Belgium Bike Tour Reviews page 11
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★★★★★ Mungo
Nice not to have to pack every day
Amsterdam – Bruges by Bike and Boat – Princesse Royal
Flat terrain, mostly bike paths and not having to pack and unpack are great advantages of this trip. The food and accommodations were better than expected. However, it is not recommended as a self-guided tour as the directions are not complete. Also, as a group tour with 35 people in a large pack makes it too cumbersome.
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★★★★★ bonnie100
So So Vacation
Bruges to Paris by Bike and Boat (and reverse)
Good bike trip if you like a slow pace. Lots of time wasted at not very interesting sites. Had to "kill" time in order not to get to the barges anchoring site before the barge got there which was usually between 4-6 PM. The barge itself was fair. But some of the scenery in Belgium and France was beautiful making the trip tolerable. Food was average. Bikes were very good.
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★★★★★ Margaret Farran
Not Really What We Expected
Bruges to Paris by Bike and Boat (and reverse)
We are seasoned bicyclists and have taken many bike tours. This tour was disappointing on a few fronts. The course of the tour had to change due to construction on the canal. This would have been fine except the guide, Harm, frequently did not seem to know where he was going. There were a couple of visits to places of interest (mining museum and a short stop at a WWI cemetery) but most times it felt like we were putting in time so as to not arrive hours before the boat arrived at its destination for the night. Our guide never led strolls around a town or provided much history. One evening when I asked if he could show us a pub to have a drink before dinner he said it was not his responsibility. We asked if we could bike on our own (as we have done on many other boat/bike tours in Europe) and were turned down. I pressed on quoting the description for the tour which read: "provide us with maps and all the information you'll need" to do a different distance. At that point Harm back tracked and said he'd provide this info. He never did. I've been biking for over 20 years on tours around the world and I have never had a guide so unhelpful and disengaged.
The food was adequate. Nice dinners but breakfast and lunch were lacking. We needed more sustenance for biking in October. Most tours provide a snack after a day of biking but we could not rely on one each day on this tour. The group bought our own snacks when we could but it was all rather odd. As if this tour had never hosted bikers before.
There was no wi-fi although the description said there would be. We at least had a data package, other people did not. What really gave us all pause was the captain's comments (1) it was too difficult to install wi-fi (I've never found that to be true on a boat) and (2) we really did not need it as we should not be on our phones during a tour. Rather presumptuous I thought. Don't advertise you have wi-fi when you don't.
We had some rain which was to be expected in October. One day it was just too wet to bike. We all stayed on the boat - no wi-fi, cabins too small to lounge in them, and while there was a large library of DVDs the captain announced the monitor did not work, therefore no video watching.
It felt like the boat was tired and the tour and crew either winding down for the season or going out of business.
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