4 Star Bike Tour Reviews — 871 to 900 of 1196

We didn't know what to expect on such a small barge/boat: however it was very enjoyable Our hosts were great and always helpful even when we knew it was a busy time for them. Being a small group and despite some language differences, we all bonded and managed to communicate well. Our leader Anna was particularly competent and took us through some interesting situations without a glitch. We will be known as the group who loves limericks as one guy in our group started by writing one for each cyclist...then of course we all started to write them. The last dinner was quite hilarious. You can't beat these tours for economy, traveling through history and spectacular scenery and commaradorie. I left off one star as the rooms and bathroom were super small and hard to manouver in. Everything else, including the meals, were something to write home about.!

Enjoyed the staff, the group we met and the overall tour. I got to visit a part of France I might never have seen. Really enjoyed the champagne bottling winery the last day.

The barge accommodation and the staff are fabulous. Guides were fantastic. Everyone aims to please. Food is plentiful. We didn't see many birds but wind and weather are not controllable. I would have liked more biking and less on rocky paths. The days riding on roads through villages were great but the dike path not so good. I would travel with this company again for sure.

The boat was very tired. In our room the sink tap was not connected the pipe letting water into the toilet tank fell off the wall. The porthole wouldn’t open. Very few of the lights in our room worked. There was no comfortable seats on the boat, and we did not go where the tour was supposed to go because of the boat not being able to handle the weather. The crew was great.

Exciting bike and barge tour throughout Southern Holland. Definitely proclaiming a successful trip in a beautiful Holland. Safe and crew were very attentive and courteous.
Felt mislead by bike insurance offerer by Tripsite. Later found out bike staff on the barge that if the bike was damaged I would have to pay upfront the amount of damage that I caused to the bike staff and then I can put a claim to the insurance by Tripsite which I would be reimbursed at that time This was a minor snafu and I was very disappointed about the misrepresentation when I was told the insurance would cover everything upon needing the coverage for bike damages.

The best part was the Tirol, and the lakes were amazing.

The beautiful bike paths along the Danube and the great food on the MS Arkona. Found the unguided bike tour confusing. Comfortable beds but loud vibrating boat motor at night made it impossible to sleep. Yay sleeping pills.

We loved the varied scenery and warm and friendly Italian people.
The hotel accommodations were very comfortable and more than adequate. We would have been satisfied with a less luxurious hotel in Trento. We would have liked to explore the town and find a different restaurant, but there was no time. That is one of the drawbacks of cycling so many miles between towns; not enough time to explore.
The Ave Maria and the entire crew were first rate. We want to particularly thank our tirelessly helpful and fun-loving guides, Marinella and Stephania. In addition, the food was artfully created and inspired.
Our one complaint is about the poorly written instructions on the 3-day, self-guided part of the trip, which sometimes caused stress. The instructions were not only terribly written, we also had different editions of instructions among our group of 12. The most exasperating time was at Riva del Garda when we cycled back and forth through the town at least 3 times, looking for the correct ferry dock, after asking and being misled several times.

Recommendation...do the riding prior to your trip that they suggest. I did not and had an uncomfortable bum for a few days, lol.

This was a wonderful tour with many interesting & historic stops along the way. The portion in the Czech Republic included challenging terrain while the ride from Vienna to Budapest was fairly flat. The hotels were all unique and very different, from botels to spas to penzione. Locations were great, had delicious breakfasts and were clean with the exception of the last one, which I'll discuss later. This trip would have been perfect if a few simple things had occurred: we received detailed information for the trip the day we left for Prague. Since there were some modifications, I lost half a day in Prague getting those worked out. That easily could've been taken care of before we left if we had the detailed info sooner. When we arrived in Prague, the cycling company sent Maps.me files to load. Because of the types of phones we have, it again took some vacation time to figure out how to download. We discovered that these were imperative to smooth navigating along the routes so I recommend that those files be sent in advance. The only other disappointment was that the hotel in Budapest was very dirty with mold all over the shower floor and walls. We had been told we'd be in a much nicer hotel, but i'm assuming they were unable to book it. Fortunately, we had booked our extra nights elsewhere. Bottom line, I would recommend this trip with the modifications above.

My wife and I just finished this trip with another couple. First of all, remember that you get what you pay for. This cruise is much cheaper than Viking or Avalon or some of the others so you can't expect as much opulence or fine cuisine. That said, everything was fine. The food was good but not great. The walls to the cabins are thin so if the person in the room next to you is a loud talker, you will hear every word. Also, try to avoid the lowest level of rooms - the windows don't open and are noisier as you are close to the engine. The trip it self was great. The cycling was easy and scenic. We had Axel as our guide, and seriously, he ruins you for any other guide. If we went on another cruise, it would have to be with Axel - any other guide would suffer in comparison I suspect. He is Austrian with a very keen sense of humour (He would have to be as he is an Arsenal fan). He went above and beyond.

