4 Star Bike Tour Reviews — 571 to 600 of 1207

Our week was the last week of the season and the ferry across the river to Luxembourg was closed. The guide saw how disappointed we were and offered us to bike an additional 14 km to be able to get to that country which was an unanimous decision by our group.

Traveling on the IRIS was nice. Highlights: Bike ride from the extinct volcano down to the Mosel was a great 40 mile ride (almost all down hill). The wine tasting excursion was set up by our guide Paul. Quite different than others I have been to. It was an intimate meeting with the owner of the winery that had been in his family since the 1600s. It rained (really just a mist) during 2 of our rides but with rain gear, it didn’t effect us.

Give me a call if you would like to hear some minor suggestions for improvement.

A nice trip but the rides should be longer and normal bikes shouldn't be mixed in with E-Bikes.

Of course the beautiful views of the Adriatic and the wonderful seafood will be fond memories, as will be the kind attention and care given to me by Anton when I managed to get sick from the food on the plane that landed us in Thessaloniki. He transported my husband and I in the support van for the days until I felt well enough to ride. Although our e-bikes could have been better, and the hotel the first night was pretty basic, we found the rest of the accommodations lovely. And certainly rated this as a memorable bike tour. We have taken almost 2 dozen bike tours over the past twelve years, and have never had better care given by the tour operators.

The food was outstanding! Great chefs. Amazing how hard our small crew worked to provide everything needed. All ran smoothly. Michaela was an outstanding leader. We were disappointed in the lack of coordination between the leader and the bikers as we ride. Corners were not posted at turns; some ended up going the wrong way, and we spent time finding them. Fortunately one person in the “lost” group was able to call our leader. There should always be arrangements for a “sweep” with phone communication to the guide.
Coming home, the pack with the trip literature was stolen. I would like to get another copy of that excellent information. How?

Biking from Noyon - Compiègne, the Compiegne forest was very beautiful to bike through.

As we neared Paris, the biking was sometimes more difficult due to traffic on some sections of the route.

The bike routes were the best and our tour guide Klaas exceeded our expectations

The trip enabled us to see places we would never have found ourselves. An ebike is absolutely not necessary. It is very flat. Our group was large -15 people. Unfortunately, that was a disappointment.

Cycling along dykes near Amorongen and through huge avenues of ancient beech trees in the woods

This is our second TripSite tour and we love the combination of bike/hotel/luggage transport support and being on our own and without the added cost of a guide. We have recommended Trip Sites to many friends.

A few of the positives and suggestions...

Pros

Great bikes. High quality, both the regular and e-bikes.

Friendly, responsive and helpful staff. When a few of our group asked to exchange for e-bikes after a first very windy day, the local company (Dutch Bike Tours) was very friendly and drove them to us within a couple of hours (for a cost but that was expected).

The Netherlands is amazing for biking. Flat, accessed by a huge network of bike paths (seemingly every roadway), very well signed, drivers unexpectedly respectful to cyclists (compared to the U.S.), and so scenic.

Some lovely towns: we especially loved Gouda, Willemstadt, Zierikzee, Middleburg and Bruge.

Suggestions

Information: While we had contact with the local company in our first trip (Lake Constance), we had no initial contact with the company and had to figure things out more on our own. Information that would have been helpful:
1) It would have been helpful to have some basic instructions on how to use an e-bike (we had to search for instructional videos on the web).
2) how the Dutch bike path system works and is signed was only briefly mentioned in the printed material. More detailed explanation would have been helpful.

Maps: The printed maps provided are not very helpful. They are too big for the plastic window on the bike, the font is tiny and can’t be read while biking, and the print quality is low so even harder to read the maps. We ended up using Google Maps to map out the cycle route the next destination each day. This worked but was not ideal because there is no place to put the phone securely (e-bikes don’t have the front bag) and the route missed the customized route suggested by the tour company. We would recommend anyone to get the GPS option (even just one person in a group having this would be helpful). Or even better, why don’t you just include a GPS unit, or, a Google MyMap link for each day so we can get easier access to the customized route. I think this should be provided without extra cost since the printed maps simply don’t work.

Hotel/Locations: While some of the hotels were quaint, locally owned, and in or very close to the center of town, others felt like chain hotels in the suburbs. Perhaps ask people to select not only if they want a slightly nicer hotel but how important it is to be in/close to the historic center of the towns. For us, this would have been more important than better amenities in the hotels. This was probably the most disappointing part of the trip, especially Pappendrecht, a newer town seemingly without a historic area when we could have easily gone a few extra miles to Dordrecht.  SHOW MORE 

The trip was very well organized. There were no glitches and the people we were in contact with were very friendly.
On the other hand, I totally recommend the route, on the banks of the Loire river, with wonderful landscapes and very picturesque villages, all complemented by good French gastronomy.
In short: totally recommended.

