5 Star Europe Tour Reviews — 541 to 570 of 4502

Umbria is really a nice region to visit! With delicious food, wine and olive oil! The bike route is not difficult! Highlights for the cities of Spello and Assissi!

Beautiful route along the coast with reasonable distances each day. Hotels were all wonderful and GPS guide worked great.

Things to improve…. Include chain lube with the bike bag of equipment. Ride the route in advance. Some of the trails were very had to identify and parts were un rideable and required hiking your bike up steep hills or thru rivers. Some detours took us off a very nice gravel road onto a very small single track with thorn bushes blocking the trail, only to meet back up with the very nice gravel road in a few meters.

The Merlijn is the best sailing ship in all of Europe if you want to bike. The captains Coen and Cristina (also the ship owners) are just wonderful people. I feel like family every time I travel with them and this was my 8th trip with them (7 trips in the last year alone). So if you want 5 star accommodations, service and meals, this is the ship to sail on. Their bikes are the best out there and I feel confident in saying that as I have done 15 bike and barge trips! Give the Merlijn a try and you will be hooked like I am. The Merlijn also gets the best bike guides out there along with extremely friendly and caring crew. Love the Merlijn and Coen and Cristina.

The North Holland bike and barge trip in Oct was very memorable! Beautiful scenic rides thru villages, seaports, sand dunes and more.
Although Holland is flat as a pancake, the ebike was very helpful on windy days and those 25+ mile routes. The Holland bike trail system is amazing and drivers are so safety oriented compared to Americans. Such a joy!
The barge and room was very comfortable. My favorite part was relaxing on the upper deck and watching the pilot navigate the De Willemstad carefully thru the locks and under bridges.

Our routine of evening trail orientation, breakfast (and pack lunch), ride and sightseeing, back for drink and dinner, was very enjoyable! Everything except the food was 5 star.

Packing a small thermos might be helpful for some riders who would like some tea or a warm drink if they tend to get cold. Padded bike shorts important.

Our guides were helpful and fun! They even offered walking tours thru some of the towns.

The Dutch are very warm and kind people!! Can’t wait to go back!

More Information on last day details would have been helpful with planning flight times. (Could leave late that day if needed)

The boat was clean and beautiful and the crew was friendly and fun. Also, the food was spectacular and plentiful.

The crew was extremely helpful and always available to help.

Loved the whole trip. It is not just a bike & barge tour. Time to tour the cities you stop at is provided.
We did end up with a rainy afternoon, but the tour was flexible enough to work around this.
The crew were wonderful.

This was the most well organized and most thought out tour I have every taken. Every detail was concidered yet seemed effortless. Our guides Dora and Alen were laid back, yet professional. Loved that they had confidence that everyone in the group could complete every ride and enjoy it. There is some boat movement on windy days so plan to have something to help with that. Take your bathing suit and water shoes on every ride! So many opportunities to get in the water. Pace yourself as the day doesn't end after the bikes are stored. So much to do at every port. We loved every minute. It was the trip of a lifetime.

So much fun! Loved all the vineyards and charming towns we rode through. Our captain, mates, chef and guides were top notch! Highly recommend this bike tour, we loved it!

I highly recommend this tour. Portugal is a phenomenal country and riding an electric bike through such a gorgeous landscape is a terrific experience. Do book a hotel for two or three nights so you can explore Porto before boarding the ship. Marvel at the city's beautiful tiles and the historic sights while enjoying tasty meals served at attractive restaurants.
Our guides were fun and quite wonderful and the ship lovely and comfortable with delectable meals served by kind staff. Don't hesitate to book this tour. Riding through Portugal and feeling the breezes blow by as you coast down steep hillsides past canyons, rivers and terraced vineyards is an an experience you will never forget.

I am not much of a biker but so enjoyed the biking. The best part was the people, our guide was delightful. The Flora was exceptional, we were treated to gourmet fresh home cooked meals. Felt at home but also catered too! Plenty drinks to choose from reasonably priced. Excellent coffee on demand! I hope to do it again!

It was a wonderful trip! It was the perfect mix of biking, sightseeing, walking tours and fabulous food. The staff was helpful and personable. The cabins were small so we were glad we packed light. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone looking for a relaxing and fun vacation.

Knowledgeable and helpful staff. Well paced tour with great food.

We had the most phenomenal week on the Erato! Biking through gorgeous villages and pine forests and olive groves, and being repeatedly blown away by views of the sea as you rounded another bend! It was extraordinary! On board the ship we had amazing and delicious healthy meals. Our guide Dionysius was outstanding. It was an unforgettable week!

