4 Star Sailing Home boat/barge tour reviews — 1 to 21 of 21

  Sailing Home Bruges to Amsterdam
Belgium, Netherlands

Loved all the beautiful scenery and being able to see it by bike. We particularly liked being in a small group (9 couples) who we got to know quite well and had fun socializing with. The crew and guide were very attentive and made the trip extra fun.

  Sailing Home Amsterdam to Bruges
Netherlands, Belgium

Daily countryside rides were wonderful. Our guide Marianne was great.
Suggestions- staff should wait until all courses are served and tables cleaned before eating. Waiting half an hour between servings not good and takes too long. Should make enough for seconds! Missed out on visit sites due to timing. Everything was closed by the time we were done with dinner. Notwithstanding the above, was a wonderful trip.

  Sailing Home Amsterdam to Bruges
Netherlands, Belgium

The staff and guide were wonderful. My only criticism is regarding the food: put out some snacks when returning to the barge after riding. One small bowl of chips for 22 people is insufficient. Secondly, the time from start to finish dinner talked too long ( 1 1/2 hours). While of course the staff must eat as well, they shouldn’t be eating after putting our plates down. Our dirty plates sit in front of us for 30 minutes while they eat. The food is very good though.

  Sailing Home Holland Southern Tulip Tour
Netherlands

Overall the trip was great! The boat was nice, the rooms had more space than I expected, and the boat staff were superb! My only "opportunity for improvement" comment is that for a group of 25, the cycle tour company needs to provide more than one guide. Though our guide was very nice and knowledgeable, he was not good at making sure all 25 of us stayed together, made it through red lights, knew where the rest of the group was, etc. On more than one occasion, we had multiple people get far enough behind that they got lost and didn't know where they were supposed to go.

  Sailing Home Holland Southern Tulip Tour
Netherlands

The barge, service, crew, meals & hospitality all exceeded my expectations. This was a very well planned itinerary and was implemented seamlessly. Riding past tulip fields and the amazing day at Keukenhof Garden is something I will never forget!

  Sailing Home Holland Southern Tulip Tour
Netherlands

Boat and crew were great! Food was very good and overall I would recommend this trip especially if you are a skilled/avid biker. For me I only biked one day of the five, I had trouble managing the e-bike with the number of other bikers, people walking and cars especially in the cities. I would agree that the biking was easy because it was flat, but there are a ton of other people biking and there was lots of starting a stopping and others people, bikes and cars to watch out for. I also think there needs to be two guides, 25 riders is a lot for one person to keep track of and manage. On Multiple days riders got lost.

  Sailing Home Holland Southern Tulip Tour
Netherlands

The barge, the crew, the service, the hospitality were exceptional. The itinerary was well planned. The thrill of cycling by tulip fields and the amazing day at Kuekenhof Garden is something I will never forget.

  Sailing Home Amsterdam to Bruges
Netherlands, Belgium

The trip was very enjoyable. The scenery and bike paths were great. The staff and cook were excellent.
Suggestions:
The bike groups should be split up into smaller groups (6-8 riders), especially when using busy routes.
The strong bikers should not be grouped with the more leisurely bikers.
The guides should have good skills in GPS navigation and/or riders could use an app such as "Ride with GPS".

  Sailing Home Bruges to Amsterdam
Belgium, Netherlands

The wow factor of the trip was riding our bikes in an underground tunnel under the River Sheldt in Antwerp. We took the elevator down. Unfortunately, the elevator to go back up was broken, so we had to take 2 escalators up which was a challenge with our bikes. We later found out that there is a ferry. I’m glad we didn’t know about the ferry!

It was a wonderful trip. The barge accommodations were good, not luxurious. The crew was excellent. They were cheerful and efficient. The food was good. There were no choices for dinner.

  Sailing Home Bruges to Amsterdam
Belgium, Netherlands

The visit to a working grain windmill.

