Loire Valley Bike & Boat Tour Reviews — 1 to 27 of 27

We loved the guided bike rides, fabulous scenery and an organized attentive guide, thanks Dick.
The food was amazing and plentiful. We were very well looked after by our chef, Lucie.
We were lucky to have a small group, which meant we were individually well looked after by the crew of 4. Thanks also to our experienced Captain, Chiel and Joanna who ensured all our needs were met.

I had a good time but I think a lot could have been done better. I was concerned about the health and safety of those participating, including the guide. The weather during the tour was very hot, yet the guide said there was no heat protocol in the company. I worry about the next group that would have been cycling in +40 C temperatures. There was a bit of discussion every evening about the heat and consequent route modifications, and everyone was offered an e-bike because of it, but the young people in the group (and some of the older ones) mostly wanted to take the preestablished route. That meant that I spent half of the trip on the boat. Why wasn't there a system where the cyclists could leave considerably earlier to avoid the afternoon heat? There were various arguments given why this couldn't happen, but none of them seemed very convincing. On one day it took the barge a long time to get to the destination, so the argument was that we'd be waiting at the other end in the heat for the boat. But from a health perspective, waiting in the shade for the boat would have been safer than cycling through the very hot afternoons. Other days the boat got to the next destination early. We could have done our circuit and gotten back to it early.

The company should have had systems in place to deal with the heat. The only one they offered was an e-bike (I had already paid to hire one, so this wasn't a modification for me). The tour guide was a nice guy but his favourite expression seemed to be 'what can you do?'. I would have much preferred someone who took charge, recognised the dangers, and was more forward in suggesting modifications. Overall I felt quite unsafe.

As an example of feeling unsafe, on one day I was left behind by the group because I faced a large deal of traffic. Even the 'sweep' went ahead of me. Eventually the sweep saw me and waited, but we had lost the group. I was amazed that the sweep didn't have the phone number of the guide or the ship. Why wasn't it mandatory that we all write this down/create a contact, before we embarked on the first day. The tour guide said his number had been on the board since the beginning, but had never urged us to write it down. It would have been such a simple thing to do.

There was also poor route planning. On one day the route took us up a very steep potholed path (to the Sancerre village), and three cyclists came off their bikes, each with considerable bruises and cuts. My friend was one of them. The tour guide washed her wound at the top, but wasn't aware of the catastrophe on the route till we all pushed our bikes to the top. He was quite hard of hearing, so I'm not sure if he didn't hear from others what had happened or was himself too exhausted to descend to give help. On this matter, he wasn't young, and I worried for his health having to ride in the very punishing heat too.  SHOW MORE 

The crew were fantastic, the early weather ...not so much. I look forward to the booking another sometime in the future

The group dynamic and the excellent stewardship of our knowledgeable, enthusiastic and amiable cycling guide, Roseanna! The rides were exhilarating and the sights beautiful with rich history!

Touring the Abby that is being restored. It was amazing! The fishing lodge/castle was very cool, too. The guide and barge staff were great and went out of their way to make us comfortable. The reason I gave it only 4 stars is we rode on busy roads more than I was expecting and more than I like to. But, we saw a lot more by leaving the canel trail. So, everything is a tradeoff. The canel path was dull after a day or so. I didn't see any areas that were being restored, like I see along bike trails here. That was disappointing, but probably something most people wouldn't notice. The fod was very good, at times, excellent. The guests were all very nice and extremely good natured about the rain we had almost every day. Overall, it was quite enjoyable.