We had a mixed experience on this trip, having completed two other bike and barge trips on smaller boats (and smaller waterways). This is a wonderful region for riding - much of the route follows bike paths that parallel the river and provide gorgeous views of river towns. Unlike our other trips, participants ride on their own without a guide, and this worked well for us. Because the boat travels from Passau to Budapest and back again, there is quite a bit of travel time on the boat. At times, we enjoyed watching the scenery, but this also meant that our time on land was quite limited. Food was decent and several options were available at each meal. The dining room was noisy and it does take quite a bit of time to serve everyone, with the staff clearly working hard! During our tour, there were engine problems which resulted in a change in itinerary. The company struggled to manage this and identify reasonable options. In the end, they have promised us a partial refund, which seems quite fair. We would have preferred that this offer had come sooner in the process, without the numerous conversations that were needed to help the company understand the concerns of passengers.

Awesome trip with a wonderful crew. The only misleading part was the description of easy to moderate biking. The hills of France made this trip more difficult than expected.

Overall the trip thru Italy's Piedmont was very well handled, breathtaking scenery, (lots of hills), friendly people nice hotels very well done. One item I would caution others of is the description of the hills as moderate. Some are but 4-5 kilometers of 11 percent grade is more than moderate the 16 percent grade on some short stretches started me thinking of Hors catégorie type climbs. A description of the grades and distances could help others decide to get ebikes or do more training. I did enjoy the ride it was difficult but doable even if a lot of whining did happen.

The crew on this barge and bike trip were outstanding. The weather was unseasonably hot and adjustments were made to the schedule to accommodate everyone's comfort. The route and attractions were well planned and interesting. We had some difficulty with the bikes provided by HAT tours - several (5 in total) punctures and one unfixable issue with a bike. This meant delays whilst the tiress were being repaired - approximately 1 hour per puncture. This meant that we missed out on seeing some of the attractions and had to cut short our time at others. The unfixable problem meant that one volunteer had to return to the boat via taxi and forego the rest of that day's itinerary. I would like to congratulate the crew on this tour as they did their utmost to ensure that these issues kept the disruption to a minimum. The group of travelers were also a very friendly and tolerant group of people who got on well. This also assisted in managing the issues with the bikes.
My recommendation to HAT tours is to provide maintenance support for the tour if they are going to continue to use these bikes. I have been on another company's bike and barge tour through Provence in 2014 and they had maintenance support which could be contacted promptly to fix and/or transport bikes/people when required.

Great trip with wonderful memories and weather. This trip could easily be extended by 1-2 days of more cycling! I was disappointed that we only had 5 days of cycling, though it was advertised as a one week trip!
Also, the information packet sent was not consistent with the descriptions of where we actually cycled to and where we stayed. The route directions provided were very difficult to follow. I suggest that each cyclist is provided with a detailed cycling map of the whole Island of Zealand, not just the north. We found better cycling maps in Sweden!

Very nice tour following much of the Avenue Verte. Girolibero and Adriano were fantastic hosts on the unguided tour from Paris to London. The route was probably a little more unpaved then I expected an as such would not recommend bringing your own road bike to do the tour. We met and road with some amazing people from around the world making new friends and seeing areas that were amazing sites in the small villages and countryside.

Having a guide for this trip was very beneficial. For the first 3 days our guided group consisted of 30+ people. This was too large of a group and was pretty much a pain. We eventually broke into a group of 8 riders with Dorian as our guide, that was perfect. We were able to travel at a much more leisurely pace, visit many wineries, tasting rooms, small villages and churches.

This trip provides a chance to explore the rural areas along the Danube by bike and to visit the great cities of Budapest and Vienna. There is a lot packed into this trip.

Mantova to Venice was wonderful. Very pretty scenery with lots of unique places to stop.

Cycling past the remnants of the Iron Curtain. WOW!
There were so many highlights, but having Axel as our guide certainly added a great deal to our daily rides. Thanks Axel!

We loved the beautiful, amazing mountain scenery (with very few hills) of the first three days. The written instructions, though, are of a badness difficult to describe. We rated the tour 4/5, and the lost star were because of the extremely poor instructions. If we hadn't had maps and stickers on sign posts, we wouldn't have been able to make it through. The frustration really distracted from the overall enjoyment of the trip - an English speaker with an accurate odometer really needs to rewrite the directions. For example, they talked about "crossing a railway" (or maybe a "railway bridge"), so we spent about 20 minutes trying to find a way to cross the railway - but really it meant to pass underneath an elevated railway crossing. Also, the symbol used to indicate a warning (I think of a turn easy to miss) is a hand pointing to the right. One not unnaturally assumes that this means a right turn. It does not.