This was a well thought out bike tour! The route was beautiful with amazing views. There were many “wow” moments. There was a great mix of trails, secondary roads and dirt tracks. The hotels were fantastic!! The whole tour was memorable… Even the odd time we got lost added to the whole experience!

The bike route was great they were perfect for beautiful views and destinations. The bikes were new and or in great condition making the rides very easy. Overnight stays were also in nice locations with easy check-in and check-outs with staff that were helpful and prepared. This was my first vacation ride and I couldn't be happier. Tripsite coordinated a great vacation.

This adventure far exceeded my expectations. The guids were informative and friendly and very confident guiding 32 of us on bicycles into very busy Cities. This is something that I personally had never done however I felt comfortable with their guidance

We (couple in early 60’s) have recently completed this routing. We rode hybrids (what we usually ride) and found the level quite manageable but I would question the ‘easy’ part of the rating. There were indeed some good climbs. I suspect that a large majority of riders may ride ebikes, making the climbs and the longer days easy. The Classic hotel selection was just fine. The bikes were great. We appreciated the notes on destinations and attractions in the paper guide but as a navigational tool it would have be useful only in a pinch; You’d be turning the pages constantly, GPX files are the way to go and even though there were a few ‘right turns’ that were actually left ones, the directions were great! We appreciated the variety of road types. The back lanes were lovely and the bigger roads generally has either good shoulders or bike lanes.

1) I loved the 2 hour walking tour of Porto the night.
2) I loved sitting on the upper deck of the cruise watching the terraced vineyards as we cruised through the Douro River.
3) The ship itself was clean, the staff was wonderful and attentive. They were always ready to help with a smile! I loved the touch of robes and slippers in our rooms!
4) I loved biking everyday! Our guides, Horacio and Kevin were fantastic! I thought the e-bikes themselves were excellent.

The scenery and the E-bikes used. The guides were excellent. Food on the boat and service was also excellent

Our guides made the trip memorable! Horacio and Kevin were wonderful and so much fun to be around. They kept us supported and educated on the area we were biking through. They both supported the varying levels of abilities within the group and I greatly appreciate their flexibility. My families memories of Portugal will forever be intertwined with Horatio's antics and Kevin's jokes. The scenery was wonderful. The biking was scary at times ( I really prefer a guardrail on the side of a cliff), but aligned with the rating for the tour.

The trip was wonderful for us. We enjoyed two weeks of biking and sightseeing. The guides were knowledgeable and catered to our needs. They were pleasant and helpful. The barge rooms were comfortable, nothing fancy but well equipped. We rented e-bikes and were happy that we did. Biking from 9 am-3/4 pm. every day for 2 weeks made the experience more enjoyable on the e bike. We enjoyed the group of people we were with. They were there for the experience and we all meshed easily. Overall, it was wonderful. Bring warm clothes for fall biking. We had rain and cold temps.

costal vistas were incredible! The back roads were well selected and mostly easy to navigate. Hotels were all wonderful, especially the breakfasts. Mileage each day was just about right…. Not too challenging, but not a lazy day ride either. We loved southern Portugal and plan to return again soon.

wonderful staff on the boat, great itinerary, fabulous food.

This trip showcases the great gravel riding in southern Portugal. Our group really enjoyed the tour.

Excellent trip - Baiona and Santiago de Compostela were definite highlights.

The staff was above exceptional. The weather caused problems for the crew, but I thought it was handled extremely well. We missed the Iron Gates because of weather conditions, but the staff made up for that as well. The final dinner was fantastic, but the change in plans on our arrival, not being able to land in Passau was very discombobulating, and highly stressful. Plus, we didn’t have time to collect my thoughts properly. It was horrible.
I would have like a better room than in the hole of the ship where I couldn[t see anything
I would have liked a better electric bike from the start than the one I was originally given because I had to miss some biking.

Fantastic active vacation with beautiful rides. Incredible delicious and healthy food. Fun activities on board and options for additional tours were good. Highly recommended.

So many highlights! The route select was incredible, keeping us on quiet dirt roads or bike paths for much of the time. The hotels were also all amazing, boutique style hotels with excellent service and in one case watching the sunset over the Atlantic from a warm rooftop pool! The ride from Nazare to Obidos was my favorite, with spectacular views up as we climbed out of Nazare, a fun descent for lunch to the Salgado Beach, and then beautiful views above the coast for miles after that!

The most memorable part of our trip was the incredible hospitality of all the crew on the Manifique 3. All the extra tours and special surprises were above my expectations. The food was spectacular . It was a wonderful experience.