Germany Tour Reviews — 1621 to 1648 of 1648

My wife and I did this tour with our two young children. I rode a tandem with a tag along so the our two kids had my leading through the ride. We had a wonderful time, and the help we received in booking the right family accommodation was fabulous. I highly recommend this tour as a family

Our group had a WONDERFUL time. I am one of six who went to celebrate 20 years of biking together. I loved all the rides, but the ride on the last day Krem-Melk was the best! I liked the fact that the cruise director had everything lined out for the rides and actually went with us. He also pointed out good places to stop along the way for local treats. I loved going to the small villages along the way, especially Vac in Hungary. I also liked all the activiities the boat crew had planned, a music quiz contest, skits and dancing on the last night and Roland on the piano-organ. The food on the boat was so delicious; something to celebrate each country we were in. It waas wonderful touring through Budapest and Vienna. I highly recommend this trip!

If you picked a tour aboard the Merlijn for your next vacation, you made the perfect choice. It is not just a barge, it is a luxury barge. The ride through the Mosel Valley is stunning with the vineyards and quaint towns. But, beyond that it is the specialness of your hosts, Jantien and Henk that make this an outstanding experience. Jantien's warmth, humor and attention to detail is amazing along with the delicious meals she prepares. When you come away from the trip, you are left with wonderful memories and you feel like you were entertained in the home of a close friend.

We had a great time and were very happy with local provider, Ruckenwind, organization of the trip. Dieter from Ruckenwind reviewed the route before hand which was very helpful in keeping us on the best paths and he also was very flexible with our desire to use our own pedals. There were a few challenges with bike path construction that probably weren't known but we managed to trek through the construction sites. The only minor issue was whether we could have requested a derailleur bike rather than 7 speed with coaster brake. With cleats on bike shoes, the freewheel type drive train would have been easier to use - a couple of other people on the tour had 21 speed bikes (with cleats) but we didn't know it was an option. I guess I will ask next time. Otherwise, it was excellent. The hotels were lovely, hotel staff all very accomodating. The hotel in Prague was a bit removed from the heart of the city but easily accessible to the tram and convenient for starting the ride. The hotel in Melnik was a few kilometers from the old city but the hotel provided a free shuttle and we enjoyed the walk home (taxis available, too). Overall, very pleased with this tour (our third with Tripsite). Thinking about the next one...

It was a wonderful bike & barge tour- we biked about 168 miles in 6 days; the trails were great and easy to ride with beautiful scenery along the way. We started out with great breakfasts and ended with fabulous dinners. Met many nice people on the "My Story" barge. Great experience all around.

This was a fabulous trip - even better than what I expected. We were able to spend a fair amount of time in most of the major cities and the bike trails took us through some gorgeous countryside, and there were many quaint villages along the way where we were able to shop and dine. The bike trails were wide, paved and level, and a couple of the longer routes offered shorter options by taking a ferry to cut off some of the distance. The entire "My Story" experience was delightful. The captain and all the crew members were very accommodating and friendly, the other guests were fun and young-at-heart, the rooms and beds were comfortable and clean, and the food was exquisite!!! The daily biking trips were well-planned and organized, and the extra tours, particularly the biking tours through Vienna and Budapest, were well worth the money. Even the weather cooperated nicely - we had sunshine every day and temperatures in the 70's (Fahrenheit). Perfect weather for biking.

What a great trip this was through the old Eastern Germany and into Denmark. We rode through beech forests, beautiful old towns and tasted all the local food delights. Morning coffee and apple cake became a must. The accommodation was top rate and the daily distances just right to take in some sight seeing as well as peddling. Highly recommended bike trip.

This trip is all and more. There is a good balance of seeing nature at it's most beautiful as you follow the Mosel River and you go through many villages and see historic sites, and taste wine. You take many stops and the miles are spread out through the day so it isn't a hard, tiring bike ride either. This is a trip of a lifetime and great staff and people. The food on the boat is out of this world and the dinner table is set so beautifully! The barge is the way to go!

Beautiful routes and towns make this a "must do" tour that exceeded all my expectations. The routes were sometimes quite challenging, as I hoped they would be, but I always arrived in each town with plenty of time and energy to walk around and enjoy the fabulous sights, shops, and cafes. The hotels were all very clean, comfortable, and pleasant. The hybrid bikes are well suited for the route and were equipped with two particularly welcomed features: rear panier bags and a fresh pair of Schwalbe Marathon tires. A couple of absent features that also would have been very welcome are a cycle computer and clear sleeve on the handlebars for the route notes. I recommend bringing SPD clipless pedals and shoes. And I highly recommend allowing two or three extra days in Prague and at least a full day in Passau.

