France Tour Reviews — 841 to 870 of 932

Great accommodations and the food was excellent. Quality and condition of bikes could have been better.

We were not able to bike because I broke my arm 2 weeks before our trip but nevertheless had a wonderful time. The accommodations were first rate, as well as the food, matched by the friendliness of the inn keepers. We found plenty of things to do other then biking; hiking along the bike path as well as hikes in the countryside, museums and train trips to interesting towns.

The boat was great and we all got the cabins we were hoping for – the food was really good. The girls commented that they weren’t expecting the food to be as good as it was.
• The biking was as easy as we expected, I didn’t like the bikes as much as the bikes we had on the Danube the year before but the bikes were exactly what they said on the web-site. Pretty well all the trails were paved – makes it hard to come back to PEI trails!
• Apparently we weren’t on as pretty a section of the Rhine as we could have been but we saw some great scenery and little villages were so clean, friendly and relatively easy to get around. The crew said they didn’t like this route because it wasn’t as scenic and not as many places to stop. Apparently, they are not going to do the same route next year.
• I don’t think the tour itself was quite as well run as the one on MV Story on Danube IN 2014. I didn’t think the tour guide this year gave nearly as good instructions as the previous year and often it was difficult to figure out exactly which trail to take. The book with maps had a number of errors but guy said that would be fixed. I think they were some translations errors as well.. Last year, the tour guide always biked the route (he would wait until boat left so was always behind us and we knew he’d catch up). This guy said he was always behind us but we only saw him once and very briefly. He didn’t give suggestions of places to eat etc like they did last year. We always found good spots so that was not an issue but not because he provided suggestions. In 2014 the directions were very very clear and the company put arrows on the sign posts to show the directions. That was very helpful but non of that happened this year 2015. Maybe if they had continued the tour they would have done that as well.
• The directions we got for where the boat was docked in Basel were wrong – the directions said to go to West side and that was where the boat was always docked!! Well, it wasn’t there it was on the east side. Thankfully when it wasn’t where it was expected to be, the cab driver knew where it “probably” was. We did NOT feel the cabby took advantage of us as a few other couples has same issue and one of them had taken a bus to the dock!!. Tripsite was very responsive when we explained this and you were very generous in reimbursing us for cab fares (should have been 21 E per cab but was 54E per cab). I saw the meter and he only charged us what the meter said, plus he turned meter off a couple of times. We did give him tip. We took 2 cabs for the 6 of us and they followed each other so we all had same issue.
• We would absolutely go on another Tripsite trip and we all had a great time – just wanted to give you the feedback. If asked, I would recommend the Danube over this section of the Rhine. I would however try a different section of the Rhine and we may look at Holland another year.  SHOW MORE 

We had a wonderful time on our self-guided tour of the Dordogne this fall. The route was terrific - very scenic with little traffic. The GPS was hard to read in sunlight and I walked up some of the hills, but we never had any real difficulty or had to ask for help. The accommodations were always clean and comfortable, and some were quite spectacular (first and last nights). Fortunately we were happy eating a lot of duck, and a lot of the food was wonderful.

This was our 4th trip with Tripsite - very reliable and good value.

Th best way to describe our bike tour is to say, it felt like we were living in our very own fairy tale.

We had brand new bikes and the guides had to spend most of their early evening time adjusting the bikes (Brugge to Paris trip) but in the end got all the bikes adjusted so they all ran well. All the boat staff and guides were fantastic.
Love your trips-must do more.

Overall trip came up to expectations. Crew was friendly and capable. The glitches to be expected on a new boat-new tour were minimal. Daily itineraries seemed to be well planned. Highlight was riding to Eiffel Tower and on to Notre Dame. Enjoyed tunnel cruise and free day in Paris. Meals on board were very good. Small group made dining fairly intimate. Bikes good but not excellent. Mine had a shifting problem that was a minor annoyance. Cabin accommodations were fine given the nature of the bike and barge experience. While this barge was in general less luxurious than those on our prior trips, (Mantova-Venice and Avignon-Comargue) it was fairly advertised as a ""Standard"" and priced accordingly. We thought that riding to the Eiffel Tower was pretty nifty and it became our main bragging points upon our return home. This was our third bike and barge with Tripsite. We recommend this type of experience and Tripsite to all.

