4 Star Bike Tour Reviews — 241 to 270 of 890
Gary M.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Ave Maria Mantova to Venice or Venice to Mantova
Italy
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 Read More 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.
Barb • 8 months ago
Thanks for the great advice about the water taxi and reserving tickets for San Marco Basilica and the Doge's Palace. Do you think the tour guides on the Ave Maria would be able to reserve those tickets once we are there on the boat, or is there another way you would suggest?
Also, I wonder if you have a recommendation for how to get from the airport to the boat? Thank you very much. Barb :)
Celine O.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Portugal’s Vicentine Coast & Algarve
Portugal
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.
Lynne P.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Princesse Royal Metz to Cochem
France, Luxembourg, Germany
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.
Ward A.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Ave Maria Mantova to Venice or Venice to Mantova
Italy
Crew was amazing. Everyone helpful. 30 person biking too big. Suggest it be split into 2 15 person groups.
Linda N.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Ave Maria Mantova to Venice or Venice to Mantova
Italy
Margaret Jay B.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Ave Maria Mantova to Venice or Venice to Mantova
Italy
Lovely route, wonderful guides, comfortable accommodations. Absolutely superb food!
Bring your own water bottle - despite the tripsite literature, one is not provided
Glenn S.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Princesse Royal Metz to Cochem
France, Luxembourg, Germany
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.
John N.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Magellan Southern Dalmatia E-Bike & Boat
Croatia
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.
Rita P.
1 year ago
Verified Reviewer
Matera to Lecce
Italy
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!
Rick C.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Quo Vadis Merzig to Cochem
Germany
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.
Johanne P.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Quo Vadis Merzig to Cochem
Germany
I particularly enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the river and the little villages we stopped in.
Lauren L.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Quo Vadis Merzig to Cochem
Germany
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.
Clifford H.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Iris Metz to Cochem
France, Luxembourg, Germany
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.
Roderick M.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Melody Southern Dalmatia E-Bike & Boat
Croatia
A nice trip but the rides should be longer and normal bikes shouldn't be mixed in with E-Bikes.
Tamara S.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Halkidiki Peninsula
Greece
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.
Dick S.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Vita Pugna Mantova to Venice or Venice to Mantova
Italy
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?
Alan L.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Zwaantje Bruges to Paris
Belgium, France
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.
William O.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Sarah Amsterdam to Maastricht
Netherlands
The bike routes were the best and our tour guide Klaas exceeded our expectations
Molly M.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Siem Reap to Saigon
Cambodia, Vietnam
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.
Nicholas C.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Holland - Past & Present
Netherlands
Cycling along dykes near Amorongen and through huge avenues of ancient beech trees in the woods
Tahnee R.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Amsterdam to Bruges Bike Tour
Netherlands, Belgium
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 Read More 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.
SANTIAGO R.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Castles of the Loire
France
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.
Stephanie H.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Harmonia Highlights of Dalmatia E-Bike & Boat
Croatia
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!
Timothy B.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Costa Rica Bike Tour & Adventure
Costa Rica
We loved interacting with the local guides, who were all so friendly, positive, accommodating, knowledgeable, and obviously loved their work and their country.
Nancy P.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Ave Maria Mantova to Venice or Venice to Mantova
Italy
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
Julie A.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Merlijn Tulip Tour - Amsterdam to Bruges - 11 day
Netherlands, Belgium
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.
Suzanne F.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Alva Douro River E-Bike & Boat
Portugal
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!
Carla • 2 years ago Tripsite Staff
Thank you so much for your feedback Suzanne! I'm so happy to read you had a beautiful experience.
I do expect the American guest numbers will drastically increase in the coming years so I don't expect to have this issue moving forward. However, we're always happy to check the demographics of a group at any time.
Carl M.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Quo Vadis Amsterdam to Bruges - 11 days
Netherlands, Belgium
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.
Jayne B.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Rural Holland - Gelderland & De Hoge Veluwe Park
Netherlands
De Wever hotel was so lovely and the staff was most accommodating! Special thanks to Sven!
lais helena o.
2 years ago
Verified Reviewer
Mosel Bike Tour
Germany, France
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
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