3 Star Switzerland Tour Reviews — 1 to 8 of 8

The most important element is that we were in Constance on likely one of the busiest biking weekends of the year. It was a holiday weekend, the weather was awesome and everyone and his dog and baby and family and cart and wagon was on the path. With all the traffic, I found the biking quite stressful.
The hotels and were good, especially the Rheingold in Uberlingen. The days were longer than expected with two of the days being 60 km. And I would not describe the route as “easy”. There were some steep climbs and with the heavy electric bikes, it was a struggle for me at 75. (We did a tour in Croatia a few years ago and I am pretty sure those bikes were much lighter and more manoeuvrable. Is this my imagination?) The other disappointment was that we were in Arbon on a Monday and everything was closed. It was a real struggle to find a restaurant that was open. The little inn where we stayed was impressive though and the breakfast was lovely. We had some difficulty with directions, finding our way in and out of cities. Anyway, the tour was more of an endurance test than a leisurely bike around a lake but we did succeed in the end. The bike shop in Constance was great and the people were very helpful.

The scenery was so beautiful and all the hotels were very nice. The signage around the lake was confusing at times. There should be an option, for an extra fee, to have quality helmets provided along with having bikes delivered and picked up at hotels at beginning and end of tour.

The scenery, hotels and food were great. People were very friendly. The maps for this self-guided trip around Lake Constance were not detailed enough, did not provide information for intersections and turns. We had many times that we did not which way to go. Definitely need better maps.

We prefer guided trips because we miss the guides knowledge of area. We start riding and don't take time to check out the sights

One of our hotels was not up to our expectations or the trip rating. Most of our maps/directions were good but missed a detour/construction.

I was pleased with the points of interest on the tour (Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Colmar, Breisach), however, the route was very industrial at times and there was just nothing special about it. The maps and route descriptions were terrible and I'd say that was the number one complaint of fellow passengers. I talked to the guide and he said they will redo the route for next year so hopefully with some changes, it will be much better.

The Konstanz trip and bikes were very good. The Danube trip bikes were not as good and the scenery needed to be varied more since riding alongside the Danube got a touch boring after a while. (Review from Around Lake Constance and Danube Bike Path - Passau to Vienna)

The Rhine from Mainz to Basel, for the most part, is industrial and not as picturesque as other European bike and barge routes we've enjoyed. There were a few cities (Heidelberg, Germany and Strausbourg, France) which were beautiful and offered much to do, but we were expecting the scenic bike routes with quaint towns for cake and coffee, or beer stops along the way and were sorely disappointed. But the most disappointing aspect of this trip was the inability of the on-board guide to give proper instructions nor enlighten us of things to see or visit. We found out about popular sites from all channels except the guides. In Strausbourg, while chatting with tourists, we heard of an amazing evening light show projected onto an enormous cathedral - huge crowds gathered to enjoy this historic presentation, yet nothing was mentioned of it by our guide. We have needed so little guidance to enjoy our bike and barge trips, but this one missed the mark. Based on previous trips that we've done, we'd convinced 2 other couples to join us and they were underwhelmed and disappointed as well. The barge and accommodations were adequate, though rooms were random sizes no matter which deck you choose. One couple paid extra for the upper deck, but their room was much smaller than another couple's on the lower level. The staff and meals on this barge were top notch and we can't say enough about the gourmet chef and tireless staff.