Bike & Hotel Tour Reviews page 117
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★★★★★ Chris 77
Interesting trip with contrast between route and hotels
Andalusia: Southern Spain
Did get a picture of that region of Spain. The hotels were great but the route was not very interesting and some of the dirt roads were in very poor condition. The GPS was poor and the written instructions are necessary. Ebikes are not a bad idea. The tour should definitively give the bikes the night before the first day of riding to get an early start so you can enjoy the hotels after a not great first ride day.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May
- How many tours have you completed?
- More than 20
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
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★★★★★ CJ4EY
Fabulous Paradors - Challenging Cyclying
Cycling Spain’s Land of the Conquistadors
We really enjoyed the Paradors as each one is historical and unique. The biking is through rural countryside and is very pretty, and the temperatures in March were perfect. The directions provided by the tour company were outstanding! The surface of the trip is along asphalt roads, but I think it should be noted that the terrain is very hilly. The only flat section of the trip is the first half of the first cycling day and last cycling day. Otherwise, you’re climbing or descending, and since descending is much faster, you’re spending most of your days climbing. It was our 8th trip and definitely the most challenging. Another aspect of the trip is there is a lot of traffic passing at high speeds. While most of drivers are courteous in the amount of space given, if you’re accustomed of cycling without traffic, it can be very disconcerting. It a lovely trip, but I think the surface and terrain need to be disclosed.
- What was the date of your tour?
- March 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 8
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
-
★★★★★ CynFul
Mosel Bike Path: Dreamy Mosel Valley from Trier to Koblenz
The scenery along the route was breathtaking and every town on the tour was welcoming.
Most of the riding was on a well maintained bike path (many taking us through wine vineyards) although we were diverted to the road (both in-town and along busy thoroughfares) a time or two but besides the rides through the towns the riding along the roads was along a designated area for bikes and the vehicular traffic was mindful of the cyclists. The accommodations were very comfortable and having prepaid for daily breakfast and dinner we didn't have to make any choices where to eat and all-in-all each of our meals were satisfactory at minimum. Although the pre-tour preparation for our self-guided bike tour was very detailed with BikeTours.com the execution (by the German based company) left something to be desired. The riding instructions/maps we were given were based on the standard route so they didn't take our particular stops into consideration; we therefore spent a good amount of time lost on our bikes. This was also because the general riding directions/instructions provided by the German tour company were not very detailed and again, did not provide specific details relative to our daily stops. The equipment provided by the German tour company was fair; the two women's bikes were like beach cruisers so easy to get on/off, the e-bike was fantastic (appeared to be brand new) and the other men's bike worked fine although it seemed a bit big for the rider and it was the smallest men's frame the local company had available. The handlebar box and panier for each bike was adequate for transporting our personal items.We LOVED the area, just wish we had spent less time being lost and more time exploring the beautiful, friendly towns scattered along the Moselle.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 6-13, 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- This was the first for me
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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★★★★★ Dagbjört
Rhône River Route: Oberwald to Geneva
* It was our 3d tour that we have booked with BikeTours and always been very pleased with the organizing, until now, we are sad to say.
* We never meet anyone from the tour company and that was very strange.
* Accommodation on one of the "hotels" was very poor, very cheep hotel, that was right across the street from the train/bus station and that was very disturbing through the night.
* It was only breakfast that was incl in the price. Maybe you should considered to have dinner incl. also.- What was the date of your tour?
- 26th of august 2018
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Switzerland
-
★★★★★ Mike Corney
Vienna - Budapest
Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
I rate the tour over 6 attributes: Terrain, Scenery, Bikes & Equipment, Hotels, Directions / Maps and Cycling Infrastructure over the toute.
Terrain - was as advertised - mostly flat
Scenery - was disappointing. I expected to be cycling along the Danube. For large parts of the route the Danube was nowhere in sight.
Hotels - Hotels and the food that they provided were very good.
Directions / Maps - These left something to be desired. The directions were in English, but the maps were in German. It was often difficult to match up the written directions with the maps. Finding our way into and out of towns and locations of hotels was particularly difficult.
Cycling Infrastructure - This was often poor. The designated route often had us on busy roads. We had to traverse unpaved portions of the route that were often little more than tractor ruts in a field. Paved paths were often in poor condition with many uneven patches and bumps. Very poor.
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★★★★★ mb001
Fun trip with lots of biking.
