Provence - Wilderness of Camargue Tour Reviews — 1 to 30 of 148

Great guide (Paul). Food and cabin only marginal. Dinners were almost always cold.

This was my ninth bike / barge trip and I have enjoyed all of them, but this one was my favorite thanks to the dedicated crew which worked hard to ensure the success of the trip. Diana, Mickey, Virginia and Jeoffrey were all top notch.

We had an excellent on-barge experience. The crew—Didier, Omar, and Sara—were fantastic. Our captain, Didier, a fifth-generation (!) barge captain, was delightful and engaging. Omar anticipated every passenger's need, whether spoken or unspoken. Sara was an inventive chef who brought fantastic energy to the boat; her nightly descriptions of the menu made every meal feel like "dinner and a show."

Additionally, we were lucky to have an exceptional group of passengers. Our four-person group from Boston clicked immediately with the travelers from Canada and Florida. In addition to enjoying our time with them on the barge, we collaborated well during our rides to ensure everyone stayed safe, which truly enhanced the trip.

While our experience with the tour guide—an experienced biker but not a natural tour leader—was less positive, it was not enough to dampen our overall enthusiasm for the journey.

Our bike-barge trip from Aigue-Mortes to Avignon was fabulous. We rode through beautiful countryside and could see why the great painters chose to create their masterpieces in Provence. The wildflowers, farms, vineyards, and white horses were spectacular. Our guide, Gabo, was excellent and shepherded us very well through all kinds of terrains and experiences. He was knowledgeable and prepared. Sara, our chef, made wonderfully delicious, creative meals that we greatly enjoyed. The boat, L'Estello was comfortable and a great place to relax after our long rides. Omar attended to all the details and the captain managed the boat well. The bikes were in excellent condition and were well equipped. We felt it was a great experience.

The cycling was great. It was hard to say which day as each experience was great. I did love seeing the Carrière luminaries.

The trip was everything we expected and more, a special shout out to the crew of the L’Estello who went above and beyond to make our trip such fun! Our guide Gabo was both knowledgeable and entertaining.

Hein was an absolutely amazing and interesting guide; the crew was fantastic. Special kudos to the chef (Geovani): best food by far of any of our 3 tripsite boat/bike trips so far. And we LOVED Alicia (our overall helper etc). So personable and friendly and wonderful that she shared her artwork with us! And a great group of fellow travellers/bikers to share this with. Just a fantastic trip!

Overall the trip could have been better. Our tour guide and the staff on the barge were outstanding! Knowledgeable, attentive and friendly. But the barge is too small for the 21 people on the tour. There is not enough seating in the common area for everyone. There is no wifi in the cabins, only upstairs in common areas, where again there is not enough room. We packed our lunches everyday and brought them with us but I would have liked more variety in the offerings. It was the same thing every single day. More variety in the breakfast would have been nice also. My biggest complaint is that there was no tour sweep rider provided on our bike outings and there should have been. Someone had to volunteer each day for it. Not having a professional tour sweep caused many problems.

Too much bike riding and not enough visiting sites and relaxing

Distances on the bikes were reasonable and allowed sufficient time to enjoy our surroundings.

The bike rides through the country were terrific. That was the reason for selecting this trip.
Although the food was well prepared, the selection of dishes was mediocre.
The staff were great and made the trip enjoyable. The guide was knowledgeable.

Fabulous trip on L'Estello. Food was the best so far on a Tripsite adventure. Hein, our guide was politically incorrect and was fabulous. Our group of 8, in our 60s and 70s rode city bikes. The other 10 in our group rode eBikes. We had no problem but unless you are a strong, confident rider, I'd recommend eBikes.

Chef Sara was fantastic!! The food was wonderful every single night. Our guide Giorgio was informative and fun, which made our rides very enjoyable.

We have taken other bike trips; however this experience was the most fun and memorable! Georgio our guide, his knowledge of the area was amazing. He packed in as much or less as our group wanted. His dry humor was really fun to be around. We miss him already! The food, amazing! Sara was our chef; the meals were perfect. The care she takes, and what she can put out in a 12 hour day is crazy. A fresh baked tart every morning, fruits, cheeses, meats, homemade granolas and yogurt. The deserts each night, were so....good! Sarita was the house manager. It being her first week, she did an outstanding job! The entire team acted as if they had been working together for years. We felt so lucky that we had such a great crew. Because it is a small group of 20 guests, you become friends fast. Each night a couple of guests would stand up and roast some of the other guests, it was so fun! We sang songs and played games after dinner every night. It was like summer camp for adults, a big sleep over. We will definitely be booking another trip!

The great people we met & the staff on the boat.
My negatives about the boat was the lack of an outdoor seating area to enjoy - probably due to the size of the boat. Also I felt 18 people for one guide was not great from a safety perspective. No mirros on the bikes or communication capabilities between the guide & the person identified as the ‘sweeper’.

This was an awesome bike/barge trip! The bike routes were interesting and beautiful. Our guide Helmut was excellent - keeping us safe while biking and giving us information on the places we visited. He was very patient and helpful. The bikes were well maintained and my E-bike was charged and ready to go all week.
The Caprice barge was clean and efficient. The rooms were small but have shelves and under the bed drawers that were great for organizing clothing etc.
The crew was wonderful and the food was delicious.
I really enjoyed this experience. Definitely will do a barge and bike tour again!

