Europe Tour Reviews — 3031 to 3060 of 6857

Highlights: Beautiful scenery along the Danube whether you are on the boat or riding your bike. The staff was extremely friendly & helpful. The food offered was excellent along with the service.
Biking: I’m a regular cyclist (Road & Mountain) so I chose to ride a standard (non ebike) bike. The bikes are heavy and geared way too high. Fortunately, the terrain is relatively flat so the number of times needing lower gears were few.

The visit to a working grain windmill.

The most memorable part of the trip was creating new relationships and the beautiful canals and gardens!
I would consider booking another bike and barge through tripsite in the future.

This was the best cycling trip ever! A total exhilarating adventure!! The vistas, the terrain, the food , the accommodation were absolutely perfect. It really was a trip of a lifetime. As we rounded every corner there was another adventure. There was a smile on the groups faces constantly as it was a fun and somewhat challenging ride. The e bikes were really appreciated on the steep hills. However it still required hard pedalling,
I cannot give enough praise to Sergio and the crew. They took excellent care of us every minute. The group dinners were very enjoyable. This tour fills fast and I can now understand.
Sign up for this as the spots go very quickly and I can now say I understand why it is so popular

This was the best trip ever, which makes it hard to think of just one memorable part. Truly everything was memorable, the sights, the food, the experience of biking through small towns, the crew especially Leslie our cruise director. If I had to pick one special moment it would be while biking through the countryside we came across a quaint Food truck selling homemade lemonade. We rested, ate our lunch, shot some darts and drank the most delicious glass of blood orange lemonade.
When the trip was over, we all said “let’s do another one next year!”

Our trip along the Moselle River from Metz France, through Luxemburg, to Koblenz Germany was a fantastic adventure! The route was easy to follow, especially with the GPS coordinates we were provided along with the detailed description of the towns. Our group of four travelled along the river following the mostly paved trail through fields and forests, vineyards, and city trails. The September air was crisp and cool and the vines were rich with clusters of grapes. Traveling comfortably an average of 35 miles on well-maintained e-bikes, we arrived at our destinations with plenty of time for exploration and discovery. Each town had its own charming character. Trier, one of the oldest cities of Germany was an incredible architectural experience with Romanesque arches, palaces and cathedrals. We discovered outdoor markets and enjoyed local Luxemburg cuisine as we learned about the creation of the Schengen agreement which led to the EEU. Old Roman castles dotted the terraced mountains and we took the time to visit a few of them, marveling at their size and strength, The small village of Neumagen-Dhron, with its historic and colorful architecture welcomed us with open arms as they celebrated their annual wine festival in the streets. Koblenz at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle shared its dynamic march through history with monuments and statues. Accommodations were consistently excellent in quality and service.
This was my first adventure with Tripsite but by no means the last. Thanks to all at Tripsite for making this such a memorable vacation!

The whole trip was an adventure! The crew and the guides were great and worked hard every day loading all the bikes on the dinghies as well as keeping us all safe during transport. The bikes and biking was great! The scenery was spectacular! At the end of the day when we returned to the ship we were happy to celebrate with a refreshing swim in the sea followed by a drink from the bar. The guests were an international group . Despite language barriers we mixed well and enjoyed the diversity leaving the ship promising to stay in contact. Great memories!

First time I experienced this type of travelling. Overall, I like it. Couple of notes though : the ship was not where it was supposed to be at embarkment ; it was on the other side of the harbour. No communication received about that last minute change. We knew because someone was monitoring vesselfinder. A lot of people did not know. Second, we were not happy with the table arrangements. We got assigned a table on day 1 and were supposed to sit at that table, with the same people, every day. I appreciate the reason, every evening they ask what you want for dinner the next day, and if people then are not at the same table, that system does not work. But, we're travelling with a group. We want to have dinner at a different table every day.

Having said that, the boat and the food was nice, the crew was really good, no, outstanding. The daily tours were well organized and navigating our way was easy.
Hence my 4 star rating of the tour.

The trip started out on a sour note because the De Holland was not moored at the De Ruijterkade West location shown in the Tripsite "Final Travel Information" PDF, but instead was across the IJ river next to the Buiksloterweg ferry terminal. Despite being told by Tripsite that the document would be updated with last-minute changes, the document was not updated with the correct location, and none of the passengers who booked through Tripsite were notified of this critical change. (We heard that Boat-Bike Tours, the organizer of the tour, DID notify the passengers who had booked directly through them.) We followed the De Holland on the Vesselfinder website so we knew where it was moored, and we notified a few other traveling companions, but a portion of the Tripsite group showed up at De Ruijterkade West and the boat management had to arrange for their transportation to Buiksloterweg, which delayed the departure. To our knowledge, Tripsite has never acknowledged or apologized for this serious mistake.

Regarding the tour itself, biking from town to town was well designed and wonderful -- beautiful countryside, lovely towns. We used the Ride With GPS app, which had a few route errors but in general was an excellent, well-executed tool. (Without the app, there were a number of signage errors or absences along the routes that could have caused problems.) The evening tour of Deventer was very well done; the local tour guide was excellent and the evening was perfect for it. We rented e-bikes and they were in great condition. The staff on the boat were all kind and helpful and friendly and the boat was exceptionally clean.

