Caprice boat/barge tour reviews — 1 to 30 of 65

The beautiful scenery along the bike route was one of the highlights of this trip. We enjoyed pedaling through grapevine covered fields, seeing all the blooming red poppies, visiting the Monet exhibit in the old quarry, touring Arles, seeing the Pont du Gard, wine tasting and cruising into Avignon. The crew was great. And Michela our tour guide was truly one of the best we’ve ever had.

Fun itinerary / fun people/ well run trip
Excellent tour leaders & staff

The biking in the southern France with the scenery was fantastic! The guided bike guide was a fountain of historical knowledge of the area as well.

The food, the staff, and the perfect mix of strangers from around the world exceeded our expectations. The cookbook also a nice surprise souvenir that we now keep on our coffee table. Mikky is an excellent guide, for many reasons! The bikes are solid!
Suggestions, nothing major, simply notes to help things out:
1) a reminder in the morning to bring money for entrance fees. No problem with them not being included in the trip cost, I simply could have used a reminder. The situation was handled fine, but would prefer to avoid asking people for a loan.
2) please consider making and showing a short video RE how to be a “corner”; corner positioning, what/who to look for, when to leave your post. perhaps consider a longer video that covers all the biking etiquette, such as safe distance between bikes, traffic signals, etc.
To explain my 4 rating; I simply didn’t come to understand how small the room was until entering it. I looked at room pictures and measurements and considered them. When we entered our room it our new reality became obvious. This is not our first bike and barge trip. The largest boat we have been on held 24 guests. However, this is the smallest room we have stayed in. Going forward we now know what we are considering when seeing these room measurements and layouts, and we will likely avoid them going forward. We understand the rooms cannot be changed, simply explaining our 4 rating.

This trip was so well organized, plus the boat and crew were perfect. The food was based on local specialties and ingredients, cooked perfectly! (The cook did a great job with vegetarian options too!) I loved seeing the quieter rural areas of southern France via bike and boat, it was perfect!

We really enjoyed this trip! The crew of the boat was wonderful and the meals were excellent! The landscape for biking was primarily flat and beautiful. I found the times we encountered motorists on our trail to be very safe. Our guide was experienced, energetic and made this trip so memorable!

The trip was a lot of fun. The day trips were well planned and with fun stops to eat and see attractions. The food was excellent every day! Our guide Helmut was great. It is all about the people you meet and the trip you enjoy together.

This tour was a 10 out of 10 from the crew to the food. The routes were spectacular with a lot of variety and levels for all. I am an experienced rider, but not long distance. Since this was my first bike vacation, I rented an e-bike. By the end of the trip a few others switched over to e-bikes. I wanted to enjoy the tour and also be able to walk at the end of the day. From seeing the white horses of Provence to the wine and olive oil tastings, every day was memorable.

We love this region and this trip so we decided to do the trip again with friends and ride from Avignon this time .... It is a pretty easy ride except for a few huge hills - but so worth the effort to get to the top and see the town the quarry and the show - so worth the effort....just saying ....This trip takes you through many little villages filled with jasmine - stopped for quite a few pastries and beers and coffees and pain au chocolat.... besides all these sensory overloads of jasmine and and fields of poppies - you are riding through so much history ...... the camaque - Aiges mortes - the crusaders - the roman ruins everywhere - and then the marshes the salt flats and flamingos - great ride - great barges - the food always amazing

Great Crew
Group
Guide
Bikes
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1. The excellent, cheerful leadership by Helmut
2. The meals
3. The many fine trails, especially around Avignon. Wonderful biking.

Our guide Hugo was amazing! So knowledgeable and just a great person to cycle with. We loved the history of the area and the number of things we were able to see on the trip was really great. The bicycle was great and we moved efficiently together as a group. We were fortunate to have good weather despite the forecasts. Note that cabins are very small, but that they are also very efficient with lots of storage. Food by Nadia our chef was fantastic, and overall we loved the crew on this ship.

Pack lightly. Rooms are extremely small but well air conditioned.
I really don't have a favorite part. It was not a relaxing trip as the bruge to Amsterdam tour was. This took us through more crowded towns that were difficult to navigate due to traffic. It was extremely hot which added to the difficulty. Food on the boat was great but breakfast and lunch were repetitive. Crew was awesome and very accommodating.

Wonderful
Company, attentive crew, and delicious food. I enjoyed the comfort of the common area for visiting and the deck for the sailing. The cabins were very. Lean, but the small windows made it somewhat claustrophobic by the 6th night. Other than that, all was very satisfactory.

Overall it was a wonderful trip and experience. It was well organized and the 4 person crew was just fantastic. Food and ambience above expectations. All went smoothly for us. Note some headwinds which may be seasonal.

The crew was absolutely the best and this was my 4th barge trip. Amazing chef, 5 star food. Cleanest boat and everyone had a great time.
Our guide, Michela was the best and worked so hard everyday.

3rd Barge trip. All have been excellent. The barge, crew, food, bicycles and tours all very very good. We all had a great time!! Such a fun and simple way to travel and enjoy your own group of friends!!

