3 Star Bike Tour Reviews — 31 to 60 of 298

 


Richard K.
6 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Danube Bike Path - Vienna to Budapest

While to bike, the GPS app, and the lodgings were all good, this trip had problems. First, I was routed to the wrong city/hotel on the first day. My trip itinerary and my GPS instructions put me in the wrong city so I had to ride additional miles to get to where my luggage was located. Very poor but doable. My main complaint is about the lack of communication from the local on the ground operator. My bike, while good, had an issue with the seat slowing lowering so every 30 minutes or so I would have to raise it back up. I called the company and was told someone would call me back, they didn't. I called again and was told that they would contact someone to come and look at the bike and that they would call back in a couple of minutes, they didn't. I called again and received the same response and the same result of not calling back. They are open until 8pm so at 7:45pm I called yet again and this time there was no answer and no way to leave a message. They did call back the next day and send me a list of bike shops in my next city. I was told to have the repair made, send them the receipt, and I would be reimbursed they were vague on how I was going to be reimbursed. I decided to stay with readjusting my seat every 30 minutes because I lost all confidence in them.

I will say that Rebecca from TripSite was excellent. I called her after the no answer phone call. She followed up with me later that day as well as the next day and patiently listened to my story. Thanks Rebecca!

Countries included in this tour?
Austria, Hungary, Slovakia

Geoffrey L.
6 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Highlights of Northern Zealand

Gillelege harbor was a true delight. Beautiful setting and lovely shops.

Countries included in this tour?
Denmark, Sweden

Richard G.
6 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Bruges to Amsterdam

The guided walking tours of Bruges and Antwerp were informative and interesting.

Countries included in this tour?
Belgium, Netherlands

Randall J.
7 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Danube Bike Path - Vienna to Budapest

Misunderstanding on inclusion of meals at the hotels other than Vienna, Bratislava, & Budapest. We specified that we’d like them included and they were not. We were able to find restaurants, but obviously that increased the cost for us.

Countries included in this tour?
Austria, Hungary, Slovakia

TERRY E.
7 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Amsterdam to Bruges Bike Tour

The most memorable city in the trip was Gourda, with brilliant , centrally located accommodation.
Bike very good, sturdy and easy to operate.
Accommodation of a very mixed standard, 1] the Brugges accomodation being totally unacceptable for both the price and the city location. Room very small and pokey, with stairs and no place for bags, toilet in a cupboard! Exceptionally disappointing end to our trip. Reception staff obsessed with the Voucher system [unlike other locations!], and quite disinterested in cyclists. We arrived after a days riding in the rain and had to wait whilst she discussed a menu intem for about five minutes with a local!, 2] the accommodation out of town, about 3 kilometers, on about night 5 was totally inappropriate for cyclists, with again the hotel owner only interested in his up-market restaurant guests and barely tolerating cyclists, we asked if we could have a drink in the front lounge at about 5.30 and was told it was fully booked for dinner, on checking at 7.15 still no guests had arrived!, and 3] the Hotel Piccard was impossible to find from the maps and number given.
The route itself was excellent for 95% of the time, on possibly three [3] occassions the numbers were inadequate or incorrect, and required us to ask locals for directions back to the track, it would be good if a Company staff member had actually ridden the track at some stage and corrected this situation.
And finally, when paying for the A tour, it is not unreasonable to expect that the maps and instructions be personalized as to the days that ferries are and are-not available - this small detail was hidden in the notes and if one was not particularly pedantic in preparing for the next days travel could easily have been missed and spent a very frustrating, and tiring day cycling.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands, Belgium

JANET B.
7 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Amsterdam to Bruges Bike Tour

The most memorable part of our trip from Amsterdam to Bruges was that my husband and I experienced the adventure with our son and daughter in law. As far as suggestions go, I would suggest that the local operator needs to step up their game on support and maintenance of their bikes. Initially, there was no representative to fit the bikes, nor did they provide any tools for adjustments to be made. My husband is 5’10” and a medium size bike was provided instead of a large. His first 2 days of biking was so very uncomfortable necessitating that he resort to an e-bike for the remainder of the trip.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands, Belgium

Aron Y.
7 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· French Riviera

Bike and ferry to Porquerolles Island. Nice riding, fun ferry ride and beautiful island.

