Italy Tour Reviews — 151 to 180 of 668

The crew worked very well together, supporting each other.
Also, the fact that the number of guests was not large, contributed to a sense of community.
For suggestions: I couldn't get wifi in my lower deck room - as was true for others I spoke with, and had to go to the dinning room for service.

The most memorable moment of my trip was the guided tours through special viewings of Venice and surrounding islands to capture the true essence of the Italian culture is our expert tour leaders, Silvia and Marco. My favorite part was stopping through one of the smallest villages and see an elderly man raising the flag at noon, as he has done daily for many decades.

The crew was wonderful and made everythingspecial. The food was amazing. Would highly recommend this trip.

Day One Bolzano to Trento, hilly wine route, was excellent.
All routes are ( with very few exceptions) paved and in good shape.
Most difficult was navigating into and through large cities.
The night at the Terme was wonderful!
And finally, we would have preferred to be located in 3 star hotels in more central zones of Verona and Vicenza.
We added the 2 extra nights at end of trip in Mestre, which afforded easy bus access to Venice.

This was my first trip to Italy and a Bike and Barge. I loved it!! The staff were amazing, the food was delicious, Sylvia and Helmet were so fantastic at guiding us through beautiful cities and helping when needed, the crew on the barge were always friendly. I'm ready to go back and travel with Sylvia again! Five Stars!

This was my first Bike and Barge and it was fabulous! The staff went above and beyond all expectations to make this event even more wonderful than I could have imagined. What a beautiful way to see Italy. A huge thank you to Sylvia and Helmet and ALL the crew!!!

We booked this trip for September, 2023 and had numerous issues with this company. We are experienced cyclists both on regular and e-bikes, and have cycled in Europe previously. With Tripsite, on the first day, the bikes were delivered to us without helmets and even without a seat. On Cycling Day 1, one of the apps on our phones was blank and it took a while to get that reinstalled. Halfway through the route, we found ourselves stuck on the side of the road, as our bikes no longer had a charge. They were transported to our final destination for the day by van/shuttle. On Cycling Day 2, only one of the two chargers was working, so one bike was still dead. We used the only working charger to charge the second bike - which takes 3-4 hours. After an obviously late start, again the bikes were just not what was needed for this route. It is not "Easy-Moderate" as stated and we found ourselves pushing very heavy bikes up very steep hills. Again the bikes were not functioning properly. No support from Tripsite, mainly due to time differences between Italy and the US, and although we were in touch with the European company, they were located 4 hours away and were not able to help much either. After only two days of cycling and realizing that the bikes were faulty compared to what we needed, we turned in our bikes and canceled the rest of the 8-day tour. It is now over 3 months later and our numerous requests for a reasonable refund have been disregarded by the company. We are not impressed with Carla (Manager/Owner), at all. Her responses are not only slow, but quite rude and she tends to blame us for the bike problems.
If considering a European cycling tour, we would suggest using a European company that is available to provide support when their bikes are not working properly. Tripsite does not stand behind their promises.

Wonderful bicycling along rural roads without much traffic. The tour operator was welcoming and attentive. The accommodations were splendid! There was absolutely nothing negative about this trip!

Excellent tour operator, very clear instructions, excellent communication and all of the included amenities met or were better than expected. Routes were great with minimal gravel or traffic and sites along the way well marked on the gps program . The included food was exceptional.
Highly recommend.

We took this tour in mid-October and thoroughly enjoyed the hotels, towns, and special dinners included. Petra and Paolo gave us an arrival-night orientation which was very helpful and reassuring. This was our first self-guided tour with Tripsite. The hotels were truly lovely with hosts who were welcoming and accommodating. Their breakfasts were substantial. The three towns were new to us which was a delight.

Our walking directions were excellent. We did not take all the planned walks, choosing to walk other places that were particularly appealing to us.

We found Spello to be our favorite of these three towns and enjoyed immensely the wine-tasting dinner at Enoteco Properzio.

Spoleto was special for us because of the sister arts festival in our home town of Charleston, SC, selected by Menotti himself.

Any time we visit Umbria again, we will check in with Umbria & Ecologico Tours for guidance.

Many thanks to them and Tripsite for this self-guided tour of the region of Umbria.

My favorite part of the trip was touring Montova. This was our 3rd bike barge trip and I'm sorry to say that the scenery we saw while riding 3 of the 5 days was a bit disappointing. The barge and the food was the best of the 3 trips. We also rode a little too much along some busy roads without much of a shoulder.

The Sicily trip was wonderful. The route, the cities and towns, the countryside, and coast were beautiful. I loved the ancient history and architecture. Best of all we’re our two guides, Fillipio and Claudio. They know their Island and shared their knowledge and love of Sicily with us.

This trip was fabulous! The organization from strt to finish was professional. The rides were challenging on the first two days. The rides along the water wee spectacular. The guides, Claudio and Filippo were outstanding. They organized fabulous experiences for our group both on the road while biking but also in the towns with tours and restaurants. I highly recommend this trip.

I loved our guides. They were always available and did all they could to make the trip fun, interesting and successful. They also were attentive to the groups safety. The cities we visited were unique and interesting.

The route was awesome and covered a wide variety of landscapes. The guides were knowledgeable, flexible and fun and scheduled many fun stops along the way. I was happy to have an e-bike but there were some very fit individuals in our group who managed with a hybrid. The accommodations were not fancy but fine and of course the food was wonderful! My favorite part was being able to swim in the Mediterranean Sea!

