3 Star Romantic Road & the Bavarian Lakes Tour Reviews — 1 to 2 of 2

The ride was always a. ‘bucket list’ item, & the scenery was outstanding, & the GPS was very beneficial. However, I wouldn’t rate the ride as our best experience, as there were a few disappointments. The Augsburg hotel was not very good. At the outset (day 1) the instructor was briefing a large group of German speaking cyclists, (for ~20 minutes) & advised he’d brief the English speaking cyclists afterwards, but he just came over & said we could start the ride, but we mentioned that we were advised to go to the Dom Hotel for instructions, & he just said - ‘what do you want to know?’, & it was annoying that we had to wait ~1 hour & cycle an additional 2km to get that instruction. Plus, the bikes did not have drink bottle cages, which would have been beneficial. I acknowledge the advice regarding 20kg weight restriction on luggage, & when we left Australia, our (3 pieces) luggage were weighed at the airline checkin at 19kg, 20kg, & 21kg, & we redistributed some luggage to the bike panniers, & then received notices on the end of day1 that out luggage was overweight 1 x 23kg & 1 x 21kg, & that we had to reduce the weight or the luggage would be left behind (we relocated the required amount to my backpack), but I suggest your partner recalibrate their scales (plus it surprises me that 20kg is OK, but 21kg is not). Additionally, we were only provided 2 luggage tags each, so we couldn’t buy another piece of luggage, to redistribute the weight (despite the instructions provided that we’d receive 3 luggage tags each). Additionally, once we arrived at our daily destination, there was no directions given to our accommodation hotel, which resulted in additional cycling (I had to use my Australian iPhone to access GPS, which was costly). Occasionally, there was a few trail signs that conflicted with the GPS, & a couple occasions when the written instructions provided a 3rd point of view.

I liked the app showing the tracks, it would be even better if it automatically zoomed in around intersections. The bicycles are good (we used the non-electric enhanced ones), smooth gear switching, adequate gear ratio.

I am not sure if this is obvious to others, but a large part of this route (60km give or take) goes over gravel trails, which is not fun to say the least.

While hotels along the route are generally good, one night accommodation was a real dump, I did not expect that, and it was very disappointing.

A couple of suggestions:

- bring your own phone holder to make sure the phone with the map is mounted properly
- sometimes the luggage is left in the reception area, and sometimes put away in a storage room. Ask the receptionist if the luggage arrived to be sure, to avoid wasted time.