3 Star Netherlands Tour Reviews — 61 to 71 of 71

My wife and two other couples did this trip in August 2017. The crew was great the boat is very well appointed, the rooms are small but function well. The evening meals were great, breakfast was limited most days to bread cheese and cereal.
Now the bad part:
The crew turns off the air conditioning at 10:30 at night and does not come back on until the morning. So one would wake up in the middle of the night sweating and not be able to go back to sleep, The bedding, our clothes and all other items in the room would get moist and moldy from condensation.
The Bicycles were not the best, they were quite used and most of the seats were loose and could not be tightened which made for long days of riding...

I learned and saw things from the Netherlands that I had never seen before. I loved the cycling through the dunes.

My wife not getting adequate vegetarian food on two occasions. Left a bad impression.

Although the weather was rather rough in April, the tulip fields were lovely. Our guide was sweet and attentive, but her lack of experience in working with large, diverse groups created some difficult situations. With more experience, she will be super. Two bikes needed basic repairs within the first twenty minutes of biking, indicating that they had not been checked prior to our group's arrival. The captain of the Jelmar was skillful in managing the barge, but his people skills are still developing. Enough said.
Jelmar April 2017

The trip was fun but I don't think the description of the trip was accurate. The trip was about 85% bike riding and 15% site seeing. I would have liked more time to explore the cities we were riding through but most of the time it was too late or placed were closed. Not sure if I would do another tour like this. The riding was beautiful but I really expected more site seeing according to the trip description.

I would recommend it, but with reservations. I think there should have been two guides, one to take a faster group and one for a beginner group. A few people on the trip should not have been. They were not comfortable on their bikes, and were a daily danger to whomever they were near. Something should have been done about it.
I also would have liked to ride faster, and spend more free time in the little towns.

I have planned to contact you with feedback, but haven't. The staff was great except the guide. He was not friendly or helpful. We were all disappointed in his lack of leadership and "guiding". Of the three trips we have taken, this was the least appealing. The route was not attractive, and mostly industrial, urban or rural. We were near places we know were charming and interesting, but did not visit them. I'm left wondering if it is that tour company. For 35 people biking there really should have been more staff on the road with us. Still love you!

My sister and I have taken many bike and barge tours. This trip was the first that we were disappointed with accommodations, staff, meals. We were not the only ones who felt this way. Sorry I would not recommend the tour. I will continue to monitor your website for future excursions.

I would recommend the trip with reservations. The food on the boat was not special but ok. While our leader was competent I did not find him helpful at times and other times I found him condescending. The route descriptions were well done but we had to argue to have one for each rider even though it clearly stated we would each a have one. I would have like much more about the places we were visiting included on the daily route descriptions. Carrying a visitor guide is not easy on a bike. The bikes were not in good shape for our trip. The mechanic tried to do his best but they were not a "freewheeling" experience. On mine the gears did not work, others had similar issues. When the holiday depends on a good cycling experience then the bike becomes a priority.
I cannot recommend the experience whole heartily except for the amazing landscape of northern Netherlands. That part I really enjoyed. Also I enjoyed being part of a group. I would not recommend a person or couple try the trip because no effort was made to mix the people. I was part of a big group and so I always had people to cycle with.

In Ghent, too far from city centre to explore after biking unless take a taxi into the city. Antwerp museum was closed, as it was a Sunday. Very disappointing. Breakfast and lunch meals were almost always the same, got too uninteresting.

There was some disconnect in passing along information. For example the barge had to leave earlier than 6:30 but info was not passed on. Fortunately my friends and I arrived and boarded the sister ship and got the info that the Angela Esmee was instructed to leave the port due to some Dutch holiday celebration. Good thing we took the initiative. There was no one waiting on the dock to give us this info.
Info about running a tab for drinks was false. We had to purchase tokens from a machine to use at bar. Bikes were somewhat rickety, having seen their 2nd season (according to a mechanic I talked to). Mine and some others made a grinding noise the entire time. The mechanic tried to fix it, but eventually I just tolerated it. I heard one mech say the bikes had a couple more trips this season. Good luck to the next owner.
Food was very good and the staff were very friendly. I would recommend a Bike and Barge trip to friends, but we ran into another group on a similar tour riding green bikes...they LOVED their bikes. We couldn't come close to saying that about ours. The green bike tour paid similar costs.