Europe Tour Reviews — 3181 to 3210 of 6879

Hello
I did this tour with my daughter on july 2022
the tour was excellent and really enjoy it!! WONDERFULL
The day before our trip, we met Luca and he explained us everything about the bikes and how to get to each city following a map in a App using our cel phones ... (I think it will be better for the company to rent GPS instead of us using our phones... so we use them only to communicate, take photos , videos etc and dont run out of battery ... (We came prepared so we didnt had any problem because we had extra external batteries... but anyway )
While traveling wE could contact LUCA by WhattsApp and was very easy to reach... He is a great guy !!

The first day as we started from Prague to Melnik was ok ... but as the days went by, the scenery began to get better and better and more beautiful til the end in Dresden !! Traveling by bike through all this places is very easy end very enjoyable.. IS LIKE DREAMING
There are many places you can sit down and enjoy the scenery and have lunch on the grass or benches which you can find everywhere looking at the wonderful river!! And also is very easy to find restaurants and supermarkets everywhere !!

All the hotels we stayed in were wonderful and the breakfast very good ( Pension Dubina in Litomerice was great but the breakfast was horrible, other than that EVERYTHING was wonderful !! )

I highly recommend this tour !!
I will be back

Almost everything. Boat and staff were both wonderfull. Scenery was magnificent, got lucky with great weather.

Great staff and fun traveling and experiencing this with a large group of friends! Scenery was spectacular and we had great weather.

The beauty of the countryside. The combination of sea and country. The quiet towns with an old world fee.

Great tour. Helpful crew, accommodation and meals.

Lovely trip. Great accommodation, meals and helpful crew.

This tour takes you through spectacular landscapes and beautiful villages.

This was my third Tripsite Barge Biking Trip and as good as ever again.
Highly recommended.
Excellent guide who ensured that everybody was happy.
Despite the large age difference from10-92 years, the group of 18 pax jelled well together.
A trip that combines nature, culture,exercise, education and relaxation in a most balanced holiday that one could wish for.

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.

The barge crew and the bike guide were fabulous. Friendly, accommodating, informative, flexible, and knowledgeable.

The trip was excellent! We loved it. Great to meet people from all over the world. The Ave Maria Barge was just right. The crew was excellent! The crew was helpful and personable beyond expectations. The dinners were really wonderful, I enjoyed going through the small towns in Italy. Our ride leaders knew where they were going and were very informative regarding the towns we visited. I can’t wait to do another bike and barge!

The enthusiasm of our tour guides was excellent. They helped the family (our group of 6) a couple of times by sacrifice of their personal time and attention.
Some better orientation on ebike and gears would have been helpful. The "sore-butt" syndrome for inexperienced riders was worth it.

Bob W

My wife and I have just recently finished this trip and we can highly recommend it.We have done three boat and bike tours and this has been the best. The Thalassa is well appointed for such a trip,from the adequate cabins with AC ,lots of space to relax,frequent stops where the Captain would drop the anchor for swims,friendly crew and excellent meals.The two guides Catarine and Johanese made this run so smoothly.Catarine s background in Archeology most informative for us. The group on board were a mix of families and single travellers twelve in total . The bikes were of good quality,made in Germany.I am seventy years of age and we chose E bikes which I recommend as there are some challenging hills on the islands. The islands and coast lines are stunning. For us it ticked all the boxes.

Kinderdijk was amazing.

My husband and I enjoyed our week long Lakes and Castles cycling tour of rural Sweden and Stockholm. Carmen of Nordic Trails organized a great trip to include a visit to Stendörren nature reserve, Tullgarn Royal Castle, lake swimming, wild blueberry picking, a two-night stay in beautiful Trosa and a return to Stockholm from Mariefred with its historic Gripsholm Castle by steamboat. The tour was mostly on lightly travelled roads and bike trails. We enjoyed our hotel stays in modest inns with friendly staffs. While we travelled with another couple, the trip would also be suitable for families with older children. Carmen's riding instructions and maps were excellent and she also offered helpful GPS routes.
Note: We brought our own road tandem equipped with 32x700 road tires, and we were able to handle the varied surfaces reasonably well. (No flats!)

We had a wonderful time, and will go again on yet another (our third) Tripsite tour! The staff was Friendly, creative, and responsive. . . There were so many interesting people from all over, which enriched our travel experience. The scenery was uniformly beautiful and full of history, whether watching it as we sailed, biking through it, or taking a tour of one of the cities. . Our room was very comfortable -- we enjoyed sitting on our "balcony" and watching the Danube flow by . . . The chefs did an outstanding job in terms of quality, variety, and presentation and we enjoyed every meal.
I would advise future travelers to read the itinerary carefully and to plot it on a map so they would be clear how much time is available for sightseeing in certain cities. We spent longer traveling on the boat than we realized. The upside is that we did a lot of reading!

