3 Star Magellan boat/barge tour reviews — 1 to 3 of 3

The boat facilities were good and as described in the material. Quality of food was excellent and the staff on board were amazing - polite, helpful, friendly and the bar prices were quite reasonable. The two guides for the biking were similarly very helpful and friendly, making sure we understood the routes, our bikes were in good order etc. We were warned ahead of time that the biking involved a number of hills and strongly advised to stay with the recommended ebikes, which all of us did. We have been on a number of bike and barge trips in Germany, France, Holland etc and perhaps it is not fair to do a comparison, but we found the following differences:
Most of Croatia was on roads, and although not overly busy, compared somewhat unfavourably with the high quality and extensive bike path systems in other parts of Europe.
All other bike and barge trips involved a breakfast on the boat, then we would make our own bag lunches, leave around 9:00 and have a leisurely ride until noon, stop for an hour at a nice spot, eat lunch then bike for a few more hours before getting back to the boat for supper. In Croatia, it was fairly hard steady biking with most short stops out in the open and very little shade available. Although we were regularly told we could stop and take pictures any time we wanted, it felt like there was a push “get it done”. Most riders were in their 60’s and 70’s with some even older and a few did not do all of the rides.
On other ventures, we would typically have one supper off the boat at our own expense. On the Magellan, some rides were in the morning and some in the afternoon, but all lunches (excellent by the way) were on board and we were left on our own except for only two suppers on board. Bottom line is we had too much “free time” (ie not much to do except for a few ocean swims off the back of the boat), and the evening meal costs added up.
We had understood from others that the Croatian coast was beautiful with so much to see and while we were only exposed to a very limited part of Croatia, we were underwhelmed.
These comments are not meant to disparage Magellan, the guides and the other staff, but are based on our personal preferences.

The aerial views of the beautiful blue waters of the Adriatic and the nighttime lights of the shoreline from the boat deck. The friendships we made and sharing the experience with old friends.

The guides were outstanding. We got lucky with the weather, but when it didn’t cooperate they figured out alternatives that didn’t feel like compromising. That said there was an emergency where we swam in a current and three people needed assistance. The guides responded, but not one of the crew did anything. This was very disturbing.