Europe Tour Reviews — 5461 to 5490 of 6839

The entire cycling tour was fantastic. Each day was different, and with a guide who was absolutely terrific, we enjoyed every bit of it!

The biking part of the trip takes you through some of the most beautiful countryside in Belgium and the Netherlands. The tour guide is very knowledgeable about the history of the landscape. It's a very casual pace so keeping up is never a problem. There are many stops for coffee, lunch and afternoon breaks while biking.

My mom and I booked the trip from June 3- 10, 2017 from Moret-sur-Loing to Compiegne. What a fantastic holiday!! The biking was incredible and the bikes were in excellent shape - very easy to ride. Wieger was an excellent guide both on and off the bikes. We experienced France from a totally different perspective - biking in the forests, into Fontainebleau and having a picnic in the garden; stopping along the Seine for coffee at a small cafe; biking into Paris to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. Every night Wieger would give us a small tour of the town we were moored in. The meals that Thea made each day were 5* - excellent!! The Clair de Lune was a lovely place to call our home each night and our captain Marco was very accommodating and friendly. We highly recommend this trip - what a fantastic experience!!!

All our needs were addressed. Being a guest on the Merlin was a pleasure. Our guide, Felix was very informative.

From making the arrangements to enjoying the trip, the guides, hosts, and accommodations, the experience was all excellent. Can't wait to do it again!!

Boat and bike trip was our first experience. It was really amazing and well- organized one :)) we just wish to have more options for healthy food on board and choose our table at dinner time to socialize with more people than having assigned seats every night. -Thank you

Most memorable part: The scenery. The varied landscape. The entire trip was an adventure. Definitely tack on an extra day or two in Prague and Dresden. It will make for a perfect holiday.

Most memorable part: Biking through the small towns and rural parts of our route.

We are long time customers to Tripsite and have always enjoyed our trips. This year we did St Moritz to Innsbrook. It was an amazing trip with some of the best views we have ever seen. The ride was challenging for the first few days but then it got to be a typical river ride. We did a triple room package rather than paying for a single supplement and it worked great. All of the hotels were newly renovated and very modern. The people of Switzerland and Austria were very friendly and supportive. Again these trips in the alps are so spectacular! Looking forward to planning next years trip.

It was my second trip managed by Tripsite and everything was perfect. The route was amazing.

I am very glad that I did this trip: the boat, cabin, food, bike, everything was very good. But there were some challenges, which I would like to mention.
1. The tour guide (Jan, his first name) was not rude, but more like indifferent to your problems. Very often his answer was ""It's up to you. You want this, go this way, you want that, go that way."" Hr didn't try to understand your problem and to find the best solution for your situation.
2. Bike path pavement sometimes was bad and poorly marked. For people with not good vision (like myself) it was a big problem. European bikers are more aggressive speed wise and more comfortable in the crowded environment. It was a problem to have pedestrians and bikers in both directions at the same time. So, for me it was easy to complete 50-60 kilometers physically, but it was stressful psychologically to be in such crowded place.
3. Unguided tour is a challenge: you can get lost, something can happen to you, your bike, and no help is available. One person locked a bike and lost a key. I even do not know how he came back on the boat. I am writing all these problems to give future fellow travelers more real picture before making a decision to take this trip, and moreover how to prepare yourself for the trip. My mistake was that I was thinking that if I can do 40 miles on the bike, I am ready for the trip. Physical part is not enough. You should be ready physically, but also you should be able to function in the crowded city environment at low speed, be able to repair your bike, if needed, to read a map, and not to expect that all people in the world like Americans. Sorry for being so long, but I really wanted to give the most truthful picture of my experience.

Great trip - exceeded my expectations- first class in every respect.
Bike courses were challenging but you can't beat the scenery.

The trip was fun despite almost nothing going as expected. It rained so much we often could not ride so we had fewer days of riding and less distance when we did ride, it was impossible to get clothing dry once they got wet, the cabins were tiny, and neither the guides nor the crew were Scottish or knew much about Scotland. And other than this superficial survey no one has asked for any substantive feedback. Nonetheless, the group bonded and we had fun.

The most memorable part were the people we met, both crew and guests. The route had been well chosen to let us experience the beauty of the area. I would have rated the guide and food higher except for the following reasons: although the guide was very personable and knowledgable he did not carry a first aid kit or tools to deal with emergencies. I think this could be easily remedied. Although the food was well prepared the captain could have spent a little more money on his selection of meats, cheese, and wine.

The most memorable part was the friendliness of the other guests.

Having never taken a bike and barge trip I didn't know what to expect. Wow....it exceeded my expectations. Boat was luxurious for a barge, what friendly, hard working staff. Tom our tour leader was terrific. Other than the fact that the single cabins are really small everything else outstanding.

We have been on seven self-guided bike trips (two of them with boats) and this was truly one of the best! The accommodations on our Prague ship, the MS Florentina were nicer (larger lounges, expansive deck, etc) than the Angela Esmee to be frank, but the Angela's superb crew, the charming towns as ports of call, and along the route, and our tour leader, Margaret, more than made up for it. I highly recommend this tour!