Vienna to Budapest 5-nights (Active)
My friend and I did this trip in early Oct. The first hotel in Vienne is Hotel Arcortel and not near any restaurants or pubs but close to the start of the trip. I would suggest booking a few days before in the city center if you plan on seeing Vienna. We stayed next in Hotel Devin in Bratislava. The hotel here and city were great. Everything walking distance. Next was Hotel Barrokk in Gyor. This was a very nice hotel and city that you could walk to a variety of restaurants and shopping. Then day 3 we biked 124km to Esztergom. There is an option to take a train for half of this trip. We did the biking and found it a very long day, but doable. We had electric bikes and it was a good thing! This day of biking was the most difficult not only because of the distance, but the terrain. You are in remote Hungarian countryside with no one around for hours. The bike trail or paths are poorly marked in some areas you find yourself on dirt farm land. Unfortunately we were lost a lot! The hotel in Esztergom was the Hotel Bellevue. This hotel is set on a busy street with no options to walk to any other restaurants or shopping. We were not aware that dinner must be booked ahead of time. After talking our way into a reservation, we found the buffet was average. If possible stay in the city and not this hotel. On the last day we left and needed to catch the ferry across the river. We were lucky as the week we were there was the last week of the season for the ferry. We rode to Budapest and again found some of the trails or paths poorly marked. We ran into a guided tour along the way and the guide told us about an app called mapy.cz and it has the entire map of the bike path we used and saved us several times. It was great to finish in Budapest as it is a very large exciting city with so much to do! The NH Hotel was easy to get to and situated close to many sites.
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★★★★★ Janine
Beautiful and Stressful
Algarve Coastal Route
We enjoyed seeing and exploring the towns of the Algarve. The beaches were beautiful, hotels were very nice, we had delicious meals. The least enjoyable was the biking. We rented Ebikes. A lot of time was spent on busy roads with traffic and cars and trucks whizzing by. On the no traffic parts, the trail was rocky, gravelly with potholes a good percentage of the time. The trails are unmaintained. We did bike through nature areas along the water which was lovely. We did this trip the third week in April. The weather was perfect- 70’s and sunny. This was our 7th bike trip. We enjoyed our trip to the Algarve and glad we did it, but the biking was not as enjoyable as our other trips and at times very stressful.
- What was the date of your tour?
- April 2025
- How many tours have you completed?
- 7
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Portugal
-
★★★★★ Moira Quigley
Interesting part of Italy
A Taste of Italy: Emilia-Romagna
Well organised, GPS system worked well for us most of the time, person greeting us and setting us up was fantastic, bikes excellent. Loved the parmesan and balsamic vinegar factory tours - wonderful hosts. We did not enjoy the route as much as other tours we have done. There were more main roads and traffic than we were expecting and have experienced on previous bike tours. The agritourismo accommodation was so nice we did not want to leave.
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- Three
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
-
★★★★★ Mild Bill
Great ride but horrible bikes
Majorca: A Loop Tour of the Beautiful Balearic Island
We enjoyed generally the trip locations. Ride instructions were definitely a little fuzzy at times but generally good. The bikes were horrific. They had these heavy, equipment laden bikes that were meant for city riding and not going through the countryside. Not the type of bike meant for doing long hill climbs. Hotels were fine and had good locations, but again instructions to get to them were not great. We had to incur roaming charges to find one because the instructions they gave to find it would have put us the next town over.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 26th
- How many tours have you completed?
- 22
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
-
★★★★★ Skipper
Nice trip- some days better than others.
Bolzano to Verona: Orchards, Mountains & Timeless Culture
The trip was nice. The first three days had pretty scenery and nice riding. The fourth day was mostly on roads and some areas not very exciting. The last day retraced some of the fourth day and seemed like it wasn’t really necessary. The signage at certain points was unclear (e.g., the bike path ended and it was unclear what to do next) and there was an actual mistake in directions arriving at the hotel in Verona. The GPS was not particularly helpful. The bike was a good quality, but one of the bikes didn’t have working lights.
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- Two
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
-
BikeTours.com staff reply from Chloe
We appreciate you letting us know that this wasn't your ideal trip. Based on other reviews and more tour details the last two days are overall more countryside riding when compared with the first few. We understand how this could seem less exciting. Thanks again for submitting a review; we hope we can book something better suited to your tastes next time!
