4 Star Bike Tour Reviews — 541 to 570 of 1207

Seeing fields of tulips and hyacinths in full bloom and in full fragrance was amazing as was the Keukenhof Gardens. Disappointingly, however, was that tulips were only one day of the entire trip. Ghent and Bruges were also definite highlights. The cuisine presented by Christina each evening on board the Merlijn was gourmet and delicious. Our guide was excellent and very knowledgeable. We were very pleased to have many layers of clothing as we had days of rain, wind, and or cold temps. A few mornings it was only 4C when we started out but did get up to 10C. Although the countryside is flat for easy riding, there were many bridges to cross requiring some decent hill climbing to get up and over! Belgium however was all flat and the much easier portion of the trip. Another tip to keep in mind is that the third week in the Netherlands is a school holiday as it is the King’s birthday. The KG was packed with people.

Seeing the large tulip fields in full bloom. I liked the ship the Iris. The crew were wonderful. They sure treated the riders great. I really enjoyed our bike tour guides, Ferry and Maaike. They were very knowledgeable and did a great job of guiding us. Several times, the Iris could not get to the designated stopping point for the evening due too bridges being out for maintenance. so they had to reroute us to a different location to catch the Iris. The food on the Ship was very good. Coen, the chef, did a great job of creating meals, salads, soups, and deserts. I have one suggestion. Please have the chef create more authentic Dutch cuisine. I asked Ferry about this, and he said that there is really not much concerning Dutch cuisine. He said it was mainly poor man's food. Anyway, I would have liked more of the Dutch poor man's food. The weather did not cooperate. I know the weather can be bad, and it was. It rained a lot every day. The wind was constantly blowing, and the temps were in the low to mid 40s. One day the temperature reached the mid 50s with the sun shining in the afternoon. The last 2 days it was rainy, cold, with a very strong head wind. Over all I enjoyed the trip, but the weather could have been better.

Everything was good.
The guides gave us total support and the tour was in total security.
Unfortunately I had some problems with the weather, for me was to cool at second day, and I was ill after this day, but I enjoy the tour others days , together our group.
Thank you Senad for your attention during all the tour.
Thank you Reinhold for the support

Thé Keukenhof gardens were beautiful! Exceeded my expectations!

The accommodations on board , the food, and the staff were excellent.

The dolomites were incredibly beautiful. The food aboard was the best we’ve had!

Scenery from Mantova to Venice was agricultural for the most part. A broad mix of surfaces to ride on and some detours on the self guided which could be confusing.

Scenery
Keep two groups apart with staggered starts.
Would have liked more information about what we were seeing- know difficult to do - more stops perhaps?

the trip to the flowers was outstanding.

Riding through the countryside and seeing the flowers in the fields...................then smelling the waft of the hyacinths as you continue riding. Intoxicating on every level !

Don't let the weather determine whether or not you are going to ride that day. The weather changes quickly and you will miss out !

Pay close attention to the explanation of the road signage, colours of the bike paths and walking paths.

Fragrant fields of hyacinth

The hotel was good, food was excellent with reasonable. The staff was very accommodating. We enjoyed the ocean view The hotel was conveniently located to shopping and transportation. We found Maps. Me to be a somewhat difficult program to use. The bikes were somewhat unstable but useable.

Gorgeous scenery and lovely people! I will say that we did not luck out where weather was concerned, but that’s Mother Nature for you! The crew on our boat was fantastic and made our stay very comfortable.

The scenery was beautiful. I was disappointed that I had to miss the last two days of the biking tour because the ship had engine trouble and had to go back to Amsterdam for repairs.

Eating apple pie along the way!

It was the operational windmill / sawmill at Zaanse Schans. To me this was the capstone to man harnessing nature for his purpose. While creating land from the sea was monumental, utilizing the means of pumping water to another level for more productive enterprises was genius. I wish there had been more history around the tour. It would have been difficult to match the cycling routes with the flow of history, but some touchstones along the way would have enhanced the experience. Maybe a history night before the first ride with references to the history in the evening before each subsequent ride.

Bogota, Kartagena and Amazon were for me the highlights of my trip. Depends mostly on my previous visits to South America and the expectations I had . Visit to Rio Blanco not worthy. Tayrona park only if make the long circuit otherwise very crowded and sea visit definitely not ( speaking as a Greek ). Bicycling at the area of Filandia and visit of wax Palm area a great fun . Minca and the bird watching at the area not so interesting. Local office very helpful and professional in every detail !! Guides in all the places we visited educated in depth for their specialty !!

The food, the guide and the route and biking were all great. Excellent value for a low budget trip.

You will love, love, love the quiet days on the road, the accommodations, the sights and the breakfasts. You may not love the instant coffee in some locations or the fact that the gps system stops talking to you in the towns where you most need it. The Evora loop day was a bit of a disappointment due to travelling on a highway for a good part of it, especially after having so many glorious days prior to that.

Amsterdam to Bruges was our first bike and barge experience in 2016. The experience of small group travel, seeing villages and countrysides at 12-14 mph, and the coziness of barge life intoxicated us. We have since done six more tours. Everyone unique, quirky, full of beautiful vistas, and future friends from all over the world.
If you are considering this type of travel adventure for the first time, this tour is for you. AND for you stubborn Americans, there is absolutely no stigma attached to e-bikes. In fact, they are prolific throughout Europe.