We had a great time and the e bikes worked great! Best way to see the islands of Croatia! Beautiful and the guides were awesome! Only disappointment was the food. I'm a picky eater so I don't judge based on what I like, but our whole group had issues with the cold vegetables at dinner, the overwhelming number of fish entrees and the lack of salad dressing variety beyond olive oil and vinegar. Be sure to tell them if you don't like fish...they do try to accommodate with veggie burgers and reconstituted dinner entrees. I ate out on the economy as much as possible! There was pizza everywhere!

We loved interacting with the local guides, who were all so friendly, positive, accommodating, knowledgeable, and obviously loved their work and their country.

The food on the trip was excellent. We enjoyed the local fare, the wine pairings from the various regions .
The crew work very hard to deliver a positive experience . Helmut was a great guide offering lots of information about the different places we stopped at. We loved the cheese factory tour and tasting

The Merlijn and their staff were excellent! The food was fabulous too! The only reason I am giving this trip a 4 out of 5 stars is the tulips were on somewhat dying on May 11th. We booked this trip in 2019 for April 2020 and then COVID took over all of our lives. Then we rebooked for 2021 and had to change 1 week later. Then 2021 was still not safe to travel so when booking again for 2022, we had to switch to start May 3 in Bruges with the tulip part at the end of the trip. I loved Bruges and thoroughly enjoyed biking in Belgium. I developed a cough so unfortunately I missed a lot of biking in The Netherlands. But I did enjoy the river views while on the boat and got to experience locks also. When cruising into Rotterdam, I saw one of the super yacht builders' ship yard (Oceanco) and that was exciting for me as we sell to the super yachts.

The most memorable both positive and negative :
Having a small biking group aboard the ship we were on- we got to get off and bike through the countryside and explore in a way a bus tour group (like the other people on the boat) we not able to . It was a beautiful experience and great guides .
The most memorable negative was the boat was German and all the people on the ship were German and myself and my friend were the only 2 American and english speaking people. I would have appreciated a heads up that this boat rarely has Americans travel on it as I may have selected a different option for my trip and we were both unable to socialize or understand much of what being said . Being that every one on this boat was in their late 60's and 70's it was an old and old world vibe and I can not say that we were meant to feel welcome by anyone other than our waiter and bartender!

The food was very good, the accomodations were fine, the crew was very helpful and friendly. The route was less scenic than i had hoped for. Holland is prettier than Belgium (for what we saw) and the dutch bike paths are awesome.

De Wever hotel was so lovely and the staff was most accommodating! Special thanks to Sven!

Our first trip was canceled, frustating all group. The other was good because Mosel River is beautiful. The route description was awful and terrible for guide. We were lost sometimes because Tripsite don’t indicate a confiable app for route cycling . My bike was blocked with a different locker from others. The combination was written in a paper separately. We are so diappointed with Tripsite

A parte mais memorável foram as ciclovias, muito seguras, com belas paisagens!

The bike rides on each island far exceeded my expectations. The bike leaders were very knowledgeable and excellent historians.

The locations were amazing, and the e-bikes provided the perfect amount of challenge and enjoyment.

What a wonderful mix of larger cities and small villages and towns that we would never have been able to locate on our own . An opportunity to enjoy both Venice and all its treasures while staying on the barge in beautiful, quiet Giudecca with it's charm of churches and artisan craftmanship . The biking along the Po River nature reserve was beautiful and a reminder of how important it is to care for our environment. Mantova along with other stops were charming with guides who shared their expertise of cities. The guides and staff on the Ava Maria did an admirable job of following the itinerary and keeping everyone safe, The chefs and dining staff served Italian local dinners that were the best I have eaten and a breakfast that appealed to all. Despite Italy being in a heat wave we were still able to enjoy the beauty of Italy.

Enjoyed all aspects.Nancy and Strausburg really nice to visit at beginning and end.

The scenery and experiences biking through the islands.

The place is just stunning. It is ridiculous that water is that blue. Each town was a postcard. Every evening the eat ashore meal was a chance to dine in an outdoor restaurant with the breeze wafting through. Big recommendation is to opt for the ebikes. I ride regularly and was on a normal geared bike and found the going tough. Make sure you climb up to the fort. Make sure you swim when the boat pulls up for a swim break- it is a must. Take a book to fall asleep reading on the rear deck cushions, they are so comfy.

The best day was the Olive Oil Museum tour and Korcula.

E-bikes helpful in the heat of August in Croatia

Captain and crew of Clare de Lune were great. Enjoyed time aboard piloting down canal and through locks and down canal elevator, (not kidding... elevator). Barge cook delivered top-notch meals. Biking along canal was easy... but would recommend taking some of the more difficult routes away from the canal for beautiful rural scenery and panoramas. Enjoyed Nancy and Saverne and loved Strasbourg.

The start (Nancy) and the end (Strasbourg). In between, we biked a lot but did not visit much...