Countries included in this tour?
France

Debra L.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Portugal Cycling & Cooking E-bike tour

Our Two tour guides Mario & Paulo especially Paulo since he really tried to make our trip informative and comfortable for each of us and that definitely added to our trip!

Countries included in this tour?
Portugal

Virginia C.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Around Stockholm - Land of Lakes & Castles

The Steamboat ride from Mariefred to Stockholm was quite entertaining. We made the mistake of renting Ebikes....not a good idea. Cycling was very scenic..........hotels in Trosa and Mariefred were excellent......guides at castles were highlights of the trip. Take at least an hour tour in Gripsholms. Cycle paths were gravely and a bit difficult for many of us with Ebikes.....except for the few folks who had very new light weight models. Bottom line, I want to rate trip 'excellent' but we made it less so by choosing ebikes even though Tripsite tried to steer us away from this decision!!

Countries included in this tour?
Sweden

Paul G.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Denmark’s South Funen Archipelago

The weather went North: 14C feeling like 12, very windy gusts of plus 45 km/h and rain for 10 days now. So wonderful train service replaced the bicycles. We prepared for 17 to 22 C weather so our clothing was inappropriate.

Countries included in this tour?
Denmark

Michael D.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Istria

The towns we visited were great. If you do this tour get the e'bike. We were the only people on regular bikes. The e-bikes had shocks, we did not. It was a constant battle on hills as everyone left us behind. We were ok on flat roads but the hills and rock and gravel trails without shocks were terrible. E-bikes should be required.

Countries included in this tour?
Croatia

Noreen S.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Clare & the Burren

The ride along the Burren Coast Way. Spectacular views of the sea.
I am not a road biker and I personally found the trip a little more challenging than the "Easy to Moderate" rating posted on the website.
I would suggest you need to be comfortable riding on fairly busy roads at times and train for the hills, some are quite challenging.
Overall a very special way to see Ireland and well worth the challenge.

Countries included in this tour?
Ireland

Marie W.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Authentic Holland

Cycling through the farms and along the rivers and canals was beautiful. The villages were historic and lovely. More recommendations of sights along the way would have been helpful.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands

Vic K.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Amsterdam to Bruges

Although the guided tour had its frustrations and the rainy - windy weather didn’t help, the experience was worth the trip. However, it was frustrating that more attention/instruction was not given to novice bikers. Firstly, they needed to understand the e-bike, specifically to understand the function of gearing down and powering up when needed. Secondly novice bikers didn’t understand NOT to crowd other bikers and to keep a safe distance. Also your marketing should be clear state that they shoukd be experienced bikers. Some areas were highly trafficked - bike auto and train - therefore novice bikers are at great risk. The guides were unfamiliar with the trail and particularly in the first days were getting lost. Your selection for lunch stops were poor. We ate our sandwiches (which got really boring after the second day) outside in the rain. Suggest you add some lunch stops at some local sheltered restaurants with enough time to enjoy and experience the local fare.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands, Belgium

Arriann M.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Mantova to Venice or Venice to Mantova

The barge crew were very helpful and friendly and the group of people on the bike trip were fantastic. The barge rooms were bad - very wet and humid. The beds were wet with humidity. All clothing were wet with humidity and the rooms smelled very badly. We turned on the A/C but it didn’t help with the humidity and smell. If we opened the portholes, condensation dripped down on the bed. 4 of us got sick and I think it was due to the bacteria in the rooms.

Countries included in this tour?
Italy

Francine P.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Paradise in Portugal

we were lodged at Quinta de Sao Tome because they didn't have enough room at the original farm . We loved our stay there and the food was also delicious. The staff was great, especially Claudio, who was consistently pleasant and helpful. The bike rides were enjoyable but our enjoyment was reduced by the rather profoundly poor proof-testing of one of our maps. Because of the rough nature of some trails , specially the one going to the winery that nobody could find, nobody seemed to be aware of the actual incomplete nature of the mapped trail. We found this oversight vexing and could easily have led to further unpleasantries.
Although, one of our members was assured that she had a suitable bike to accommodate her size, an appropriate bike was not waiting for us and had to be found at the last moment and replace by a lower standard one / that was not very comfortable . We booked different bike ride in the past before this one and always received a briefing the night before . There .we were brief on arrival and that was it . the GPS provided was not always easy to follow and I would advise them to try the different trail before they send people on it. Some of the road are in poor condition.
We also found the pricing of the bike portion of our trip was a problem. We could only fit 3 days of biking in but were charged 5 days and denied the weekly rate which would have been cheaper, in spite of only using the three days. The bike portion of our trip was poor value in the context of our previous biking experiences.