Traversing the Bavarian Alps is excellent. The highlight of the trip was the Hotel Jagerhof in Bernau. Willie was awesome. He gave us great tips for cycling around the region, his cooking was wonderful (he made us venison), and the service was superb. A truly accommodating cycling hotel.

Lake Chiemsee is the highlight of the trip. We cycled around the lake. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and cool so we didn't take the ferry to the island. A good ride, all the same.

The biggest disappointment was Berchtesgarden. The hotelier wasn't very accommodating and because of the timing and duration of stay, we couldn't visit the Eagles Nest. The community itself, including shopping and sites is worth the visit.

If I had the choice of either the Bavarian Lakes or Salzburg and the 10-Lakes, the Austrian version is the preferred choice.

Tripsite was great. They helped us with some minor challenges.

Hi Mary,

My husband and I recently completed the Rhine Romance cycle tour in Germany and at the time of booking you asked for feedback so I thought I'd drop you a line now we are home.

We both really enjoyed the tour - the hotels were of a better standard than we expected and were in locations that were easy to find and close to the major sites we wanted to see. The breakfasts provided were great and the delivery of our luggage was always prompt. The cycles provided were of good quality and the local contact was friendly and helpful, although his English language skills were not fantastic we still understood the brief he provided. The tour itself went through some amazing towns and the pack provided sufficient information on the key sites to see in each. The only negative aspect of the tour was the quality of the written directions. They were very unclear and caused some frustration. Luckily the local signs were frequent and provided an alternative for us to navigate by. At first we thought the problem was that the directions were translated into English however another couple doing the tour at the same time said their German language directions were similarly confusing and frustrating.

Despite the minor frustrations with the quality of the directions we successfully found our way and on the whole we had a fantastic time. We would recommend your tours to others, noting that they might want to take additional maps to supplement the written directions.

I hope this feedback is useful. Thank you for your assistance in organising the tour for us at short notice.

Regards,

Kirrin

What a fun time! We took this trip June 17, 2012. Beautiful scenery, nice weather (hot) and the biking was very easy. The food was great (food specific to each region visited). It was fun to meet the Europeans on the boat. Service on the boat was great. 8 speed bikes were adequate for this trip, no need for the upgrade. Tripsite staff were great to deal with. Would like to have had more time in the beautiful city of Vienna. The opera was an awesome experience! Also did the night tour of Budapest and the city tour of Bratislava - both were a good way to see the highlights. Thank you.

Magneburg-Berlin was a truly great bike and boat trip. Kudos to Jantin whose meals were varied, delicious and presented so well. Cabin was roomy and comfortable and service was outstanding. I would like to travel on the Merlijn again in the future and would gladly recommend it.

Carol Vanevenhoven

Magdeburg to Berlin aboard the Merlijn was outstanding. Jantin's meals were "to die for," accomodations comfortable and service superior. Only concern, at times, even with small group, bikers got too spread out making it difficult for those in rear to catch up. Would highly recommend!

Paul Vanevenhoven

To the staff of Pack & Pedal Europe Inc,

This e-mail is in reference of our booked Bike and Boat trip on the MS Patria from Saarburg to Koblenz on the Mosel River in Germany for the week of May 5, 2012. Overall, our experience was excellent.

The staff was very professional, courteous and useful. Also, most of the staff dealing directly with the guests had a reasonable knowledge of English. The boat, the public rooms and the cabins were all in good shape and clean, The guide was very knowledgeable about the Mosel region, very accessible and useful. The bikes were in very good working order. The food was delicious, fresh, varied, on time and most of the time it was 5 to 4 courses for suppers. The Mosel River is very scenic with Roman ruins, medieval castles, many pretty little villages with fun and interesting market squares and many vineyards on slopped hills. There were many opportunities to taste Mosel Riesling wines from the various little villages. From now on, we will stock our personal bar at home with wines from the Mosel region.

As a handicapped person with limited mobility, the overall experience was excellent. The staff was always available to offer their assistance as necessary. They soon understood that I required limited assistance. The captain and his wife both invited me to sit with them on the sun deck in the navigation room when the boat was travelling which was both interesting and very pleasant. It was a good thing that my cabin was on the main deck. Although doable, my cabin was at the far end of the hallway and sometimes a bit of a challenge because of the distance. However, I think it was the only accessible room on the boat. My cabin was roomier which was convenient to store the wheelchair out of the way when not in use. The bathroom was small but accessible with a stool in the shower. The lift chair to descend to the lower level to the dining area worked most of the time and temperamental for the last few days. When the chair lift was temperamental, the staff did their best to fix it or to bring the food of our party to the upper deck. The lift chair was bulky and an older model. A few grab bars on the boat such as in the public washrooms and in the cabin shower would of been useful. When boarding or exiting the boat to dry dock, the plank to walk on had rope hand rails which made it a bit tricky because it wasn't solid as opposed to solid hand rails.

