4 Star Provence - Wilderness of Camargue Tour Reviews — 1 to 30 of 34

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 food, the staff, and the perfect mix of strangers from around the world exceeded our expectations. The cookbook also a nice surprise souvenir that we now keep on our coffee table. Mikky is an excellent guide, for many reasons! The bikes are solid!
Suggestions, nothing major, simply notes to help things out:
1) a reminder in the morning to bring money for entrance fees. No problem with them not being included in the trip cost, I simply could have used a reminder. The situation was handled fine, but would prefer to avoid asking people for a loan.
2) please consider making and showing a short video RE how to be a “corner”; corner positioning, what/who to look for, when to leave your post. perhaps consider a longer video that covers all the biking etiquette, such as safe distance between bikes, traffic signals, etc.
To explain my 4 rating; I simply didn’t come to understand how small the room was until entering it. I looked at room pictures and measurements and considered them. When we entered our room it our new reality became obvious. This is not our first bike and barge trip. The largest boat we have been on held 24 guests. However, this is the smallest room we have stayed in. Going forward we now know what we are considering when seeing these room measurements and layouts, and we will likely avoid them going forward. We understand the rooms cannot be changed, simply explaining our 4 rating.

The site that inspired van gogh’s stary night.
We didn’t see as many lavender fields as thought

1. The excellent, cheerful leadership by Helmut
2. The meals
3. The many fine trails, especially around Avignon. Wonderful biking.

Provence’s history is very interesting & our guide, Alex showed us some less touristy archaeological sites. Loved cycling down shaded country lanes especially as the 90-95 degree heat in Sep was a struggle at times. Be prepared for potholes and gravel on many of those scenic backroads. Add a visor to your bike helmet to ward of some of the heat & keep your energy up. The L’ Estello had a lovely upper deck lounge & eating area. The cabins are small & do not all have the same amenities (hooks, storage). The bathrooms are quite small & for anyone over 5’7” hard to move around in. There is no separate shower stall therefore everything in the bathroom gets wet; you must remember to remove anything that you don’t want to get wet which is a daily task when cycling. Instead of a train from Paris to Provence, consider a flight to Montpellier; it is a 30 min taxi ride to Aigues Mortes. Good connections from/to your North American flight make it possible for you to avoid a layover in Paris or a 4 hr train (with transfers) ride.

Trip was good, food was good, routes were good, the condition on the roads / trails chosen were not the best but that is really out of the control of Tripsite. A bit disappointed that there were no cycling jersey's on the boat for sale as well as we did not receive a Tripsite pre trip gift as we had in the past for being a repeat customer.

Wonderful
Company, attentive crew, and delicious food. I enjoyed the comfort of the common area for visiting and the deck for the sailing. The cabins were very. Lean, but the small windows made it somewhat claustrophobic by the 6th night. Other than that, all was very satisfactory.

The crew was absolutely the best and this was my 4th barge trip. Amazing chef, 5 star food. Cleanest boat and everyone had a great time.
Our guide, Michela was the best and worked so hard everyday.

We thought the crew were wonderful. Very engaging and helpful. Michaela was awesome and did a great job.
Got tired of the same items for lunch daily .
A variety of items would be my choice. This was 5 th or 6 th trip with Tripsite for me.
Great job . Joanie Farina

Food/staff were AMAZING!!!
I felt that the difficulty rating may have been slightly off. But the trip was overall fantastic!!

This was our sixth bike and barge trip. Our over-all experience was great!! The food was fantastic, the service from staff was excellent, and the bikes were better than our own. The Caprice is older and very tight quarters, both in the cabins and in public areas. This was a small inconvenience compared to the total experience.

Arles (Van Gogh & Roman buildings), Barbegal Acqueduct, Les Baux, olive oil mill visit, Pont du Gard. Camaraderie on board the Caprice and while riding. The hospitality and warmth of the Caprice crew. So many other great sites and experiences too. Our guide Miki was great; bike routes were pleasant and relatively free of traffic interference. I felt safe while riding and saw a lot little things along the ride that interested and pleased me - things you don't see from a car, train, or bus.
One area needing improvement: Poor WIFI aboard the Caprice. Higher capacity and more reliable WIFI would have been appreciated.

We really enjoyed our trip through the Provence region of southern France! Our guide, Michaela, was very knowledgeable of the history of the area, kept us on low trafficked roads on our bicycles, and was in general a lot of fun. Additionally, our eBikes were in great condition and we enjoyed using them throughout our tour. The only downside was our cabin on the Caprice as we both have allergies and there was a persistent mildew/mold smell which necessitated keeping the A/C on relatively high to dissipate it. The cabin was also quite small for us traveling as a couple—one of us literally had to crawl over the other to use the bathroom. The hardworking staff is to be commended.