I was very excited to be going on this bike tour of Holland/Belgium. It was a great chance for some father-son bonding, especially after a 3-year vacation drought due to the pandemic. If anything, the trip was even better than I imagined. The guides (Hans and Arnold) were fantastic, the rides were gorgeous, the accommodations were luxurious, the food was excellent—a really top-notch trip and a very affordable price. I also can't say enough good things about Walter and the crew of the Magnifique III (Corrie, Inge, Albert-first mate). If you're thinking about it, book-it you won't be disappointed. The only piece of advice would be to bring padded shorts or a gel saddle, especially if you're not used to being on a bike saddle for several hours a day. The only other piece of advice would be to wait until the 2022 summer travel chaos has subsided; and/or consider flying into/out of Brussels, instead of Amsterdam.

It was the wonderful people, (tour guides, chefs and boat crew) of the Ava Maria, that made this tour experience more than exceptional and much more than expected. We appreciated their expertise, knowledge and humourous delivery of all. Five star experience!!!!!

Although we enjoyed the trip, there is no one thing that stands out as the most memorable. However, there are some things that need improvement:
- The food. This was a top-rated boat but some of the food was sub-par. For instance, you do not serve vegetables from a can!
- Having electric bikes and regular bikes in the same guided groups is a mistake. The regular bikes do not have a chance and the pace keeps getting quicker and quicker, pushing the ordinary bikes aside. There should be separate guides for the two types of bikes.
- Riding through the cities was terrifying, particularly in The Netherlands where everyone rides bikes. We have been on another boat/bike tour down the Danube (with RadReisen) and our tours of the cities were by bus with riding only on the fringes. It was much safer and you saw and learned about so much more.

The guided bicycle tour was the most memorable part of the trip. Our guide, Thomas, was so knowledgeable about local history and culture and made sure we never got lost. The staff were remarkably friendly and helpful, and the food was varied, fresh, and delicious. From our point of view, join the guided bike tour to catch all of the local highlights and be efficient with your ride. Our fellow bike tour members were fun, energetic and competent even though our ages ranged from 29-71. Relax and don't worry about when and where you'll meet your group and what you'll need to bring. There is always someone available to clarify logistics. Take advantage of the extra activities like bus tours and concerts. They add even more richness to the experience. Finally, though we don't speak German, we always felt "in the know" because all communication was offered bilingually. Truly a great experience. We're looking to book our next one!

Tip. 3rd party navigation tools such as a heads up Garmin Edge are 100% necessary for the self guided section. Also, the self guided section is NOT a beginner ride. Intermediate is more appropriate.

Crete is a fabulous place - breathtaking beaches, a rich and ancient history, wonderful food, warm, welcoming people. However, the island is rugged and mountainous, and presents some serious challenges for the cyclist. While we were dropped off each morning high in the mountains, there were still many steep sections that were challenging to navigate, and at times the winds at the summits were quite serious. The trip is listed as "easy to moderate", but our experience suggests that it should be in the moderate to difficult category, and - certainly for less experienced cyclists - we would highly recommend renting an electric bike to help with the steeper slopes. In any case, the tour was a great experience - the cycling was rigorous and exhilarating. We enjoyed the chance to ride through remote mountain areas, stopping in small villages, visiting historic sites along the way, breaking for lunch at small taverns with stunning views to the coast. The beaches on the south coast were stunningly beautiful, with crystal clear water and long, sandy stretches of coastline. And the food - indescribably delicious!

The most memorable part of the trip was the people we met. From the crew to the fellow cyclists it was an amazing cast of people and made the experience such a pleasure. Riding with people from England, Germany, Canada and the US led to amazing days in the saddle and wonderful conversations over delicious dinners. When doing these trips the best advice I can give is at dinner move to a different table each evening and meet and dine with the other passengers. The friendships I have made over the years from these rides are truly remarkable.

Many beautiful experiences, met new nice people, a uniquely great crew on the Ave Maria, great food.

Ease of living on the boat including meals, rooms, drinks, comfort etc.
Did not like hybrid bikes as I usually ride a road bike.
Would have liked to have biked or sailed into the wine region

Being in France on a bike with new friends and having a wonderful barge and crew to meet our needs.

Biking town to town is a great way to get to know a country; you see places off-the-beaten trail, ride through tiny towns, national forests and coastal cities, sample local specialties from seafood to wine to dessert. The comradeship, meeting new people was also great.

Suggestions? Drink water and wear lots of sunscreen!

The captain and staff were all very personable and worked well together. Steffi is amazing!

The countryside was beautiful and excursions interesting. Luckily, we had magnificent weather, which made everything feel perfect!

The wine tastings could have included a brief tour, like the cider tasting excursion did.

Riding along beautiful fields of wheat and sunflowers. Enjoying outside. A stress free vacation in nature.
Wine tours: there was not any information/education about the grapes. A missed opportunity I thought.
The first chef on our boat was not very good. Food is a big part of a vacation. That area needs attention we all felt.