Besides the beautiful scenery, the staff on the boat were so friendly and helpful. They worked as a team, and the relationship with the guests was wonderful. We made many new friends, and had such a good time. Leaving, we had tears in our eyes. We loved the wineries and tasting many new wines. Although we understand the purpose of corkage fees, we thought they were too high, as we came back with one or two new ones every day! Loved the trip!

Stunning vistas, terrific staff, and the weather was spot on in the Dublin area 2nd week of June 2017.

We loved the whole trip from Prague to Dresden ... Beautiful places to visit and spend a few hours admiring ... All the cities that we slept were special ... We chose premium option to stay in 4 star hotels, really Prague and Dresden were But the rest can be considered 1 or 2 stars ... The level of difficulty of the route is really easy even, very few climbs and are short ... The bikes were excellent, the maps very well elaborated ... I would just like to Suggesting that you take a closer look at Pravcicka Gate, because it was a very long walk, about 5 hours (round trip) to visit it ... It is beautiful, unique, wonderful landscapes, worth visiting , But you have to prepare for long distances ... This was the third time we hired the tripsite and it was great! As of other times, the pedaling was AMAZING! We recommend! We are already dreaming of the next! :))

The entire week was fabulous. Loved cycling through the towns and country side. Tom our guide was very nice and an excellent guide. I also enjoyed our evening walking tour, especially when he brought us to the home of an artist and his wife. I bought a few pieces of jewelry.
We were very lucky with the weather and even ate outside 2 nights.
Loved that we were a small group and I knew everyone after a couple of days . I enjoyed everything.

We were glad that we did the independent bike ride starting in Bolzano 3 days before meeting up with everyone on the barge. The scenery and biking were incredible, especially on the alternate route. We did go solo the first day and got very lost 3 times! The next day we tagged along with others on the same trip. The directions could be more explicit ( Ex. It would be helpful to state directions that avoided questioning routes i.e. ""go this way, not that way""; caution - fork in road- bear right, but not up that 14% grade hill!) And what is a fly-over? (An overpass, we found out later) And what is considered a ""fountain""? (It's a small water spigot at a bikers rest stop). However, it was an adventure we won't forget. We learned we needed to have GPS through Google or another mapping/biking program. This would allow us to be more independent and ride self guided as biking with 28 or more people and 2 guides is slow going. The biking is on flat terrain, very easy. However, many days you bike around 30 miles, with many stops for breaks, tours, and sights. It was very warm in early June. Bring lip sunscreen and regular sunscreen!
The Ave Maria is fantastic, our rooms were cozy but totally comfortable. The boat is in mint condition. Food is amazing! Our 2 chefs were top notch. Staff are fun and we really were lucky to have a great group of fellow travelers. Ronnie and Silvia were our guides and they were great. They were very patient, helpful and fun to be with. We had a competition one night, all the 5 groups from different countries did a skit. It was hilarious!!
Also, arriving in Venice by boat at the end of the tour is the best way to go in our opinion. We stayed an extra day in Venice and took water buses to some of the islands. It was cooler there, we saw beautiful places and we used up our 3 day transit pass.
I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, we had an unforgettable, wonderful trip and are thinking of where to go on our next bike and barge adventure!

As our first self guided cycling trip, we can not see how this experiene could be better. The scenery was extraordinary, the accommodations were excellent and the trip coordinator was superb! We highly recommend this trip. Can't wait to do another trip!

The routing in Bordeaux was great. Amazing scenery, passing through little towns and managing our way through a city or two made for an amazing adventure. One day I had a big problem with my bike and with a phone call I had a young man show up and fix it. He was my hero.

Loved the beauty of the rolling hills, vineyards and chateaus. Due to the hills, I would rate 2 of the days more moderate to difficult, leaning more to moderate. The maps and booklets are hard to follow, definitely have 1 person in your group get the GPS, it should be mandatory with all the turns. There is only a deposit required.
The staff were attentive, hard working and fun! The food was exceptional. We highly recommend this tour!

Touring by bicycle is the best! It's a great way to take in the scenery, small villages, and larger cities while getting a little exercise along the way. It was a very relaxing trip and I was glad to be a part of a larger group on the trip. The food and cycling directions could be improved, but the service and itinerary were great.

Most memorable parts: The camaraderie of the group and of course the fabulous meal by Chef Franco.

Accommodations faultless. Bike company efficient and I loved my bike. Maps very inadequate, we should not have been on "on ramps" to or navigating 4 lane highways, check out the maps through Cavaillon for example. More moderate than recreational cycling especially the hills. Great on an E bike if you had one. Scenery exquisite. Weather too! Thank you to Mary for organizing or extra nights in Avignon, another great hotel.

"easy to moderate" was at the outset incorrect, it was "moderate to difficult" when one considers the length and incline of the hills. Also, our group of twelve experienced 3 flat tires, the first time in many years of biking in Europe, and each was on an e-bike. The hotels, on the other hand were exquisite!

The best combination, boat and bicycle, without packing in every place.
Every morning a new city to visit and the best way is by bike where you can experience the sound of the win through the forest, the river just by your side and beautiful villages where always will be a huge church and a restaurant to have a beer.
And unforgettable experience, I just love to do it and would like to experience again.