Sights to ride to everyday except one when we were rained out. Crew including leaders, chefs, and captain. The food was amazing everyday with themed creations representing the area we visited. Better wifi in cabins too. More technology using laptop, TV screen, music, etc. Could use some more shelves, cubbies, hooks for gear in cabins. Faucets that pour water over the deepest part of the sink not so close to the edge causing water all over sink top.

There were several very memorable moments on this trip! Our guide, Hein and his wife Margolien were outstanding with their historical knowledge about every town we toured. That was an added benefit of which I had not expected. They were extremely passionate in sharing their information with everyone which made it so interesting. Another highlight for us was just the sheer beauty that surrounded us on the trails we traversed to each of our destinations. My wife and I are not really bikers but enjoy staying physically fit. She questioned whether she could do the mileage each day. The trails and picturesque views through the countryside took your mind off anything other than just appreciating God’s creation so you were never aware of whether you rode 10 miles or twenty. I could probably go on but will end my remarks with the view we were able to get of Venice as we pulled up to our mooring site on Pellistrina Thursday evening. What an experience. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys biking or just being outdoors. We would definitely do it again but maybe choose a little more difficult ride!!

The time spent touring around
Venice and the food on the boat!

Standing on top of the boat enjoying the view, especially the sunsets. Our guide and the crew were excellent.

Our local guide for the tour in Mantova spent far too much time in the church and no time on the archeological site in the middle of town.

Barge was nice, food and staff incredibly good. Stefania and Hein were very friendly, informative and helpful. My only criticism would be that there were too many bike riders, a couple who were inexperienced enough to veer over to my wife causing her bike tire to go off the pavement inciting a crash breaking her wrist necessitating shortening our trip and surgery at home to correct the break. Stefania was incredibly helpful throughout the ordeal helping Barb and I arrange a trip to the hospital in Adria, transportation by taxi and train back to Venice where were able to fly home early. All in all, the trip was that much more memorable in a complex way!

We had a great time on the Ave Maria and touring Northern Italy. The staff/crew of the Ave Maria were top notch. The bicycles provided were comfortable, very well maintained, and worked flawlessly throughout the trip. Our tour guides, Hein and Stefania, were knowledgable providing us with history, culture, and insight into and of our Italian surroundings. This was a trip well worth taking. If we were to do it again, we would book an earlier date to see active growing/harvest in the farmland.

The attention of de guides for sure.
The food was so good too
About of the begining of the travel, when we were buying our trip we didn’t have a good help.

It would be a challenge to identify the most memorable part. The tour brought us to amazing places, both commonly visited and out of the way sites; Stephania and Hain led the group with interesting and amusing stories, giving us an historical context and a cultural understanding; all of the crew was professional, helpful and friendly; the bikes were high quality and well maintained and the meals were the best!!!! Love the use of local foods and accompanying explanations of each dish. The cabin space is small, so if you have a few days of rain, you’ll be searching for places to put wet clothes.

Todo o percurso foi excelente. A meu ver, as rotas indicadas não foram muito claras para a localização da rota. Já fiz outros tour pela tripsite e o mapa impresso foi mais fácil de compreender.

This tour helped us see Italy in a different way than usual! We loved visiting the small towns and seeing some lesser traveled parts of Italy. Each city/town was unique and was worth the visit. Every detail was so well planned by Tripsite and communication was fantastic. The app we used was clear and easy to follow as we cycled. We especially loved the cooking class we took- that was a highlight of our trip!

Dinner/wine tasting with Luca and Roberto.

The written route directions could be made a bit clearer. I would suggest you have a native English speaker try riding the routes and make changes as (s)he goes. They were okay but there were a few places where they were difficult to follow. The GPS is definitely helpful but sometimes it lagged so the written directions are needed.

The places you suggested to go to were all great along with the vouchers … and you definitely needed someone to read the GPS correctly since it could be tricky. I would also suggest an electric bike if people are thinking about it all since there are a lot of hills but all doable and needs to be see on the trails.

The inland parts: more hilly and definitely a more rocky tandscape.We were disappointed with the Trpsite information we did not receive prior to arriving: no water bottles provided; use of an app on our phone that we barely managed to get to function before heading out. Again Solentobihpkes was fine. They just didn't know what Tripsite had not told us. For navigation we had no reason to not expect a freestanding Garment like device like friends on other trips had. "And, by the way, did you bring a battery pack since the phone will quickly run out of power?" Luckily the tour company had an extra pack for us. Others seemed to have been told about the navigation system and the need for battery pack. They probably books with a different agency.

Lovely towns. Nice roads. Very little traffic. Wonderful way to see Italy.

The accommodations were unfortunately, the worst part. This was our second Tripsite trip and we found it much more expensive than out last one, while several of the hotels were shockingly dirty and uncomfortable.

This was our third self-guided bike tour with Tripsite. The local operator did a great job. We had a pre-meeting about a week prior to the tour where they overviewed the tour and helped us set up the RideWithGPS app on our phones. They met us at the hotel in Muggia with our bikes, panniers, chargers (we upgraded to ebikes which I would recommend), bike locks, spare tubes, etc. The bikes were in excellent condition and the GPS navigation worked well. I purchased a handlebar phone holder on Amazon which was convenient for following the route on RideWithGPS.

Why only three stars for this review? We did not think the route along the rail trail was very interesting. Much of it was through scrubby forest and fields. Very few villages. Parts of the trail were quite rough gravel. The last couple of days up the coast were more interesting. We felt that the other two self guided bike tours we have booked through Tripsite (Around Lake Constance and Camino de Santiago E-Bike Tour) were much more interesting. Lake Constance was almost entirely paved bike trails and The Camino tour passed through many beautiful villages. While we were quite happy with the service provided by the local partner. I would not recommend this particular tour.