Poland’s Lake District Tour Reviews — 1 to 5 of 5

The Lake District of Poland is an undiscovered region of outstanding beauty in Poland and Europe - full of forests, farms, WWII history, fabulous food and welcoming Poles! Add a day or 2 in Warsaw with interesting free guided walking tours and you get a good sense of urban and rural Poland.
The itinerary for riding is a spiderweb of forest dirt roads, very challenging sandy farm roads, traffic for short distances on some paved roads, and lovely low traffic paved roads. This trip reqiires diverse biking skills but with an adventurous spirit, lots of rewards.

The trip was much harder than I expected. The rating was easy to moderate but I felt it was moderate to difficult. Going through the sand and gravel paths was challenging even though I had an e-bike. My first trip was from Bruges to the Amsterdam and I had wonderful experiences on a regular bike. But if this Mazuria lakes district was my first trip, I would not have signed up for a second. The Magnifique 2 was much more comfortable and there was free coffee, tea, and even hot chocolate all day long. On the classic lady, there wasn't even free water. The state rooms were comparable on both trips. But the magnifique had a sitting area where we could gather and talk. On the classic lady, we had to sit at the dining room tables to socialize. The food was good

Seeing Warsaw and the Poland Lake District, places that few Americans go, was on my list to see. Warsaw was a pleasant surprise with free walking tours in English of the old city restoration. The lakes are scenic and the forests around them lovely. Historically they have been a significant element of Poland's past. The biking was challenging for traditional road bikers but offered a new experience in off-road trails.

The sandy and gravelly trails that we rode through the forests...I felt that the rating of easy to moderate was not quite accurate. I had such a good experience on my first bike trip from Bruges to Amsterdam on a regular bike. But I wouldn't have been able to do this one if I didn't have an e-bike. I even stayed on the boat the 4th and
6th days. Also, on the Bruges trip, coffee, tea, water, and even hot chocolate we're always available. But on this trip, you even had to buy your water at dinner. The breakfasts and dinners were both good everyday and the salads were especially delicious. If this was my first trip, there wouldn't have been a second. Maybe if I didn't have the Bruges trip to compare it to, I would have been more satisfied with this one.

The Classic Lady was a nice barge. It was clean, adequate cabin space, food delicious and staff very nice. This was all good if you just want to go on a barge tour of the Lake District in Poland.
If you want a tour that highlights bicycling, this is not the tour for you. We went to both Cycle and see the area. The routes we were taken on were unsafe and basically unrideable. The course is approximately 80% in the woods on deep sandy, moderately rolling hills. The sand was so deep (4 inches and more) everyone was off their bikes walking. When you did get some cycling going it was a slow go with hands tightly on the handlebars, praying that you didn't fall. Everyone, including our guide, fell at least one maybe 2-4 times. Many get road rash and some hurt shoulders, hips and knees. Several folks only road 2-3 days out of 6 because of the course conditions or because they were hurt.
This is an unfit tour for anyone.