Having experienced and enjoyed bike and barge vacations for over 10 years, I can say, without a doubt, that the Clair the de Lune's crew were the most attentive, professional, and charismatic. Like most, we select our tours based on destination, daily tour activity, and pleasant docking locations. Those factors are easily researched. The wild cards are often the barge condition, crew personality, and of course, the dining experience. Marco resolved all those concerns by keeping an impeccable barge, bringing on chef Jenny, housekeeper Catalina and tour guide Dick. Our rooms were clean and include both heat and A/C. The dining was inventive and locally sourced. Daily tours were perfectly planned and well managed to optimize our group members. The adage that you must sacrifice amenities if you choose smaller comfort barges over the larger boats did not hold up. We had uncooperative weather (they dried our clothes), flat tire, chain issues (rapidly addressed), difficulties getting to the Briare train (they loaded up personal vehicles and drove their bikes to ensure our timely departures). Bravo Clare de Lune!

The staff—Marco, Dick, Jenn, and Catalina—were wonderful, professional, knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly! The trip through the French countryside was awesome! The Clair de Lune Barge was comfortable, and clean! The food was delicious! It was a marvelous journey!

We had a wonderful week on the Clair de Lune. The barge is small and the cabins tiny but when we went through the locks with less than an inch to spare, the width was understandable. The captain, Marco, was delightful. He spent time with us every evening and improved the quality of our trip with his presence. Dick, our guide, has excellent and has a great sense of humour!
Food was good. Highlights included visiting the Abbey de Fontmorigny and meeting its owner, Dominique, and visiting le Château de Meauce. A special experience was being taken inside the private and beautifully renovated living space of Cèdric & Séverine Mignon! The crew adapted well the the changes necessitated by damage to the canal near Briare. The bike paths as well designed and maintained and I felt very safe travelling on them. I’d highly recommend this type of a holiday.

The boat was smaller than the others I have been on for other bike trips but the crew was great!! Very friendly and helpful. Dick our guide was the BEST! THEeals were very good too

Most memorable: Crossing the Briare Aqueduct was awsome. The barge, Clare de Lune, and the captain, chef, crew, and tour guide made our trip most enjoyable.

First day as we cycled to Sancerre it was a trip of high hills, made manageable with ebikes. The views were spectacular! Visits to two chateaus were memorable.

Annita is a great tour guide! She made special arrangements to get us into chateau that weren't open when we were in the area. Most of the small towns we went through on our rides were closed up during the hours we were there (12-2) making it a challenge to find points of interest beyond the scenery. We did go to a lovely Goat Cheese Shop and did a great cheese tasting. It would be good to add a wine tasting in Sanserre to the itinerary of this trip.

The staff on the Clair de Lune were fantastic, funny and hard working. The food was beautifully prepared, nutritious and delicious. I enjoyed the visit to goat cheese farm, moving through the locks, exploring beautiful old towns and traveling in a bridge canal over the Loire River. A couple of days were less interesting. Don’t forget your rain jacket.

All the team of "Claire de Lune" was wonderfull. All the dinners on the boat were excellent, and the experience when the boat stopped on the floodgates were funny and very interesting. The tour in bikes it´s very nice and advisable. Many thanks at all.

The scenery was spectacular and the barge crew was excellent

The daily rides were wonderful. We saw lots of the French countryside plus the use of the canal locks. Advice: be sure you are comfortable on a bike, touring or e-bike. We left the boat at 9:00 and returned by 4 or 5, so we're riding all day. Some in our group hadn't ridden in decades and it was rough. There is always an option to cruise the canals on the boat, which is great!

We recently completed the bike and boat trip from Briare to Nevers , it was an excellent vacation. The Claire de Lune was the perfect size, very clean and Captain Marco did an outstanding job navigating the boat through the locks and canals. The bicycles worked perfectly and our guide Annita led us around for 165 miles through the French countryside seeing farms, small villages, castles and chateaux's. There was a surprise stop every day and we even visited a small goat cheese farm. The food was excellent every day, breakfast and dinner were well prepared and we had fresh baguette's daily with ample cold cuts and condiments to make lunches and the kitchen also provided a nice container to carry the lunch on our bikes. Every morning we had an optional yoga class from our hostess Dita and we also did outdoor stretching before we started our ride The tour slightly deviates from the itinerary because some places are closed on certain days and there can be road issues. Sancerre was a nice place to visit and the hill climb to get there can be challenging but well worth it . I highly recommend this trip if you are looking to do a relaxing bicycle ride through the quiet French countryside and seeing the canals and bicycling the cycle paths , this was a first class trip on a first class boat

I had a wonderful time! The crew and guide were kind, friendly and helpful. The meals onboard were excellent. The guide was patient and confident. I appreciated his willingness. Thank you.

