in every other respect, the tour is excellent. A great way to gain knowledge and see the sights of an area of the world less travelled!

I was lucky both with guides and a group. The programme and route were done really well too. It was amazing experience I would recommend to everybody and I already done it and I continuing recommend tripsite.com too.

Fiz este trajeto em setembro de 2018 foi maravilhoso ,um trajeto fácil ,hotéis muito bom ,cafe da manha excelente e atendimento ótimo, mesmo sem falar a língua não tive dificuldades ,o trajeto e bem sinalizado passando por lugares lindos ,a bike também e boa ,não e uma mtb como estou acostumada mas respondeu bem ao trajeto ,enfim vale a pena conferir ...adorei.

We both enjoyed the coast line part of biking. The least would have been biking through tons of farmers fields, pretty but enough. Tips would be to check your map every morning and your trail numbers. Take your time, we tended to hurry too much. Wanting to get to the next hotel before evening. The distances look long but you eat up the miles quickly on your bike. Beautiful scenery and nice people. Good food at every stop. We recommend bringing skin cream and proper biking shorts. My husband did suffer a little with skin rashes.

Meeting the native people from the Netherlands and Belgium. Meeting other cyclists on the tour routes.

The bike route for your trip to Sicily takes us through farms of the regions. Very interesting to see how so many tomatoes and eggplants grow in green houses.