France Tour Reviews — 301 to 330 of 932

The boat was comfy and well appointed, the beds were very comfortable, the biking along the river was fabulous with knowledgeable and friendly guides. I also enjoyed the sumptuous dinners each night. One of the best parts of this trip was getting to know our fellow travelers and make new friends.

A fantastic tour, that provides great diversity from the rich river flats of the Dordogne to hills & valleys that the river snakes through on the journey, and the food, wine & sites are extraordinary. The last day is a loop ride to La Roque Gageac, hard to imagine a more picturesque town. Recommend e-bikes to anyone other than a serious cyclist, & recommend an extra night in Bergerac to break the trip up with plenty to see in the fascinating city.

My wife and truly enjoyed this tour on the Caprice in 2018. The reviews previously posted are very informative and descriptive about barge life on the Caprice, the itinerary, guides, and dining. We booked early July in order to take pre-boarding day trips to the lavender fields outside Avignon. As with all of our bike-barge tours, we have met and befriended the most interesting and wonderful people. Summer heat and some challenging ascents could be mitigated by reserving an e-bike.

There were several memorable parts:
Both Strasbourg and Nancy are beautiful cities with a great deal of medieval charm; the Valley of the Locks with its dried abandoned channels and locks, and of course, the St Louis-Arzviller lock, where lock, water and boats are lifted (or lowered) 42 m, replacing 17 locks we saw abandoned; our boat, the Clair de Lune and its friendly and competent crew, the smallest barge we had ventured in till then, but that it showed us the efficiency of its cabin layouts to remove previous concerns about barge size to the point that we are booking another trip on a similar sized barge next year.

This was my fourth bike/barge tour with Tripsite, and it was just as amazing as the other trips. Loved every moment. The ship and crew were simply outstanding. The only disappointment is that the itinerary said we would be in Metz for the evening, to even include a walking tour. We were greatly looking forward to it. However, we left Metz within an hour of boarding. It was a great topic of conversation among many passengers, who were also disappointed. So I’m not sure why we even started in Metz, to only leave right away and travel quite a distance to our first port. Other than that, it was as wonderful as each of my other Trip Site vacations.

The itinerary was terrific. We had fabulous guides who gave us lots of information about the sites we were visiting. The boat was very comfortable and the food was great. We had just 20 participants and everyone was very interesting and friendly. Can't wait for our next trip!

I worked with TripSite to plan this trip for 20 friends and family and they were fantastic to work with: flexible, friendly and professional. And the trip costs half of similar trips offered by US based bike tour operators. The Iris was a superb boat in great condition and the crew were amazing, with a special shout-out to the fantastic food! The riding was hard to believe: miles and miles of flat, scenic, history drenched wine country. Every days ride was enjoyable and had nice prizes and surprises along the way. Some of my group decided to stay on board for one or more days and got to relax and watch the castles go by, read a book, drink some great local white wine, and chat with the friendly crew. This particular tour: the Mosel between Cochem and Metz, was referred to me by a good friend who has done a dozen packaged bike tours and said this was his favorite. Now it's ours!

The bikes were a problem everyday- not well maintained or just end of season but not good
The barge was very warm- esp with comforters- suggest availability of a sheet for these conditions. A soap dish is needed in the shower, the hair dryer was very inadequate. Need to have some sort of wax paper or plastic bag for the sandwiches- wrapping in napkins does not work. The barge should offer/highlight local wines!!! The whole point of this trip is particular.
Our guides Heddy and intern Micah were fabulous.

The people at Tripsite gave all information before the decision. (Claudia) and made our decision very easy
The cities were very well chosen
The hotels are very good
The local agency we needed twice, first because we did not received the GPS routes and the girls were very nice and competente. The next day we needed some more information, but there were no one speaking English. So Claudia helped us

Reik welcoming and friendly nature & Omar's cooking.

I learned never to be on the last trip of the season, the exterior of the boat was kinda 'sad' looking.

Guides should actually know where they are going and put safety of riders at the top of their concern. Paul was so careless he was dangerous.

I don't think I would've gone on this trip if I would've known that I wasn't free to ride/stop when I wanted to or even provided the route information. I've been on several trips with Backroads and this did not measure up.

Great scenery, great chef on the barge, nice boat, and great guides! Overall a great experience. However if I must find something that needs a bit of upgrading, it’s the bikes. They were getting pretty tired and needing tune ups. Some had bald tires and most lacked correct air pressure in the tires, on previous Boat Bike trips the bikes were much better maintained. It was the end of the season and the bikes had gone through a lot over the year was the reasoning, but I paid so I expect good bikes regardless of the time of year.

I have used Tripsite for 10 bike trips and have always enjoyed the concept, scenery and people I have met. Nothing I am about to say has anything to do with those qualities I have come to expect and love about bike/barge experiences with Tripsite.

However (and there's always a "however") this tour, which was described on your website as "easy" was anything but.
I am 68 years old and have never used an e-bike on any tour, including the hills of Provence, but the hills encountered on this trip were challenging even for the riders half my age. The tour description was erroneous and misleading. I say misleading because looking at the tour guides' maps, the elevation levels were clearly labeled but not communicated to the guests. So those on e-bikes had a much different experience than those of us (4 out of 10 guests) who did not. Those of us who did not struggled.