We had an amazing time. The barge was quite spacious compared to the pics we saw and very comfortable. The food was amazing, our Chef Chris was too good with a 3 course meal at every dinner and he explains in detail every course. We had some great food. Biking through the Loire Valley was just beautiful. We cycle through vineyards, farmlands, little French villages & towns, watched boats going thru locks and sailed through a canal over the Loire River. We did some wine tasting and pastries, quiches. The list goes on. We totally love it. Just a side note, there was no spare electric bike, cos one of the girls wanted to change to an Electric Bike and there was none. Other than that it was totally amazing ❤️

Amazing food, every meal!
Personable and knowledgeable staff.
Even tho it was our guide (Ed)’s first tour on the route, he managed to sleuth out some great sites, side routes and stops. He was a fun guide yet responsible.
The overall route was beautiful.
I would make one suggestion about the barge: in the cabin where we stayed there was too little storage space. This could be easily remedied by adding hooks and small shelves.

Arriving in Nevers I was surprised at how difficult it was to get a taxi at 4:30 pm and no ride share companies, took well over an hour.
Was pleasantly surprised at how good the food was, Chris has a great personality and a fabulous chef. Sara, served us well and the bike/barge trip was good. It was slow season so towns we rode to were pretty but desolate.

This was my first bike & barge trip, any type of bicycling tour, and it definitely will not be my last! The Clair de Lune was more than comfortable, from the beds to the dining area. The food our chef Chris put out exceeded my expectations, every single dinner was plentiful and tasty. Most memorable was his Thai soup! Bicycling through all the ancient, small towns and along the canals was absolutely beautiful- a memorable trip in EVERY way. Ed, our bicycling guide, always gave us enough time to tour each area we stopped at, which was most appreciated. I am already looking to find a tour to do with my husband, as this one was a girl's trip - 13 of us!
My only recommendation would be to change the wording on the application, instead of calling the bicycle a "HYBRID" perhaps change it to "MANUAL with gears"... as I honestly thought a hybrid could do both, electric & manual.
Thank you for a wonderful trip!

Everything was great! Exceeded my expectations. I would recommend a GoPro !

Everything was great! Exceeded my expectations. I would recommend a GoPro !

I thought the whole trip was fantastic, the scenery so beautiful.
The length of the rides could have been a little longer - which a few of us took advantage on a couple of occasions to ride extra kilometres..
The guide’s first on this Trip, and the bikes were not in expected condition hence my 4..

Crew was engaging and friendly.
Hats off to Chris the food was delicious.
Bike maintenance was sub par. My front bikes never worked. Some riders had Saddle issues, chains/derailers not shifting correctly. One of the e-bikes was broken and the guest was forced to ride hybrid bike. Another ebike should have been offered to her.
Ed, our guide did the best he could regarding the route since he was not familiar with the area. Most of the ladies were under the impression there was going to be more wine tastings along the way. I was there to cycle and easily could’ve done 60 miles a day or more. I realize there was many different cycling levels in the group. I personally own Mtn ebike and an analog mountain bike. I wasn’t too impressed with the e-bikes provided.

This was a great week mostly due to the people. The crew, Capt. Luc, Francesca, Jen and Annita were first rate. Our fellow passengers made it so much fun and made for delightful dinners together, as well as, riding throughout the French countryside. The people we meet each trip is the reason we keep coming back as we develop lifelong friendships with riders around the globe!