  Sailing Home Bruges to Amsterdam
Belgium, Netherlands

Biking through the country side in Belgium and the Netherlands. Very beautiful villages, and the open fields in the countryside. And of course the people we shared the trip. with.

  Sailing Home Bruges to Amsterdam
Belgium, Netherlands

Weather was great! no rain at all. Biking was very easy. I had no idea. I was the sweeper for the group. There were quite a few Americans that really had no clue about the rules of the road for bicycles and how bikes interact with cars and pedestrians. A quick overview at the start would be helpful for them. Especially who has the right of way at intersections. At times the group was too big and therefore the train too long. Also a break-up according to ability might be wise. My bike was really too small for me. It was an "L" frame and it should have been an "XL" frame, which is what I had requested.

  Sailing Home Bruges to Amsterdam
Belgium, Netherlands

  Sailing Home Holland Southern Tulip Tour
Netherlands

1. Kukenhof gardens was our favorite part of the trip- absolutely gorgeous.
2. The staff was awesome- friendly, cheerful, energetic.

  Sailing Home Amsterdam to Bruges
Netherlands, Belgium

The most memorable part was getting to see the countries from a bicycle. The weather was not good and the tour guide did an excellent job of juggling the personalities with varying degrees of athletic fitness. At 53-58, there were people on the boat that were over 20 years older than my wife and I, and as a result, some rides were cut short somewhat - this was a bit disappointing as my wife and I had hoped to ride at least the distances advertised. One additional constructive comment - some of the bikes were not in good shape. The bike set aside for me had its front brakes permanently rubbing and the solution was for me to ride a women's small bike for the week. Disappointing. The trip was excellent overall and we will do a bike and barge tour again.

  Sailing Home Bruges to Amsterdam
Belgium, Netherlands

Sailing Home was a great boat, well finished, very clean, lots of room and nice staff. The trip from Bruges to Amsterdam was very scenic and flat country yet the riding did not offer the flexibility friends had experienced with other tours.
We had expected to ride 30kms (+or- 10) a day and were somewhat surprised to hear the daily ride was 60 kms. That said, on one day, it was possible to ride 20 kms in the morning then 40 kms in the afternoon as the bike route crossed the boats route.
There were nine in our group and to a person we thought it would have been far better to have the boat dock at mid day for people wanting to ride a shorter distance, then head to the overnight stopping point. We would have liked the option to stop in some local villages, had lunch in a cafe and strolled at some of the scenic spots. It is not supposed to be the Tour de France.
Would we do it again, yes, but at our own pace, so we would do it 'self guided' next time as I don't think our guide could comprehend our desire to enjoy all the joys of the ride.

  Sailing Home Amsterdam to Cologne
Netherlands, Germany

Fantastic dinners & wonderful guide, captain, staff!

  Sailing Home Amsterdam to Cologne
Netherlands, Germany

Loved the Netherlands countryside. Beautiful flowers and farmland and great trails.
Also the friendly and professional staff.

  Sailing Home Holland Southern Tulip Tour
Netherlands

Overall I really enjoyed our trip. However, our guide Piet left a lot to be desired. He got us from the boat and back each day but that was about it. We had very few stops during the day for water breaks or photos. He did not provide any "tour guide" type of information like history or pointing anything out of interest, or even a clear idea of the details of the following day. While we got to all the towns on the itinerary, everything was pretty much closed after dinner so we couldn't do any sightseeing in towns on our own. The guide on our sister ship "Liza Marleen" did much more with her group.

On the plus side, the barge Sailing Home was excellent and the crew was great - very friendly and helpful. Our chef Markus was amazing.

I had an electric bike and I loved it. It made the trip much easier and enjoyable. Highly recommend it for inexperienced bikers.

  Sailing Home Amsterdam to Cologne
Netherlands, Germany

Our guide was ok but I've had better ones on previous trips. It was a lot of going through the motions since he had done 15-20 trips prior to ours it was maybe a case of being burned out. A bit more interaction on where we were going and what we were seeing would have been nice. Overall trip was top notch though as usual.