We thought Frans, the bike tour guide, could have done a better job. He was nice, but despite having many years of experience doing this, his evening talks were not always very clear, and he did not mention a number of places along the bike routes that would have been nice for people to know about, most importantly the Airborne Museum in Oosterbeek, which was on the map if you knew where to look but was not highlighted by Frans. We did enjoy the evening Frans played the keyboard in the dining room.

The biggest disappointment was that we had to sit with the same people at dinner every night. We understand there are logistics involved that make it much easier for the staff, but this requirement eliminated what could have been a prime opportunity to get to know others. We happened to be assigned the same table as our best friend, whom we obviously already know very well. We had little in common with the other three and were stuck with them (and they with us) for the whole week. There must be some way (perhaps a buffet a couple of times during the week, or a dinner in town one night) where we could have a chance to meet others, which would have made the trip much more rewarding.

Most memorable part: Trip into and out of Venice

Our most memorable part of the trip was the lovely riding along the Mosel and Saar with our family. As well as, the wonderful hospitality of the Flora crew (Berthus, Jonne, Christiana, Stephan) and great conversations with our guide, Wieger.

Our suggestion/tips for others would be: be prepared for intimate living quarters with others and enjoy the bike riding through a beautiful part of Germany. It is about the journey, not the destination. And, DO take the tour at Burg Elz!

Every day was a blast. There are several Lake Constance (Bodensee) tours. We selected the 12-day (11 night) package, which had 9 days of bike rides and one day of "rest" at St Gallen, Switzerland. The rest day turned out to be another adventure because we decided to take the Appenzeller Bahnen (Appenzell Railways) to explore Appenzellerland, per-Alpine landscape, where we hiked up to beautiful lake Seealpsee.

Tips for others: don't stress the biking. Take it easy; take a lot of pictures; make a lot of memories

This trip exceeded our expectations. The accommodations and food on the barge were wonderful. We were so comfortable. The guides were terrific, they were so informative and made adjustments as needed to suit weather and safety. The evening tours to special places where we stopped were special. The crew was great. I can’t wait to do it again.

There were so many memorable aspects of our self-guided cycling tour from Porto to Santiago . . . too many to list. It's easier to list the negative parts of the trip because there were NONE, except for wanting to stay even longer! I really have to give a shout-out to Sergio and John at the bike shop in Porto because every aspect of this self-guided trip was extremely well organized and the trip went off without a hitch from the GPS and app directions, the daily luggage transfers, and the wonderful hotels . . . everything was perfect. Thank you for an amazing trip!

Different city tours were the memborable part both positive and negative. We loved our tour with Peter in Vienna on bikes we did not like our tour with a different Peter in Budapest, he was rude to one of our rides, very opinionated against the West defense of Ukraine, and then left us in the middle of town since he had another tour to go to.

the communication about the departure from the very beginning was a fiasco and then throughout the German presenations were about 50% longer than the English ones. BUt Leslie the Tour Director did a great job overall.

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.

Overall the trip was a great success.
The accommodations were fine. All clean and well kept. Air conditioning did not always work properly.
Bikes were in great condition throughout the entire trip.
Suggestions: we took road bikes for the trip and followed routes for these bikes yet several locations were very uncomfortable for riding. Roads with lots of potholes and gravel not meant for road bikes.
Overall experience was very positive and the company's organiztion was great.

The Moselle-Maar Cycling Trail offered a lovely change of scenery from the also beautiful Mosel River paths we followed most days.

Could not have been better. Everthying about it was superb.

Bicycling through the picturesque countryside was magical. We saw beautiful homes and gardens, bridges, small villages, windmills, and night touring the bigger towns to learn a little about the history was a bonus. Staying on a smaller barge gave us an opportunity to get to know the other guests and crew. This too made for a memorable trip. The company is very organized and have a well thought out program. Our tour guide Roseanna was amazing. She had much information to share on our route, kept us together, tremendous patience and lots of fun. Our Chef, Captain and crew made for a comfortable, safe and relaxing trip down the canals after our ride.

To learn about the customs of our German and Austrian people, and specifically their specialty foods and drinks (Weissbeer). Not at all places one would accept credit or debit cards, so I strongly suggest taking sufficient cash and learn about Bancomat (ATM) machines along the way.

Diversity of the scenery, which was beautiful. A good portion of the route is right along the Adriatic, which we jumped in several times. The Adriatic is very nice.The rest of the time we were cycling through forests, vineyards or old train tunnels on our way to mountain/hilltop villages. Stunning views from all of the hotels. The people in Slovenia and Croatia were friendly and often times very engaging.
We also took a day trip, before the start of the cycling journey, to the interior of Slovenia. Beautiful country… very clean. Ljubljana is a very cool city. Would recommend if time allows.

See the beauty of the country and spending time with wonderful co-travelers. I was moved to realize the deep history of Germany, see vineyards EVERYWHERE, castles in nearly every view of the mountains, the lovely quaint villages and the friendliness of the people.

Most memorable parts? Food, people, the rides through the country

The biking throughout was excellent: we had great guides and the barge crew was friendly, accommodating, and VERY professional. Plus there seemed to be a castle on every hill, like biking through a fairytale.