The other complaint was a lack of things to see in the middle of the tour, unless churches are your thing and that's all I seemed to see in the form of tours, which got repetitive.

Nothing I have complained about here would prevent me from traveling with Tripsite again, as I am a true believer in this experience. BTW, the crew and the culinary staff were superb, as always.

Traveling on the IRIS was nice. Highlights: Bike ride from the extinct volcano down to the Mosel was a great 40 mile ride (almost all down hill). The wine tasting excursion was set up by our guide Paul. Quite different than others I have been to. It was an intimate meeting with the owner of the winery that had been in his family since the 1600s. It rained (really just a mist) during 2 of our rides but with rain gear, it didn’t effect us.

Give me a call if you would like to hear some minor suggestions for improvement.

Biking from Noyon - Compiègne, the Compiegne forest was very beautiful to bike through.

As we neared Paris, the biking was sometimes more difficult due to traffic on some sections of the route.

Comfortable lodging, excellent food (especially the soups- thanks Frank) knowledgeable guide and unforgettable landscapes - what more could you ask for?

OK. So we weren't expecting luxury at this price and on a barge trip. The rooms took a bit of getting used to but we really only slept there and mostly ears the comfortable common areas. Loved every minute of the biking and every bite of the food. Chef was amazing. The crew worked their butts off looking after us and the bike guide was everything one would want. Knowledgeable competent careful and patient. My only wish would be for a larger room and a bigger window but hey I got what I paid for and more

Tudo perfeito. Paisagens incríveis. Organização nota 10. Recomendo muito. Melhor viagem da vida.

The amazing part of the trip was the visit on the castles. The Chambord castle is incredible, and so the Chenonceaux. But the parks and vineyards are memorable. Beyond this, you could visit the Da Vinci’s house, in Amboise. We did a wine degustation right on the vineyard. It was memorable!

The trip was very well organized. There were no glitches and the people we were in contact with were very friendly.
On the other hand, I totally recommend the route, on the banks of the Loire river, with wonderful landscapes and very picturesque villages, all complemented by good French gastronomy.
In short: totally recommended.

Tamy is by far the best guide we have ever had lead a trip.
The boat was wonderful with brilliantly laid out facilities, especially in the guest rooms.
Last but certainly not least, all the boat staff were exceptional and the food was amazing.

All the trip was memorable

Our first trip was canceled, frustating all group. The other was good because Mosel River is beautiful. The route description was awful and terrible for guide. We were lost sometimes because Tripsite don’t indicate a confiable app for route cycling . My bike was blocked with a different locker from others. The combination was written in a paper separately. We are so diappointed with Tripsite

Enjoyed all aspects.Nancy and Strausburg really nice to visit at beginning and end.

The captain and crew were wonderful! The boat was very comfortable. The food was amazing. The bicycle route was beautiful with interesting stops.

The places we biked to were wonderful....villages, river views, vineyards. The Iris was fantastic. Great crew, wonderful boat. Was very hot part of the trip and the crew did a great job adapting to the heat. Would highly recommend this trip.

The chance to (finally) reunite with friends made on a previous bike and barge tour! As before, we met many very nice people on our trip. The crew and guides were excellent, as were the accommodations. Iris is a lovely vessel. Ellen’s meals were superb. I can’t believe I didn’t gain weight!
The scenery along the Mosel was very nice and the biking was generally as advertised- easy. Day 2 was more challenging than expected with more hills (not steep but long). It might have been helpful to know in advance, as the description only mentioned the downhills. Strictly speaking, I’m not sure I’d classify it as an easy ride. Having said that it was a truly gorgeous ride.
I also enjoyed the ride through Trier. Rikko did an excellent job giving the historical background.
Rikko and Paul were eager for feedback on the days rides and open to suggestions during the evening briefing. As a result we often split into 2 groups, allowing riders to go at their own pace. They also adjusted the daily rides as we had a couple of very hot days. Their flexibility was appreciated.
I would certainly recommend this trip to others. It was worth the wait!

HE ENVIADO EL MAIL CON TODOS LOS PROBLEMAS QUE TUVE Y NO FUERON RESUELTOS, ADEMAS DE HABER ENVIADO UN MAIL PIDIENDO EL 50% de lo pagado ya que el viaje en la primera mitad del mismo, si bien tenia problemas la bciicleta que teniamos , la segunda parte del viaje fue una odisea, nos perdimos he hicimos el 3 dia 20 km de mas, ya que las indicaciones eran desastrosas, y el ultima dia 10 km mas....a si que no puedo recomendar el viaje que hice, no es el tour habitual ya que la primera parte estaba perfectmente indicado con carteles y la seguna parte era con las indicaciones de un papel qu e nos dieron, al perdernos el google maps si bien le indicabamos que queriamos rutas con bicicleta, nos enviaba por rutas muy peligrosas...nos pusieron en peligro . mala experiencia

The boat elevator.

Captain and crew of Clare de Lune were great. Enjoyed time aboard piloting down canal and through locks and down canal elevator, (not kidding... elevator). Barge cook delivered top-notch meals. Biking along canal was easy... but would recommend taking some of the more difficult routes away from the canal for beautiful rural scenery and panoramas. Enjoyed Nancy and Saverne and loved Strasbourg.

The start (Nancy) and the end (Strasbourg). In between, we biked a lot but did not visit much...