Great aspects=the guide, food, staff
Less were the comfort of the beds and space in the bathroom

Our guide, Michaela, started each beautiful ride through the country side with such a positive attitudes and great information!
Loved the trip up to Le Baux!

Beautiful area. The small towns were charming.

The hills were a little more difficult than I anticipated. Suggestion for others would be to prepare for a lot of hills.

Great staff. The staff went out of their way to make all guests comfortable. Our group of 9 fit in well with the 11 others on tour. The close quarters make this necessary. The Staff works hard at making sure that all feel welcome.

The crew was very helpful and engaging.

The bicycle riding and scenery while pedaling is most memorable.

The Ponte de Guard, the landscape and great food.
Great bicycles and charming and efficient staff.
The boat could use a wash line

The trip overall was well organized and executed in all respects with one exception. The crew were all very competent, friendly and helpful. The meals and service were also excellent, well prepared and presented. Our only complaint was with the execution of the required COVID test which was necessary within 72 hours of our departure. We were lead to believe that this important and necessary test would be all arranged by the crew and we would know where to go and what to do. This was NOT the case. Our group had to research and find the location of the testing on our own with some difficulty. There was much difficulty locating the testing site at the appointed time. We think the charge of 50 Euros per person was excessive. We did not fault our crew as they obviously had no idea that arranging COVID testing was their responsibility.

Most Memorable Part? The sites we biked to
Tips: Perhaps separating the electric bikes from those like me who used our own pedal power or 2 leaders for 20 bikers vs the one leader. Our group depended on fellow bikers as volunteers and we were fortunate in having several expert bikers in our group!!!

Cycling through historic monuments and the Camargue wilderness was magnificent!

This was my 5th bike/barge Tripsite tour and it was just as amazing as my first. The guide was knowledgeable and the group was an interesting blend of former and present U.S. Air Force personnel as well as Italians, Americans, French and Flemish. The weather in mid April was the biggest challenge with hailstorms and thunder, which made the trip all the more memorable.
The bull fights (humane but sad), the aqueducts, and the food, oh the food! As always a nice cross section of people who are like minded in their zest for life and the enjoyment of experiencing Provence at 11 mph at sea level. (Oh, and they do warn you about the hills and the wind, which I glossed over BEFORE we went). The reason I rated this a 4 Star is I'm reserving the top prize for something that knocks my socks off!

Amazing staff and great guide

My main disappointment was that we did not go to Chateauneuf du Pape, that was one off the considerations in picking this tour. I understand the reasoning for the change in itinerary but it should be removed from the description if it is not being included. The gearing on the bikes could be better, higher top gear, lower bottom gear, for this tour. I hope this doesn't sound too negative as we did enjoy the tour. Most memorable sites were Les Beux/Les Carrieres de Lumieres and Pont-du-Gare.

It's hard to choose a most memorable part of the trip. Aigues Mortes was a big surprise -- the history, the walls and the tower, and the special celebration -- the bull games -- taking place while we were there. The Camargue was amazing, with the waterways and the vineyards, the distinct breeds of horses and the bulls. Provence was beautiful with the olive groves and apple orchards, and of course more vineyards. It was exciting to visit the sites where Van Gogh had painted in Arles, and Hugo's commentary was superb. Singing Starry Starry night on deck under the starry night was lovely. The visit to Les Baux, with the spectacular scenery and Les Carrieres des Lumieres in the quarry were fabulous. We enjoyed visiting the Pont du Gard and singing Sur Le Pont d'Avignon as we cruised passed the bridge itself.

Now the areas for improvement: The bikes were not good enough for the Provence segment. We understood that we would be provided with 27 gear bikes, but had an infinite gearing system instead, and the lowest gear wasn't enough for the hills we encountered. Those with electric bikes were happier. Also, through some poor communication between Tripsite and the tour operator, Girolibero, a part of the trip route that our group had been particularly interested in -- a visit to Chateau Neuf du Pape -- was no longer included. Hugo did his best, with a vote (which came out even) to see whether we should go to Chateau Neuf du Pape or take the shorter route that had been promised to the others on the trip. Then he flipped a coin. We accepted the decision as appropriate, but were disappointed that we had not got what was advertised through Tripsite.

The Italian barge staff and guide Carlos made the group feel like family. We laughed so much every day. It was sad to leave at the end of the week. Cycling, scenery was all very nice.

The trip was great! Mostly all positive. Tom and I would like to have the pace a bit faster....that was the only negative.

This is the second barge and bike trip we took with Tripsite and I would have to say we liked the scenery more on the Taste of Burgundy than we did with Provence. Riding the in the Camargue got a little boring. Other than that we enjoyed the overall trip.

My main concern about this particular trip is that we did not know ahead of time that staying on the barge and not biking was not an option unless one was sick. The winds were pretty bad (25-50 miles per hour) so that some of us did not feel up to the rides. On the particularly difficult day, it would have been nice to just remain with the boat.