Netherlands Tour Reviews — 1 to 30 of 1996

Very nice bike boat tour. Nice service, nice boat, great bike guide . Generally, great trip!

The biking was so wonderful. Stopping to explore castles, having lunch at a beautiful lake, having time to explore on our own.
The dinners on board were so delicious. The boat itself was beautiful. Big enough to find yourself alone or a part of a crowd talking about the day that just passed.

The countryside that we cycled through was beautiful and the cycling infrastructure incredible! Belgium and The Netherlands were perfect locations for a first bike trip for us. Also loved staying on the boat so we didn’t have to worry about meals or packing up!

This was a fantastic tour, love the country side of Belgium and Holland. Of course very biking friendly. the staff and support were fantastic. This was a self guided tour and our Tour guide gave us great briefing daily. I would recommend this tour to any one who wishes to bike and enjoy visiting .

Enjoyed the short time I was there. Great people. Franklin was very helpful when I landed in hospital.

Riding from Amsterdam to Bruges was such an awesome way to see the gorgeous countryside, canal paths and charming little towns on the ride. Coming back to the boat every evening was definitely the highlight, with great food, relaxing views from the water, and fun company to unwind with.

Nice small group. Route was mostly flat making it easy to enjoy the surroundings. Last ride was away from river and through beautiful woods. On varied surfaces. It was the best ride for me. The barge was top notch… modern, clean, spacious. Guides were fun and knowledgeable about the history of the areas we rode to. Barge staff friendly and on top of things. This was my first bike/barge and I was hesitant but it did not disappoint.

This was our 5th bike barge trip and we ranked it #1. Great sites and tours, great food, great boat and accommodations, amazing staff and guides (Ronald and Frans) on the Magnifique IV.

I loved riding through the countryside. I also appreciated the bike paths and few cars.

Seeing and riding through there countrysides. Meeting other fun people. Having a great birthday celebration fort someone in our group.
The amount of information provided to us could have been better.

What incredible scenery! From the windmills, through charming small villages and beautiful farmland, this ride had a little bit of everything! Don't forget to stop at the strawberry vending machines - these were some of the best strawberries we ever had! The ice cream vending machine at the dairy was pretty terrific, as well. The ride was pretty flat as expected. We used E bikes, which helped when it became a bit windy.

How personal the staff and crew were.
Where quick to respond to any questions and enjoyed their jobs. Which made my experience enjoyable.

The scenery, the staff on our four masted ship, the food was all top notch.

Excellent guides and staff - they all worked together well.
Meals were exceptional

The itinerary route and stopping off points (hotel locations) were mostly very enjoyable, and the distances between stops were very manageable with the E-bikes (I think manual bikes would be challenging for most people in their mid/late 60s). For some of the destinations, we would have welcomed the opportunity to book an additional night to give more time for walking around, sightseeing, and catching a meal not too late in the day.

Attaching several additional nights at both ends of our tour worked out very well, and we were very grateful to our tour agent, Sophie, for working patiently with us to make this possible (our bike tour was ‘sandwiched’ in between an additional week staying elsewhere in each of Belgium & Germany).

In general, our E-bikes worked out well—they were comfortable, and the batteries never came close to running out. However, occasionally they would fail to provide the necessary ‘boost’ for starting up the occasional hill or ramp. They are also quite heavy to maneuver at slow speeds—when making u-turns, parking or locking up. Also, the panniers (one each) were a little smaller than those provided on our previous TripSite bike tours, and only just accommodated our modest sized (daypack) backpacks, along with the essential bike tools and battery chargers.

The hotel options we chose were all nice (we went with the upgraded options when available), with very nice breakfasts. Hotel NH Bruges was particularly well-located for strolling into the city; our room in the Fletcher Hotel Arion in Vlissingen was particularly nice; and while the Westcord Art Hotel in Amsterdam was located quite far out, a bus stop located close to the hotel entrance provided a good service into the city (and a much-needed laundromat located within easy biking distance).

