Europe Tour Reviews — 5641 to 5670 of 6839

Del 8 al 18 de julio del año 2016, un grupo de doce personas adultos y ya entrados en años, pues el más joven tiene 54 años y el mayor 70, hicimos el recorrido en bicicleta de las Repúblicas Bálticas. Somos un grupo de cicloturistas experimentados, que ya hemos recorrido medio Europa en bicicleta.
La organización de TRIPSITE del recorrido fue muy buena, pues estaba mezclado la actividad física con el turismo de naturaleza y el cultural. Tanto el guía como el chófer del vehículo de apoyo fueron dos personas encantadoras, atentas y se adaptaron muy bien a las características del grupo.
La actividad en bicicleta, para nuestro grupo, nos pareció corta, pero nos dimos cuenta que no todos los grupos ciclistas suelen ser gente experimentada y los guías y programas se tienen que adaptar a la generalidad de los grupos.
La experiencia fu e interesante, y las Repúblicas Bálticas con sus pueblos, ciudades y pobladores nos parecieron simpáticas y alegres.

A fabulous tour. Friendly countries to cycle in, great history and a variety of terrain. Would recommend an extra night in Znojmo to give you a chance to go discover the catacombs.and a chance to enjoy the magnificent view , wine and delicious food from the local winery. Would check with the tour company to ensure that the bikes will be delivered the night before so they can be checked out.
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia were places we had never been to and they exceeded my expectations hugely. Accommodation was chosen well and the bike company was very helpful.

What a fun time! Having a beer or two on the top deck of the Zwaantje each night was a great way to finish the day. The Zwaantje bar was well stocked and very reasonably priced.

Fulton....thank you for capturing the essence of our trip of a lifetime in the Champagne countryside of France...not to mention the wonderful experiences along with sharing them with old friends and meeting new ones. Looking forward to our next adventure!!

Nancy...What a great blog. Your photos are wonderful, as always! You are living the retirement that the rest of us dream of having someday.

Great blog post! I also really enjoyed the pictures. The pictures and the captions gave me a sense of what these places are like. I especially liked the food photos. I do have to end this comment with a question, why not Munich, Germany?

It is wonderful to see how your retirement has turned into this creative adventure for you, both in travel and photographic artistry! Mark and I hope to begin soon!

I felt that the guide could have put more effort into letting us know what we were seeing. When we came upon a historic site such as a church, castle or such his standard comment was, "here is a church, you can go in and look at it if you want". We sat in front of the Porta Negra in Trier and were told it was a Roman ruin. Nothing more. My e-bike malfunctioned and I had to ride a regular bike the next day. I had ordered an e-bike because I have a health condition and was quite embarrassed that I held the rest of the group up while I walked the regular bike up small hills.

We had a very enjoyable trip with beautiful scenery, good rides and pretty good weather most of the time. The Route maps and detailed instructions could be improved upon. There were several mistakes on which way to turn as well as confusing instructions. Luckily, we had GPS with us to help out in various situations.
The food was very tasty, esp. the dinners. Great young chef.
One thing which bothered us was that we were told not to bring any wine aboard the boat - we were to only purchase wine that was available on the boat via the token machine. Odd, since we were traveling and bicycling in Bordeaux WINE country, visiting chateaus daily!! We think that there should be another arrangement in that area. It's apparently a financial situation although it was explained that they didn't want wine spills in the cabin. A damage deposit could be arranged if that's really the issue.
Otherwise, the staff, bikes and experience was great. This was our 3rd Bike/Barge trip with TripSite. Gladly recommend it often to others. We especially enjoyed St. Emilion (tour of monolithic church was amazing!) and riding to/from Blaye and touring the Citadel.

Having a guide for the biking. He was terrific. We had a route change which led to a boring day biking. They do not give you water at the table. Too many people on the boat. Lining up for things to buy tickets. Did not like having to buy a drink package. Too expensive.
Staff was very pleasant. Our guide was fabulous.

I used an e-bike on our trip from Amsterdam to Bruges. Most of the time I rode without assist, but on an occasional hill or riding into a hearty wind, it made a HUGE difference. Instead of getting frustrated or exhausted, I was able to enjoy the scenery whilst everyone on the standard bikes had their heads bowed in concentration!