Countries included in this tour?
Portugal

Jo-anne K.
8 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Lake Garda & the Adige River

The scenery through the Adige River valley is fabulous. The biking is not too strenuous since most of the days are generally downhill. The climb to the view over Lake Garda is beautiful. Really fun to cycle through so many small towns along the way and interesting to cycle along the shores of Lake Garda too.

Countries included in this tour?
Italy

Karen C.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Highlights of Dalmatia E-Bike & Boat

The day we rode all day was probably the most memorable. The farm stop for lunch was very enjoyable. We would have liked to have more of the longer rides

Countries included in this tour?
Croatia

Thomas R.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Highlights of Dalmatia E-Bike & Boat

The trip fell short of what was advertised. Operator over promised and under delivered so expectations were not exceeded, much less met.
The guides were great and did their best but the popularity of the region, even in the off season, resulted in crowds that prevented the boat to access dock space needed to unload and load bikes, required rafting up with as many as 9 other boats, did not allow one “explore on your own opportunities”, resulted in premium priced deck cabins being worse than more private and quieter below deck cabins, and so on.
All-in-all, 4 out of the 7 planned rides were offered and 80 of 143 miles covered.
This type of trip is always subject to change, due to conditions, but this trip fell so far short I blame the operator for the lack of contingency plans.

Countries included in this tour?
Croatia

LDA
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Pearls of Dalmatia

I had a great trip and meet some really fun new friends. Our upper level stateroom was pretty standard, small but comfortable. Itinerary was great and our guides were very accommodating, making a special stop at an olive mill per the request of a couple of our passengers. E-bikes were in good operating order and were a must for all but one person on our trip. We did a lot of uphill climbs, one was really steep, the rest just long and steady uphill. Probably due to the terrain/hills, most rides were on the shorter side (less than 20 miles for the day). Food was plentiful, but poor quality, vegetable soup without any trace of vegetables, thin chicken cutlets that were over cooked, and a main course of pasta daily. I ended up stopping at a grocery for snacks to bring onboard.

Countries included in this tour?
Croatia

Effie H.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Bruges to Amsterdam

Unfortunately our barge had major mechanical problems ( thrust motor) from Day 1. As a result our first 4 full days of biking were changed, shortened significantly and day 4 spent almost entirely on the boat going to Antwerp with mechanical engineers working to fix it. We were very disappointed to lose this much biking on what was supposed to be a wonderful biking journey.

To add to our disappointment our biking tour guides, Tom and Laura, gave us very little information on what was wrong with the boat and what changes to expect. Generally they were not very communicative about our daily itineraries.

On the positive side, the barge crew were mostly fabulous. Mieke, the chef and her staff were very personable and hard working. The bartending staff were also very good. The food was excellent and the boat in good condition .

Overall we enjoyed the trip, especially the last 4 days once the barge was repaired.

Effie Henry
( part of a group of 10 Canadian women)

Countries included in this tour?
Belgium, Netherlands

Effie H.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Bruges to Amsterdam

Bruges to Amsterdam Fluvius May 5/24 - 8 day bike trip

Unfortunately our barge had major mechanical problems ( thrust motor) from Day 1. As a result our first 4 full days of biking were changed, shortened significantly and day 4 spent almost entirely on the boat going to Antwerp with mechanical engineers working to fix it. We are very disappointed to lose this much biking on what was supposed to be a wonderful biking journey.

To add to our disappointment our biking tour guides, Tom and Laura, gave us very little information on what was wrong with the boat and what changes to expect. Generally they were not very communicative about our daily itineraries.

On the positive side, the barge crew were mostly fabulous. Mieke, the chef and her staff were very personable and hard working. The bartending staff were also very good. The food was excellent and the boat in good condition .

Overall we enjoyed the trip, especially the last 4 days once the barge was repaired.