Otherwise the barge, scenery, activities, food, and guides are all exactly what we hoped for and have experienced on earlier trips. No problems with luggage transfers, and the hotels for the first part of the trip were all great.

Excellent routes, well marked and the Châteaus are breath taking. Make sure you have a rain coat.

Sailing into Paris in the seine was spectacular, what a way to get acquainted for the first time and also enjoy how Parisiennes live and play along the river. Make sure you bring your sunscreen.

I feel the bike should have been rated moderate-not easy moderate!

I did the 7 day Around Lake Constance. This was my 4th Tripsite bike tour. I will list the positive things first.
I booked the Category 4 hotel package and was extremely pleased with all the hotels. Location was good for all except the Park Hotel in Uberlingen. It is located at the top of a very steep hill and was very difficult to find even after you saw the sign pointing the way!!
The breakfasts at all the locations were amazing and so beautifully displayed. A wonderful way to start the day!
The bikes were comfortable and almost brand new. Panniers, front bag and trip meter were all very nice.
Now the not so positive...
I had read all the reviews before booking and noticed the negative comments about the bike route directions. Since these comments were from a year and 2 years ago I assumed they had improved this info. NOT TRUE. The book with the routes is almost worthless. Getting from city to city was not always the problem but once in a city the situation changes. It is even more challenging when you do not speak the language. The locals are more than friendly and always willing to help. However they often assume we know more than we do and even their help does not get us to our destination. A suggestion would be to provide the cyclists with GPS or a HOTSPOT so that we could download the routes on our phones. I realize that if the customer is from Europe they can do that easily but those of us from the USA depend on a wifi connection for this service. I stayed recently at a hotel in Madrid that provided each room with a Hotspot at NO EXTRA charge. If a mid level hotel can afford to do this you would think a cycling touring company could do the same. I realize Tripsite does not have control over some of these situations but if they could encourage this company to try some more advanced methods of guiding their clients I am sure everyone would be happier. I had a wonderful holiday with fabulous weather, beautiful scenery and memorable meals. I will be booking with Tripsite for my next cycling tour. Just wanted to raise this issue to help future travelers be aware.

Scenery was great, our main problem would be that the advertising did not really give enough information as to the degree of difficulty as while we are both middle level riders some of the many up’s and downs were a lot more than the advertising suggested. The close gearing of the bikes did not help with that either.

The experience of being able to see the countryside, remote villages and sites at a slower pace with the experience and knowledge of a guide is the highlight. It is good to leave your luggage onboard the barge and know you return each evening to great food and rest.

We were on this tour from June 16-23, 2018. First let me say that we had a fabulous time and I'll attempt to breakdown both the good and the challenging.
1. The boat was outstanding (5 star)
2. All the meals were nothing short of scrumptous (all three..every day) (5 Star)
3. The SE staff were knowledgable, polite and always willing to help. (5 Star)
4. Embarking and disembarking was seamless. (5 Star)
5. Our onboard guide was outgoing and fun to talk to. (5 Star)
6. The rooms were tight, but manageable. two single beds, good storage for your clothes and a small but efficient washroom.
7. The bikes were well serviced and enjoyable to ride. If you're not a seasoned cyclist, don't worry, the gears were easy to change and many of the people opted for the ebike option which really helped.
8. Biking directions were a challenge. At first we thought it was a language issue, but many of the German people were getting lost as well. We saw no vineyards, one castle, and we traveled through many cities. We had three in our group take spills, mainly because of the city routes we had to take. The "Look for Signs" were often non-existant or hard to find and we found that our group of 10 cyclists were spending too much time conferencing, trying to find the correct route.
Twice we encountered local people who actual lead us to get us back on track. This was definitely challenging, but boy did we bond!! We stopped in small towns having lunch in the town squares, trying local beers and cheeses. Restaurants willing to let us eat our bagged lunches in their restaurant when we bought some drinks.
Suggestions:
1. Arrive a couple of days early to explore Mainz, it's a beatiful city.
2. We flew in and out of Paris and the train system is amazing, but I would suggest closer Airports (Frankfurt to get to Mainz and Paris for Strasbourg).
3. Get comfortable being lost and embrace the journey. We always found our way and have some incredible stories about our rides.
4. Talk to the locals they are magnificent and were always willing to help.
The bottom line is that we are already planning our next bike and barge adventure, there are lots to choose.
My actual rating would be a 4.5 out of 5

The Brugge to Amsterdam trip was a very flat, easy trip and we recommend it for beginner barge and bikers. Our main criticism was that although the guides were very nice and helpful, we would have liked more information and history on the sights along the way, and more picture stops.