France Tour Reviews — 361 to 390 of 932

Bicycling to Chenonceau, going through vineyards, stopping to taste wines at a small private chateau with terraced gardens.

Burgundy is a wonderful place for a bike tour. Dijon and Beaune have nice tourist sites, and we ate well and had excellent wine throughout. We especially liked the restaurant at Hotel Le Dracy.
The routes were nice, highlighted by the bike path along the canal between Beaune and Dracy. The hybrid bicycles were good, if a little heavy for those of us used to road bikes. We had no mechanical issues.

Nice route, much of it on dedicated bicycle paths. The gravel bikes we rented were good - no mechanical issues of any kind. The biggest problem was that when we arrived at Perouges, a beautifully preserved medieval town, we found that ALL of the restaurants in town were closed that (Wednesday) night,. The tour required a Sunday start, thereby guaranteeing a frustrating visit to Perouges on Wednesday.
One other suggestion. It was pretty hot and it would have been nice if there had been 2 bottle cages on each bike.
We did enjoy this tour.

Pedaling through the fields of France was magnificent. Loved hooping off for a quick wine tasting or a leisurely tour through a chateau.

This trip was fabulous. Outstanding service, incredible food, luxurious accommodations and an attentive crew. The best trip we've ever taken. Steve, Karina and their crew were so friendly. The countryside we cycled and cruised through was so scenic. Our excursion guide, Edita, took us to do many wonderful places. Tips for others? Be prepared to be pampered!

It was so amazingly organized. The tour guides were exemplary, the rest of the staff absolutely wonderful and so personable, the food was totally extraordinary, the bikes were really well maintained and wonderful.

And three of my colleagues on the trip - who had been, between them, on no less than13 other bike and barge trips - all said whole-heartedly that this particular July 23rd, 2022 was the best by far that they had ever experienced. Was I ever lucky as it was my first!!

The route and group were amazing! The cities are very nice and historical… what I fell could be better is reception of participants of tour… inviting each one to identify oneself with others, to make a group… And I think our guide wasn’t so careful with the group… so quick some days… with no explanation about the beautiful little towns we were!! So pity!!
And they could help us about car parking before tour… You could have better support to guests.

This trip is and will be for a long time the most memorable trip I ever had. Our hotel was fantastic. Great rooms, great food. The bikes were top notch, couldn't have had a better bike. The owner of the hotel was very knowledgeable about the roads we took each day, and the road in the Tarn Valley are so smooth and well kept.

The cycling trip is most enjoyable amid stunning scenery and charming towns.
Please be transparent about your costs. I booked the chateau experience and paid more than I expected for the trip only to discover the Tripsite did not include the chateau experience in my vouchers. I received several emails in response to my queries re cost only to be given different answers re bank charges, currency conversion and hidden credit card charges, despite the fact I paid with a debit card. This is an American company that uses the dollar to suit it figures. I urge anyone using this company to get a detailed invoice before starting out. We were over charged for our trip but the company was not willing to accept this.

On the whole it was a great trip and I would like to do something like this again. But as with most things in life it could be improved. I would leave out Azay le Rideau. It was not much of a town and the hotel was below par. I would include “rest days”. For example I would have loved to spend more time in Chinon. So cycling all the way to chinon on day one then a rest there. And so on… For mid summer I would include an option not to have a hotel breakfast. On the really hot days (40c) we tried to get away at 6am to avoid the heat and have our cycling mostly done by lunch. It also means less traffic on the road. We had some good hotels and some rally poor ones. I think tripsite needs to work on consistency.

This tour takes you through spectacular landscapes and beautiful villages.

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.

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.

This was a self guided tour and the directions provided were terrible. Spent a lot of time lost

Biking through the small villages was very picturesque. Only regret was not having a GoPro to video as we were riding through.

This was a fantastic bike trip! The weather forecast for our trip was not favorable but we had only 1 rainy day and we were prepared with rain gear. The route was beautiful and very safe. French drivers are very aware and respectful of cyclists. So many beautiful places to see! We highly recommend on the 5th day to visit the gardens and Benac castle. There is a choice to visit 2 other castles that day but the gardens include lots of walking as does exploring the castle. The optional ride in Sarlat is well worth it but don’t miss the canoe on the Dordogne. We did both. We stayed an extra day in Sarlat in June because high season is July so it was not mobbed. A lovely experience! If you do not speak French just try a few words and you will be well received. If you expect a non English speaking French person if they speak English they will say no and not attempt to help you.

The most memorable part was the quality of the bikes. Negatively memorable. They were very heavy. Definitely not of the same quality we had on the barge. I recommend a different supplier. Otherwise enjoyed the area and the hotel.