For me, the most memorable parts of the trip were the moments our trip guide, Hein, stopped, got us off our bikes and took time to do some interpretation of the landscape, or when he brought us to little known local places. One example was a local museum for traveling entertainers and amusements. In the states we would call this a circus museum. Hein described life for us in the walled and protected castles and the city-states of Italy before there was an Italy, and the power of the family heads in the se little kingdoms. He took us on a tour of one of those castles that is not generally open to the public. I also appreciated the 90-minute guided tours by Christina in Mantova and her counterpart in Venice. Passionate about the cities that they call home, they both really brought these special places to life for me.
Not to overlook the moderate exercise we got on bikes everyday, which was helpful because the delicious food our crew served was difficult to turn down. I would have preferred longer distances, but the biking was as advertised: easy.
A couple of tips: take precautions to protect yourself from Covid. If you choose a water taxi to get you around Venice, ask the boat driver when reserving your ride, and again before you board the boat, what the fare is; the cost tends to inflate when it comes time to pay the bill. And ask your tour guide to reserve tickets in advance to see the interior of San Marco Basilica and the Doge's Palace in Venice. I didn't do this and was unwilling to wait in a long line to get in, so I missed both. But we did see a number of other unbelievable churches from the Rennaissance era all week in Verona, Mantova and Venice.

scenic views.great accommodations and enjoyable group dinners. Guides were friendly and helpful.

suggestions- rating it as " easy" was not accurate. the varying terrains made it more challenging. hill durations might be described better. I would give participants a branded water bottle as a take away.

The bikes were a problem everyday- not well maintained or just end of season but not good
The barge was very warm- esp with comforters- suggest availability of a sheet for these conditions. A soap dish is needed in the shower, the hair dryer was very inadequate. Need to have some sort of wax paper or plastic bag for the sandwiches- wrapping in napkins does not work. The barge should offer/highlight local wines!!! The whole point of this trip is particular.
Our guides Heddy and intern Micah were fabulous.

Crew was amazing. Everyone helpful. 30 person biking too big. Suggest it be split into 2 15 person groups.

The most memorable part of the trip was time aboard the Ave Maria. The crew made every effort to make sure all our needs were met, suggested places to visit that you wouldn’t find in guide books, fed us the most delicious local foods prepared from ingredients found that day and recipes from their grandmothers, their creativity and their obvious joy in cooking. I can still taste the lasagna with squash flowers! The other passengers were all fascinating people as well, all very experienced travelers and bikers. The thing I want others to know is that some parts of the trip, especially leaving Chioggio and Ferrara, we’re on busy roads with cars whizzing by you and crossing roundabouts and corners, and that even on the low traffic, one lane roads, you’ll frequently hear “car up” or “car back”. There were times when you could not enjoy the scenery because you had to watch for potholes and negotiate gravel. We bike on an at least weekly basis but often struggled to keep up and keep going on some of the 44K+ plus days. We preferred the easygoing pace of the self guided Danube trip. We booked pre and post tour accommodations through TripSite in Venice and Mantova. Both hotels were charming and accommodating with wonderful breakfasts.

Lovely route, wonderful guides, comfortable accommodations. Absolutely superb food!

Bring your own water bottle - despite the tripsite literature, one is not provided

Great scenery, great chef on the barge, nice boat, and great guides! Overall a great experience. However if I must find something that needs a bit of upgrading, it’s the bikes. They were getting pretty tired and needing tune ups. Some had bald tires and most lacked correct air pressure in the tires, on previous Boat Bike trips the bikes were much better maintained. It was the end of the season and the bikes had gone through a lot over the year was the reasoning, but I paid so I expect good bikes regardless of the time of year.

The trip was beautiful, the rides on the islands were fantastic, and the guides were absolutely the best! Riding on the islands of Hvar, Korcula, and Brac was a once in a lifetime experience. We loved it. Our guides added a great deal to the rides by offering explanations of the history, the language, and the sites. They also set up guided tours (included) in Split and Trogir that were excellent. The guides' knowledge of the area was remarkable; they made the tour that much more interesting. The on-board service was very good; Tina did an excellent job. The scenery was consistently breathtaking. We loved this trip.

The one area that could be improved was the on-board dinners. For the most part they were unremarkable, and sometimes disappointing. If the food were as good as it's been on other bike and boat trips this would have been a 5-star tour. I hope this can be improved.

We really enjoyed the small group of 11 guided experience. The accommodations and dinners included were exceptional nice.

We found the biking experience challenging—not the number of miles, but the condition of the paths. We were often on abandoned, bumpy, poorly kept roads or busy roads. Rarely were we on a bike path.

My e-bike had structural defects that held the battery to the frame and no front shock absorbers.

Our guide Suzanna was very fun, friendly and accommodating to our group!

This trip was amazing with great scenery and a great crew and staff who were so friendly and fun. The towns we rode through were small but very interesting and loaded with history. The barge was perfect and similar to the different barge we were on with 12 cabins which we think is a great size. Our group of 11 met 8 amazing people from Canada and 2 others from the states who just made the trip so much fun with a lot of laughter. Time to start planning the trip for next year.

I particularly enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the river and the little villages we stopped in.