We thought the crew were wonderful. Very engaging and helpful. Michaela was awesome and did a great job.
Got tired of the same items for lunch daily .
A variety of items would be my choice. This was 5 th or 6 th trip with Tripsite for me.
Great job . Joanie Farina

What a beautiful and interesting region of France to travel through. We loved the historic towns and monuments we visited and once again doing it with a small group of lovely travellers and cyclists was most enjoyable.
The crew were fantastic and our guide went above and beyond to keep us all safe and have a wonderful trip.
Would easily recommend this trip for anyone who loves France, history and beautiful French countryside.

Food/staff were AMAZING!!!
I felt that the difficulty rating may have been slightly off. But the trip was overall fantastic!!

The Captain and crew were outstanding especially our daily tour guide Machiela who was extraordinary with kindness, Knowledge, and very eager to please everyone
Tip to others would be to expect about 20% riding on ruff gravel and ruff tarmac

The most memorable part of our tour? Impossible to limit to one thing! This trip has it all: miles of gorgeous countryside roads and trails, small villages that look plucked from a travel brochure, access to castles and fortresses that are beautifully frozen in time... and experiencing all of it in springtime glory was tremendous. Being able to see Carrieres des Lumieres -- the Van Gogh immersive exhibit -- was such an unexpected treat. Perfect biking weather. It was our first bike and barge with electric bikes and it was fantastic... SO easy to manage the headwinds and longer uphill climbs with the pedal-assist. Really, we can't say enough about this tour... so wonderful on every level!

(** If you print this review, can you please just list me as "Kristine S"? Thanks so much!)

This was our sixth bike and barge trip. Our over-all experience was great!! The food was fantastic, the service from staff was excellent, and the bikes were better than our own. The Caprice is older and very tight quarters, both in the cabins and in public areas. This was a small inconvenience compared to the total experience.

This was my 5th bike and barge trip—they have become my favorite kind of vacation. They take you away from your day-to-day life with full days of activity and slow, macro touring of a new, beautiful part of the world. It's a moving hotel; you bike all day, then find all your things as you left them in a new location without having to pack every morning. They have great food on board, and with all the exercise you do—you just eat what you want! The crew on The Caprice was excellent. Willy, the captain, told us everything—even the few wrinkles we encountered. One afternoon, he gave all of us a chance to steer the wheel from his deck up top. Irene, the chef, was superb. Every night's dinner including starter, main course and dessert where beautifully prepared, delicious and pertinent to the locale of our docking. Karima, the steward, was very attentive to us, a wonderful personality, a great wine sommelier—and creative folder of dinner napkins! Our riding guide Micaela (Micky) was even-keeled, never rattled and dealt with all of our personalities like a pro. The group signing that she organized of Sur Le Pont d'Avignon melted our hearts. She was excellent and made the trip! The boat itself was a little small. The traffic pattern in the dining area needs some work to go a little smoother. The highlight of the trip was the visit to the Pont du Gard—and it would have been nice to have 4 hours there.

Mickey, our tour leader, took us out after dinner on the barge, on a walking tour in Arles. I had been asking when we would see the location of where The Bedroom at Arles was painted. That is where she took us. In addition, we saw the location of where Starry Night was painted. She let me bring a friend from our sister barge.

Crew and guide were fantastic.
Our dinners were amazing. Chef put much thought into selecting and preparing our evening meal always paired with a fabulous wine.
Enjoyed recapping our day’s ride after dinner with our guide, Mickey.
Each day brought a new adventure of riding. Lots of variety.
Might include a walking tour of Avignon as part of the trip.

We loved riding through the beautiful countryside and stopping to see the important landmarks along the way.

Arles (Van Gogh & Roman buildings), Barbegal Acqueduct, Les Baux, olive oil mill visit, Pont du Gard. Camaraderie on board the Caprice and while riding. The hospitality and warmth of the Caprice crew. So many other great sites and experiences too. Our guide Miki was great; bike routes were pleasant and relatively free of traffic interference. I felt safe while riding and saw a lot little things along the ride that interested and pleased me - things you don't see from a car, train, or bus.
One area needing improvement: Poor WIFI aboard the Caprice. Higher capacity and more reliable WIFI would have been appreciated.

The guide, the itinerary and the chefs were superb!! 5 stars for them!! But the boat, and specifically the boat owners, get a 1 star. How cheap can they be??!! They didn't even provide a plastic bike water bottle. And they charged a hefty fuel surcharge, even after the price of fuel had plummeted. This was my third bike and barge, and I will never go on another barge owned by this company.

We really enjoyed our trip through the Provence region of southern France! Our guide, Michaela, was very knowledgeable of the history of the area, kept us on low trafficked roads on our bicycles, and was in general a lot of fun. Additionally, our eBikes were in great condition and we enjoyed using them throughout our tour. The only downside was our cabin on the Caprice as we both have allergies and there was a persistent mildew/mold smell which necessitated keeping the A/C on relatively high to dissipate it. The cabin was also quite small for us traveling as a couple—one of us literally had to crawl over the other to use the bathroom. The hardworking staff is to be commended.