The written notes for the trail description were poorly written and not accurate. Our guide made up for this with proper verbal description for each segment.
The hotels were all superb with the the one exception ( Hotel Torre Palma) where the breakfast was lacking, just some pastries, bread, coffee and juice and no fruit, cheese, meat or yogurt.
Overall the trip was excellent and we surely enjoyed our extra knowledgeable guide Jeff.

It is difficult to say what the most memorable part of the trip was since every bit of it was exceptional: the scenery, the friendly staff, the other guests, the food, all were above expectations. Add to that the fact that we had perfect early Fall weather, sunny but not too hot, we felt like we had spent a week in heaven.

I loved reading your perspective and it's very inspiring. I too, vow to be a receptive traveler. One of my favorite things to do is travel and meet people and participate in the local culture. We have been on 2 bike trips and have fallen in love with this type of vacationing. Planning our next trip- Croatia!

This was our 2nd trip this year. We signed up for a 3rd already. Barge and bike is wonderful.

I speak as one who has done three previous bike/barge tours via Tripsite. It was marvelous, "gezellig," being the Dutch term. Capt. Rendert Jan and his excellent crew went out of their way to please the passengers, including providing a guitar for my wife to practice with. The scenery along the Mosel is like a fairy tale. The bikes ran perfectly. The food was plentiful and excellent. Considering that it was late October, even the weather cooperated--except for the first day when our small and perhaps unwise contingent got drenched. We had a bonus because it was the last trip of the season so we stayed on past Koblenz for two nights and left the Quo Vadis in Arnhem where we overnighted in a hotel in order to catch the crack high speed train to the Frankfurt airport. Said crack high speed train broke down in Cologne and we barely made our flight.

We took this trip from Compiegne to Moret-sur-Loing in September. It was just perfect in every way. There were eight in our group and Marco made us feel like family. The bike ride along the Seine was just beautiful with views one would never see from a car. There is so much activity along the river and in the evening we were guided around the towns where the barge was moored for the night. The bike ride through Paris was personally terrifying for me, but was also a thrill. I would probably do it again. Our guide Yought was full of stories and also very supportive. I could not have done it without him. WE all appreciated Kim who prepared wonderful meals with great variety and was always there to welcome us back at the end of the day. This was the perfect bike/barge trip. We are now thinking about taking a trip in Holland with the Clair de Lune.

The e-bike option really made the trip for me. It allowed me to bicycle each day, get plenty of exercise, and not overdo it. As a result, I was able to enjoy the sites and experience much more.

Outstanding guide, great staff on boat, wonderful food. The beautiful scenery from Bolzano to Mantova was probably the most memorable. Really happy we took the additional 3 days before boarding the barge.

Would have liked more time biking. 2 days had less than 10 miles. We were in the guided group and were told the group would decide how much to bike on those days-we were never asked as a group-the guide decided himself we would do the shorter distance. Barge "purser"-a woman-not very friendly or helpful or available. Trip booked as a Bordeaux start and end, but the location of start and end of trip changed and we had to pay extra to get ourselves to Cadillac and back to Bordeaux from Libourne. The boat company should have provided that transfer free of charge. The 2 wine tasting charges should have been included in the trip charge. The boat charged 20 euros for a bottle of wine in the wine country of Bordeaux and we were not allowed to bring on any wine from the outside. You could buy a nice bottle of wine for less than $10.00 in town. Disappointed that we had twin beds-expected a double in the suite room.

Scenic Coastal ride. The most memorable part was visiting and staying overnight in unique and incredible towns and sites.

I would absolutely recommend this trip. We felt we were very lucky to have Hein as our guide. His insight was wonderful.

The scenery on this trip,while biking, was not memorable or especially unusual which was to be expected given the flatland of our itinerary. I was hoping it would be more dramatic but not surprised that it wasn't. Still I loved being there and next time will consider a more challenging terrain which ought to improve the views. ( ps lunch stop venues need more thought- in general unattractive.)
Memorable: the towns of Mantova and Ferrara were lovely and I enjoyed having time to spend in them , instead of merely riding through. The food was glorious and I felt the staff went the extra mile for us with a few perks and personal attention if needed. Clearly they like their jobs and it showed.