Everything was great from start to finish. Giorgio our guide was amazing. He was the only guide for the entire group. His techniques our having a “ corner” person to direct us when we made a turn out as well as a sweeper to be the last person to make sure that we were all together. Kept everyone safe and together. He was very humorous. He had lots of information and history of everywhere we went. He always had his eye out to make sure that we were happy we were content, and we were enjoying the trip. He took any information that we gave him in regard to our needs very seriously and did everything he could to make us happy and comfortable, and he succeeded beyond belief. The chef Sylvia had our elves watering from breakfast all the way through dessert. She always had a smile on her face saying while she cooked it was a true passion of hers, and it showed in the quality of the food as well as the presentation. Emma our steward took care of all of our needs again with a smile on her face. There wasn’t anything that was asked for that she did not deliver. This crew was absolutely amazing and they made the trip more than I could’ve expected.

Wonderful cycling among so many vineyards, orchards, and beautiful small towns. We particularly loved Avignon, wine tasting in Chateau Neuf du Pape, the beautiful Pont du Gard, a little Van Gogh in St. Remy and Arles, and the surprisingly attractive town of Aigues Mortes- no dead water there! Our favorite part was the ride was to Les Baux- made significantly easier by our decision to concede to age and use e-bikes. The boat is small and the cabins a bit cramped, but we weren't there to hang out indoors. The crew was excellent, particularly Micaela our guide and Alice the do everything steward. We had a great mix of shipmates, hailing from Canada, Australia, the UK, energetic Brazilians, and a few Americans. All together a great week!

Delicious French food!!Tour director was excellent and very attentive to the needs of the group . Crew was very understanding and very helpful. Bikes were in excellent conditions and enjoyed the electric bike. Back to food was the very best on other trips.

We traveled as a group of 6 adults on the L'Estello. Four of us are very experienced cyclists and have used Ride with GPS many times with 2 other companies. Since there is no van support on this trip we opted to do the group ride.
Unfortunately we had a large group of guests that were not familiar with proper bike edicate and that caused problems during the rides.
I would not choose another trip like this one.
We were

The beautiful scenery along the bike route was one of the highlights of this trip. We enjoyed pedaling through grapevine covered fields, seeing all the blooming red poppies, visiting the Monet exhibit in the old quarry, touring Arles, seeing the Pont du Gard, wine tasting and cruising into Avignon. The crew was great. And Michela our tour guide was truly one of the best we’ve ever had.

My husband & I booked this trip with 7 of our friends. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. My biggest fear was becoming motion sick by sleeping on the water. This never happened, nor did it when sailing. The L'Estello barge was excellent, as was her captain LUCI & crew: Michaela, Giovanni & Omar & Christina. The meals were very tasty & we enjoyed the opportunity to make daily lunches. The routes were excellent. A BIG shout out to Michaela who we felt was a superb rider leader and are so happy she was assigned to us. She is very knowledgeable and gave lots of information about the areas we rode through and even on our nightly "digestive" walks. The whole crew was very accommodating and seemed to anticipate our every need. The bikes were excellent which made each daily ride so enjoyable. The size of the cabins were very good and bigger than I thought they would be. The only negative was leaving Aigues-Mortes as transportation is limited leaving that town. That being said, Michaela worked her magic and secured taxis for all 9 of us who were leaving to different countries and had connections to meet.

The crew worked as a team. The meals were excellent, the appetizers were a pleasant and welcoming enlightenment to arrive back from a days bike riding and encounter beautifully prepared appies awaiting us.
Our ride leader Michaela (spelling?) a true high light. Kept our days light and fun filled .
The sites, scenery, & history was amazing.

The tour was wonderful from start to finish. The staff were amazing and food was wonderful. We particularly liked the after cycling drinks and canapes. Perfect for after a day of touring and cycling. The bikes were amazing, the gears were perfect for the terrain, even the hilly bit on Day 4!
The bedrooms were a little dated but as advertised.

Fun itinerary / fun people/ well run trip
Excellent tour leaders & staff

Our Italian chef Irena made the best food that we had on the whole trip.and Italian steward Deanna Selected the wines. Both were so gracious and professional are afternoons and evenings were made perfect. The itineraries were perfect such beautiful small villages add scenery. The bikes were much better than we expected. Definitely go electric. Our boat the Estella was very nice.

We were extremely unhappy with this trip. We were told by the bike/barge crew that Tripsite subcontracted our Avignon barge/bike trip with another company. Unfortunately, Tripsite didn't inform us of this change. The bike/barge trip we signed up for was advertised as "Easy to Moderate". The bike tour was NOT Easy to Moderate. In fact, our bike tour leader advised us that this trip was rated as "Moderate to Difficult". As a result, we weren't able to ride everyday due to the difficulty of the terrain. The barge we stayed on was extremely humid and damp. The bedsheets, towels and floor in our room were constantly damp even with running the AC all day and night. Every morning, there was standing water on the floor of our room. We had to constantly mop up the water on our room's floor--even with the AC continuously running. Very disappointed with this trip!

The biking in the southern France with the scenery was fantastic! The guided bike guide was a fountain of historical knowledge of the area as well.

We really liked the old walled cities at the start, middle, and end of this trip! These cities were beautiful! Didn’t like the bike trails as well as the ones on our Germany bike/barge trip last year, as there were lots of dirt/gravel and a fair amount of riding along the edge of roads. Was not a fan of L’Estello barge bathrooms as they had the shower right in the bathroom, so everything gets wet and you had to run the A/C on a low temp to get everything to dry out. Food was great and the barge staff was very friendly and did a great job!! We did enjoy this trip a lot. Next year we booked an Italy bike/barge from Venice to Mantova.

The barge crew, the fabulous food, our wonderful guide and meeting great people from all over the world made this trip ever so special. We came together as a team and simply had a lovely time. We needed to ride each day because Sara’s meals were delicious and we ate way too much. I mean that as a compliment, for sure!
The towns we biked to and through were beautiful to see. Our guide, Georgio, did his homework.
Can’t wait to do another trip. In fact, we already inquired about one through tripsite today!