Again, I will reiterate that we had an excellent experience and would highly recommend it to our friends. Our bike and boat trip was a rich experience of history, geography, economy and culture about the Mosel region.

Very sincerely,

Chantal  SHOW MORE 

Our group of 11 cyclists took this tour in May 2009. We have taken some 8 European tours, and somehow this was the most memorable. It has s great combination of scdenery and historic sites. Our weather was perfect. Flying in and out of Berlin is handy. Hennie has cycled this route herself, so she knows it well! Pack and Pedal's service is, as usual, excellent.

Stan Pearson.

Great trip...We did the 7 day but wish we would have done the five days however. We are planning on booking for the third time this year just looking for a 5 day and it seems most are much longer.

Thanks

Overall a very enjoyable tour staying at good hotels and the bikes while a little heavy did the job well. The one area that needs improvement was the directions. For the first couple of days we were given detailed instructions in English but subsequently we were instructed to follow the route in the map book which was in German! As a consequence we had to work out our own route which we did using a large scale map and google maps. Also the suggestion was that we could have taken two possible routes on the first ride day but we only given instructions for one. Still a most enjoyable ride, fantastic scenary the weather was perfect.

Five family members--four sisters & brother-in-law--took this tour in October 2011. The barge and crew are terrific. Jantien is a fabulous chef and Henk a great captain. Bikes are easy to ride and the tour a good mix of city, countryside and vineyards. I have recommended this particular trip to others. Another couple of our friends are taking the tulip trip on Merlijn in the spring at our recommendation.

Simply put this was the best cycling adventure I have ever enjoyed, thanks to the beautiful scenery, challenging and rewarding routes, delightful accomodations, an excellent and well equipped bike, and a very conscientious tour operator. I have not yet selected the tour I will do this summer, but even with all the places I want to explore, I am seriously considering doing this tour again - it was that good!

Took this tour as our honeymoon trip in 2004. Glad to see it's still offered. We have fond memories of the castles, tow path biking accessibility and the LOW bridges we went under. Loved the small towns along the Danube as well as the gem of Vienna.

LOVED the tour! Wonderful opportunity to experience an area we could not visit in earlier times. The barge and crew were outstanding and we thoroughly enjoyed our traveling companions. 2nd tour with TripSite and both were great!

Took the trip from Magdeburg to Bremen, It was just wonderful. The barge was first class, the food was very good and plentiful and the daily bike trips were just great. I must say this was one of the best vacations that I can remember and am ready to do it again in 2013 on the same barge, Merlijn, to see the tulips in bloom. The whole experience was just wonderful.

We went on this self guided tour Summer of 2010 and had an amazing time! The scenery is beautiful every miles of the way. You go through parks, forests, quaint Bavarian towns, and past some beautiful lakes. The accommodations were phenomenal. We were very satisfied with the quality and locations of the Inns. If we had to name our favorite part of this trip, it would be riding towards the Alps on our way to fussen. Definitely take a tour of the Neuschwanstein castle! The terrain on this trip is a nice challenge for any level biker.

Have just returned from the tour on the Danube October 1 - 8th. We had glorious weather with only one day of cycling in the rain! What beautiful countryside!! We will certainly consider another bike and boat tour!!! Well worth the cost. Great bikes and great meals!!!

I did this trip in early July 2011 with six friends and had a fantastic time. The routes were very, very good - just the right length, and through some wonderful, very scenic countryside. The journey included miles and miles of vineyards, several forests, and some long stretches along the Rhine. The towns we stayed in were easy and fun to explore, and the hotels were all excellent. All in all the trip went far beyond my expectations and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to others.

Cheers,

Lorne

This is a beautiful tour around the lake. My girlfriend and I road this several years ago (2004) and went back to the area for another partial trip around this summer to revisit with more friends. The scenery is beautiful and it is an easy ride with much to see! I love being near the water!

A beautiful tour that we thoroughly enjoyed. Great food on the boat. We would not recommend the optional bike tours in Vienna or Budapest. The routes were very busy and there would be more flexibility to see inside buildings on foot; we only saw exteriors and felt very limited. The tour guide in Budapest spoke inadequate English and conveyed very minimal insights on what we were visiting.