4 Star Bike Tour Reviews — 631 to 660 of 1305

The elected rout of the tour was the best we can think of . The views, the panoram, the environment... Everything was very beautiful and enjoyable.
Most of the hotels were very good including the breakfasts. The best of all was the one in St Gallen, but the others were more than sufficient.
In regards to the bikes... Well we are used to Carbon or even Aluminum bikes with full suspension. The bikes we got were Irone ones, very heavy and with no shock absorbers, nor in the front neither in the tail. It caused the biking to be uncomfortable in spite of the fact that 95% of the roads were padded...
Regarding the OFF ROAD GPS SOFTWARE.. It quite Allright But it didn't guide us to the hotels so in order to get there we needed to use Google map

Food/staff were AMAZING!!!
I felt that the difficulty rating may have been slightly off. But the trip was overall fantastic!!

Cycling along the River, crossing on the small ferries, stopping for coffee, kuchens or farmhouse meals was such fun.
We thoroughly enjoyed, probably more than the city, the cycling route through the wine valley and small villages. Absolutely breathtaking and the history! Small cobblestone streets that you push your bike through whilst checking out the local offerings. Spectacular.

My memorable part of the trip was seeing the colourful tulips, cycling through the quiet farm land. Perfect weather for me to cycle in, some may think it's too chilly.

Wished we had stopped over each city/ town longer, had a guided walking tour each evening after dinner. Dinner was too long, need to trim down on the dining time.

Biking the islands, exploring the countryside and small villages.

The boat, crew, food were wonderful. It was apparent that a second cycling guide would have been an advantage as it was difficult for some riders to keep the pace.

It was a great time of year in the Netherlands. Caught the flower parade, 4-20 day, Kings day and the tulips in bloom!

The most memorable part of our trip was keukenhof gardens. It was amazing. We also liked Aalsmeer which was fascinating and the North Sea. The bike ride there was beautiful and different from any of the other biking we did. The neighborhoods and homes were beautiful as well as the forests we rode through. Then it was just a treat to be on a beach when we got there. Our week was cool windy and rainy at times. My best suggestion would be to have layers to dress in. The panniers for the bikes are very spacious to hold layers and jackets if you need to remove any. Gloves were very helpful as well as gators for our heads/necks. Another suggestion would be to be practiced up on your bikes in some crowded conditions as Amsterdam biking was brief but a little hairy. Use an Ebike if you’re out of shape. The wind was brutal.

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.