Our TripSite agent, Sophie, was very helpful, friendly and responsive—especially in helping with our hotel choices and ‘additional night’ bookings. However, our baggage allowance information was provided far too close to the date of our departure (we left a week before the actual trip, having decided to visit several other towns in Belgium prior to the start of the tour). Without being able to do much about it, we discovered that the actual baggage allowances—one bag per person weighing 20kg max—would be insufficient, considering we were flying from North America and adding an additional week to our European itinerary before and after the actual bike tour. Our previous TripSite bike tours (in Germany) never imposed such a strict limit. With barely a few days to spare, we contacted TripSite management, who—to their credit and our great relief—provided a simple and effective solution for us, such that we could each include a smaller (carry-on) bag in addition to our suitcases.

The “Guibo” bike navigation phone App worked extremely well on our iPhones, and only very occasionally did it actually lead us the wrong way, or display confusing information. On three occasions the designated route was completely blocked and shut-off for road construction, but we were able to find workarounds (one turned into a bit of a cross-country adventure), and one of the recently changed hotel locations had not been updated in the app.  SHOW MORE 

The rides were fabulous, the food on the ship fantastic, crew very kind and accommodating, can’t wait to do another ride

Hard to pick one thing, but like any great trip it starts with the staff - from the boat captain and crew to the tour guides. All were helpful, friendly, and knowledgable. The boat itself is well designed. It's comfortable and easy to get around on. I have one easy to fix suggestion: It would be nice if the boat included name tags and asked guest to wear the first day or two. Meeting 30 fellow guest and the seven person staff was a lot.

We had an awesome bike trip on this beautiful sail boat!! Food was A-mazing (thank you Chef Peter!) Would highly recommend it!

Clean, well organized, Bart and Jean were wonderful tour leaders, good food and helpful staff.

This was one of the best group trips we have ever taken. The boat (Magnifique IV) was well laid out and equipped, and the bikes were comfortable - regular and e-bikes. The guiding by Erna and Bert, was superb - interesting, fun, competent. The food, with Chef Alet, was outstanding- dinners were like those in a high end restaurant. The professional Captain (Gerard) and crew members (Gabriella, Maddy, and Alberto) were kind and did everything to make our trip safe and enjoyable. The routes, scenery, and stops were wonderful- fascinating with beautiful countryside and town views. The program and staff worked to encourage a wonderful comraderie among guests. But the end of the trip, our rides ran like a well oiled machine with warm friendships developing. The Belgian and Dutch people were warm and welcoming. Just the best trip!

The trip was full of so many wonderful sights, tastes, conversations, and history. I couldn't pick a favorite. The crew of seven all did a wonderful job.

The dinner time was my favorite time. Meeting and enjoying the atmosphere of everyone around me. The bike rides were wonderful. The sites of the towns and countryside were out of this world. Would love to book another biking experience. John M.

The itinerary was wonderful; we passed through several amazing cities, and the bike paths were very good.

The actual tour itself was great, but the food on the barge was not the greatest. Repetitive breakfast buffet in which we had to make our lunches with and then used as an appetizer for dinner. Too many coldcuts. The staff was great and the boat was clean. Another suggestion is to make sure all the bikes are functioning before sending people out on them. I had a gear issue and so did another member. Another passenger had his brakes seize.

I liked much knowing new people, what I suggest for next customer is to take the e bike, so you enjoy better the ride.

Boat Service Staff was very good, and Bike Tour Guide was very good. Food was fair and needs improvement, need variety on lunches, and dinner food and drinks should have been Dutch inspired. Cycling bikes need better maintenance preparation before each group.

The boat is beautiful, the staff/crew are first class.
The food is amazing.
The guides were wonderful, they have planned the routs with care to show us how beautiful the countries are with great care for the safety of all.
I greatly recommend this tour.

One of the best bike tours I have taken! The Magnifique X ship was superb and spacious, the staff was so friendly and helpful. Our tour guides were amazing and the itinerary was fabulous! We saw and experienced so much of the culture and history of the Netherlands and Belgium. The bike paths were enchanting and each day there was variety of activities planned in our itinerary to see and do to experience the real Netherlands and Belgium.

I loved the non-stop beautiful scenery through countryside and towns. The bells tolled for us in every town we stopped in. I climbed towers at every opportunity. My favorite stops were in Schurr for coffee (with advocaat!) on a rainy day, the cheese farm, and getting to pet calves on another farm. The strawberry vending machine was a marvel also.
The Magnifique staff were all exceptional. I have never had such elegant and delicious meals for so many consecutive days before! To say we were well-fed is an understatement.

Loved the whole experience. The crew was excellent. The biking experience was good but wished for a little more biking & less stops.