Countries included in this tour?
Belgium, Netherlands

Beverly K.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Bruges to Amsterdam

The tour itself was spectacular once we were under way. However, we arrived at the Fluvius as scheduled on Sunday only to find out that the boat had a broken bow thruster - that happened on Friday. There was a lack of communication from the captain and the tour guides. We were told, hesitatingly, that the breakdown had occurred and the part was expected Monday morning and then we would be under way. We did not sail Monday and were provided a substitute ride, with no GPS, for the day. ..a bit of a nightmare ride. Very difficult to navigate - confusing! The part came finally Tuesday morning and we had to stay on board to catch up with the schedule - no riding that day. We were not actually told that we couldn’t ride. We had to surmise that ourselves. The day after we were able to pick up our scheduled ride and the following days were lovely.
The staff were wonderful at all levels. The Captain was in communicative and the lead guide Tom was terrible.
Bottom line is, things happen. The fact that the boat was unfortunate but if we had been informed and communicated with

Countries included in this tour?
Belgium, Netherlands

Charlotte K.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Amsterdam to Bruges

The staff on board the Fluvious was wonderful, especially the chef, Mika. The food was plentiful and great. The dining and lounge area very comfortable. Americans should be advised about the difference in bikes. Both manual and E bikes are heavier than we had experience with and that does effect balance issues around sharp turns. The Amsterdam to Bruge trip is listed as easy on well maintained routes,perhaps a few more qualifiersare needed. We experienced some rough riding - it may have been the result of winter damage- but riding on dirt and a sandy portion of the trail was challenging as are coblestomes.

Another disappointment was that I was only able to ride three days. And on those days we had no special tours. I was especially looking forward to going to a cheese factory which we missed, Much of that was due to the fact that the Fluvious had some problems which effected steering. We did not have a chance to practice on the bikes as scheduled, which made the first day very difficult for some of the riders. Those of us on Manual bikes were separated from the leader and all the e=bikes and often took the wrong turn at a Y. On one day we completely missed a castle and on the first day, the option to hear more about the old windmills was missed due to our being late (due to the boat arriving later than scheduled due to the boat issues). Additionally on the Ghent biking we were discouraged going because of the busy city and no other option was offered ie. bike the countryside and tour Ghent and the canal tour by going on foot or parking the bikes outside of the busy city center.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands, Belgium

Marian A.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Coastal Andalusia

Beautiful scenery. Steven was a great tour leader. Lodging was 1* to 4*’s. The 1 and 2* hotels were not great. Really enjoyed the tour but decided that the cycling distances were too short. Needed more cycling. Thanks. Marian

Countries included in this tour?
Spain

David L.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Dutch Delights: Slow Travel, Windmills, and Tulips

Bike ride from Haarlem to Leiden seeing the seaside and the tulip fields and farms

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands

Anne B.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Along the Danube - Passau to Vienna

Biking in the Wachau Valley was the most memorable part of the trip.

Suggestions - instructions on bike etiquette and traffic rules in Germany and Austria would have been useful.
There were numerous intersections on the five biking days when it was unclear the direction to take. During the briefing for the next day's ride it would have been helpful to have a powerpoint presentation or some other method of detailing the next day's route.
It would also have been helpful to know that ferries were not included in the cost of the trip. It was also a surprise that renting a bike helmet was 45 euros. It was a surprise that helmets were included in the cost of the trip. Finally, I also was a surprise that WIFI cost $15. All of these things should have been communicated to the riders before the trip.

Countries included in this tour?
Austria, Germany

Johanna Maria V.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Tulip Tour - 8 day

Nelleke’s cooking was super and really memorable.
What was also memorable but far from super was our guide.
Maybe I was spoilt by my 3 previous Tripsite Barge/Bike trips with really excellent guides.
The guide lacked any passion about his job. Many felt we were not looked after properly. Cycled up front and hardly ever looked back if we were behind. Half the party would be delayed at red traffic light and guide just carried on. Sometimes lost him as we could not see where he had turned off. Information always minimal and very sketchy.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands

Jeannine D.
9 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Tulip Tour - 5 day

Barge facilities, food and staff were outstanding. Beds were comfortable; rooms were of good size (we were on the upper level); dinners were gourmet and sufficient in size; breakfast was ample.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands

Richard J.
10 months ago

Verified Reviewer

· Tulip Tour - 5 day

Trip to the tulip venue was a nice route getting there.

If not getting a e-bike be prepared for strong head winds You may be called out for slowing the group down.

Countries included in this tour?
Netherlands