We had the best time and have recommended the Around Paris trip to many friends. Loved the small tour group and guides. Two nights rather than one in Paris was a bonus on our tour. We would have liked more time in Arles. Guides and staff were excellent. Tiny berths but we like each other so it worked.

Almost perfect in every way. Only bad was I wanted more of everything.

We have done several bike barge trips in france and europe and other places. This one was just too crowded with tourists. Of course it was August, so that explains a lot. Our least favorite that we have done.

Only the good, no bad. This was our second bike/barge experience and we will do more. On our last trip we brought 12 family and friends with us. They all loved it.

I recommended it to Dave Ford who is joining you in September 2016 with his large gang. Do I get a free shirt?

Our guide was not good, would ride off too fast, often the tail end riders were lost and confused as they could not keep up. Everything else was excellent!

Staff was wonderful. Weather not so good but we had a great time.

Mosel trip was excellent. Danube trip, the map and instructions were worse than useless because they were actually wrong in places.

We are return users of Tripsite, we have found both the service from Tripsite and the tours (now 3 in total) have all been excellent. Great tours because of the combination of places, organisation and staff. Am looking forward to taking part in more in the future.

Loved the trip and the Merlijn. Hoping to do another tour in 2017.

Our guide was awesome!

Loved the crew, but Clive (our chef) was the best. I have since done another bike and barge trip with another company and was totally disappointed with the food we were served. I am looking forward to doing another bike and barge trip this year.

The guide was not well prepared with maps and the boat kept changing docking locations. The Rhine is very industrial from Basel to Mainz. The rides were not very interesting or long. It was not one of your better offers.

The bike part was more challenging than in the discription. You have to be a strong biker used to hills. There are many hills and one very challenging hill. So I would not consider this an easy tour as in the description. However it was well worth the effort if you are well trained. Our guide Wiro was awesome and kept us together and on time which was very much appreciated. I would recommends this trip in spring or early summer. By the time we went end of August the vegetation was all dried up and there were no flowers because they had such a hot dry summer. I prefer a comfort plus boat as you have more space in your cabin. These cabins were very small. However all in all it was a beautiful, historic and worth while tr which I would recommend to avid cyclists.

Only real complaint was the signage throughout the route. More route markers would have been very helpful and prevented us from getting lost several times.

Everything about the trip was as described, well planned and executed.

Great trip. Everything we were hoping for.

We started with the book with maps and directions. Although it was pretty good, we got lost a couple times with that. I think on the 3rd day we met the woman who wrote the directions and she got us the file for my Garmin. That gave us turn by turn directions with no mistakes. Everyone we met was very pleasant. The trip was great. The bikes were a bit heavy.

Had a wonderful time. Only problem was the weather, very very cold.

The guides are young and very athletic. People who sign up for this level of bicycling aren't usually top bikers, unless they are doing it to be with friends or spouse. I think a bit more thought could be put into the introductory ride the first day, bridge crossings, sudden merging into traffic, sudden turns to go steeply uphill. I've done much longer bike rides, but at this age, I didn't want that much challenge.

I broke my arm 3 weeks before our trip to Alsace so was not able to bike; instead of cancelling my husband and I decided to go anyway and we are so glad we did. We would never have discovered the lovely town of Osthouse and especially the beautiful renovated Hotel de la Ferme; we discovered some beautiful walks in the region, over meadows, woods and rivers. L'Hotel de la Ferme is very charming with a lovely garden and a ping pong table which we had fun with. The dining area at the hotel was very comfortable with a delicious, plentiful breakfast buffet; fruit of every kind, cheeses, breads and cakes. Lunch was always a hearty piece of french bread with butter and cheese! And dinner, 2 nights at the hotel and the rest of the evenings at the Aigle d'Or, a 4 star restaurant which has been in the family for 40 years, were always a fun surprise and delicious.
Our room was on the second floor with a balcony and was very spacious, especially by European standards. Bathroom, sitting area, beds, everything comfortable, clean and very quiet. Our hosts could not have been nicer. They offered to pick us up and bring us back to the train for a small fee and took us to an amazing modern museum in Erstein. All in all a wonderful vacation!

I was pleased with the points of interest on the tour (Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Colmar, Breisach), however, the route was very industrial at times and there was just nothing special about it. The maps and route descriptions were terrible and I'd say that was the number one complaint of fellow passengers. I talked to the guide and he said they will redo the route for next year so hopefully with some changes, it will be much better.