Beautiful countryside, wonderful chateau’s. We stayed at the Hotel la Breche which is 2 blocks from the train in a quiet residential area and a short 10 minute walk to town. Included was an unbelievable 8 course meal. It was very fancy and fun to try French cuisine. Breakfasts were wonderful also. Hosts are very hospitable. We enjoyed sitting in the gardens when not in use for the restaurant.
The bike routes were great in that we were mostly on bike trails. It was great to have a focus for the days ride. We found the directions co fusing and had a hard time figuring out which voucher for chateaus went with which day tour. The bikes were also very cumbersome. They had a deep V and there was no room between the V and the water bottle so it was hard to get on and off and to stand. Once on them they did work well.

Most Memorable Part: The castles, garden, beautiful paths for biking.

The daily bike rides were more than I expected through beautiful countrysides and charming villages. The staff were outstanding in their efforts to make us comfortable- loved the swim off the barge after a long days ride! . The cuisine was superb and reasonably portioned - loved daily fresh baguettes.

Just returned from this cycle tour and had a wonderful experience. The castles just kept getting better each day. Our favourite was the Leonardo portion. We stayed at Le Breche which was very comfortable. Our one dinner there was amazing and have never eaten like that before! The court yard was beautiful, large and private and the owner allowed us to being our own wine and snacks to enjoy before the restaurant opened. Our only complaint was the bikes! They were extremely heavy and way to large for our lady group. The water bottle holder caused a lot of leg bruising and after the first day we had to remove it. Once we were able to get up in the saddle they rode ok. Countryside was lovely with all sorts of crops and vineyards. The instructions were ok and only had a couple hick-ups. The roads wondered through small villages and roads with very little traffic. Over all a good trip.

From start to finish we had a great time and definitely lived up to all expectations
will definitely do another trip next year and for longer
communication with staff on arrival (Paul Garcia) and luggage forwarding was very good
accommodation was excellent in Dijon at Hotel des Ducs and Chateauneuf was charming
I would definitely suggest air con as essential at that time of year, we had two hotels without and suffered as a result
Directions around Nolay were very confusing and we lost an hour & a half trying to work it our but I can think of worse places to be stuck!

I love Provence. This is a fabulous tour to see both the countryside and villages. The L’Estelle is a very comfortable barge, the staff are amazing. I’ve been on several bike and barge tours and the food was the best. We had a full spread every day when we were back from biking. Our tour guide was great. There are several extra tours of castles , villages , olive farm included. The only thing to note is that the tour in Arles does not take you into the collegium, theatre or Roman baths. She stands outside and talks about them. If you enjoy history then this is for you but if you want to actually see the sites then skip the tour as there’s plenty of time to see them on your own. I also liked this tour as we didn’t just follow the river but did loops and came back which made it interesting.

Just completed this tour and thoroughly enjoyed it. The food was amazing!! The boat was clean and well maintained. We did find the rooms very tight and agree on the steep staircase. Our guide was excellent and knowledgeable about the history of the area. She looked after all guests needs. The Captain and his wife were part of the team and we enjoyed their interaction with guests. Bert had some great jokes!!

We actually combined two Loire Valley segments - Tours to Angers, and Angers to St. Brevin les Pins, adding an extra day in the middle, in Angers. The Loire Valley is a wonderful cycling experience - spectacular scenery, countless fascinating historical sites, charming inns, excellent food and wine. The cycling was definitely on the easy side - mostly flat, reasonable distances each day, the trails well-marked, the paths mostly paved and separated from the roads. The bikes (Scott Sport 20) were steady and comfortable. The weather during our trip (mid-June) was near-perfect, except for a bit of unusual heat the last few days. Highly recommended for every aspect of the cycling experience.

The route was well planned and paced, the hotels perfectly fine and the sights were tremendous. What beautiful scenery! A few tricky spots, but some must be expected on a bike tour. Highly suggest using the app, suppled by Tripsite, for each day's itinerary; would not have wanted to follow the route using paper maps. A word to the wise on e-bikes: the last three days were very hilly, so care must be taken to conserve the battery when possible. Even being cautious, I ran out of juice on two days. It was not fun peddling these heavy bikes the last 4-5 miles. On the whole, highly recommend this particular tour, the third one we've taken with Tripsite.

The garden festival at Chaumont-Sur-Loire was probably the nicest surprise visit for us all tho there were lots of high points and each person of our group would have slightly different takes different.
Quality of routes and ease of following was wonderful.
Canoe and wine experiences could have been better.
Better indications of facilities for coffees and sandwiches en route would have been helpful as well as advising impact if weekends and bank holidays.
Hotels quite variable - one excellent, two good albeit rooms not great, one disappointing - I had to generalise in giving rating below but Amboise for example would be very satisfied on all and Cheverny ‘neither’ apart from food which would be ‘satisfies’
All in all a great trip

Great Trip,
All the places were very nice.
The service was very good
It will better if yousay who little town is worth to go inside (if you have time) and which is better for lunch, etc

In the hotels.
The Hotels Mais d Agret in Les Baux is really very COMPLETE and GOOD
The Hotel du poete is good but need Manteinance, pinting, etc
The Hotel Ibis in Avignon os maybe the less..

Thanks for everything,