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★★★★★ Morgan Baumann
Excellent Trails on which to explore a lovely part of Europe
Venice to Trieste and Istria
Traveling by bike is a wonderful way to enjoy a new place. Our accommodations were Excellent. Our guide, Tony, (with us for the first days), was first rate!- so helpful. A couple of concerns: I would not rate this as a 2 for regular bikes - even with variants, it was a lot of biking and I was disappointed not to arrive in towns sooner. Everyone in our group was similarly disappointed including those on e-bikes. I would have liked a more leisurely pace and instead the days felt rushed. The directions however were my biggest problem. For the most part they were poor. We lost so much time just trying to figure out where to go! Our last stage, into Porec was by far the easiest and so even though the ride itself was more challenging, we arrived in Porec in good time to enjoy the town. This last stage was easier because the red arrows were frequent and well placed all along the route. You only needed to glance at the map and the written directions and then just keep following the arrows. In contrast, on many of the other stages, the arrows were few and far between and often were Not where we needed to make a turn! We spent far too much time studying the map and having to reverse direction to get back on the route. It would also help if the directions noted if we were generally following a set route that was already mapped out by those small brown signs. Those signs were well placed and easy to follow.
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★★★★★ Raff
Wonderful itinerary, average biking
Bolzano – Verona – Venice
Great towns, but not enough time to see them. The biking scenery was ok. Really poor cue sheets in English.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 9-16-17-8-22-17
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
-
BikeTours.com staff reply from Brittany
Thank you for your review. We'll work with our partner operator on better translated daily directions. We appreciate your time and hope to help you in the future!
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★★★★★ Marion Van Kirk
Beautiful Austria and Germany
Tauern Bike Path (Krimml-Passau)
Biking was more difficult than expected. Luckily the women had e-bikes. Most of the hotels were excellent and food was great. Trip started in Neukirchen am Grossvenediger instead of Krimml due to closed hotels. The hotel in vicinity of Burghausen was too far from the town to be able to enjoy the beautiful city and castle and this was a huge disappointment since there were 3 other hotels within the city.
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★★★★★ Mychelle
Do Your Research
Lake Constance Bicycle Path (Upscale Lodging)
My husband and I did the Lake Constance Self Guided bike tour. When we arrived at our hotel we dropped off our bags and we took a taxi to the bike company to pick up our bikes (per our instructions). We were greeted by a man that spoke only German. The maps and instruction he gave us were not clear (some of them were in German as well). The monitor on the bike was not in English (he got a translator over the phone to help him change it). I had upload the suggested Bike app on my phone ahead of time with the trail map but it would not work once we arrived. The first 24 hours of our trip did not go smooth (prior to our ride). I ended up going to the Visitor's Center in town and found someone that spoke English to walk me through the route. I got a much better trail map from them as well. Once we got through the hump of what we felt was very poor planning on the part of this company everything else went well. The hotels were wonderful, the bike trail was breathtaking, the weather was mostly sunny (a little rain) and the trail is well marked. I emailed this company during our trip to let them know about our problems and they were little help.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with young kids, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland
-
★★★★★ Mycycle50
Very beautiful but more difficult than advertised.
Prague-Vienna-Bratislava-Budapest
Our outfitter provided lots of info- maps, gps routes and suggested sites to visit. Some very rough roads, some steep hills.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 22 to June 15
- How many tours have you completed?
- 9
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia
-
★★★★★ Josée
Not our dream trip
Vienna to Budapest 5-nights (Active)
We booked the active tour because we did not have time to do the classic. 80-100 km per day were too much, specially when 1 day/4 was 100% rain. We cannot control temperature on a cycling trip, but to cycle 50-60 km in the rain would have been much better than 100km that day. On top of that, our hotel was booked at 130km instead of 100 by mistake. The hotel was nice enough to send a van and a trailer to pick us up. We were soaked!!! Out of 5 hotels, I would consider that 3 nights were more 3.5 stars than 4 and the 2 other nights were 4 to 5 stars. In some small towns, where nobody speak English, it would have nice have more guidance to know where to go to buy the ferry tickets and to know that not all countries use Euros and where to change money for cash only situation. Also, the ferry schedule was not clear, and found out that they take breaks in the morning and can cause a delay.
We were 3 (1 road bike + 2 e-bikes). The roads were rough in some areas with deep puddles of water during the rain. Of course, a flat happened and we struggled to find a pump for the road bike. The pumps that were given to us were for the e-bikes and did not fit. In a small town with no English speaking around, we managed to resolve the situation. Also, the first morning we started the trip, we had to go to a bike store to ask for extra tires in case of a flat. There were not given to us at the beginning. Thank god we went! Having done 2 cycling trips (Portugal and Croatia) in the past year, we found that the Vienna to Budapest was a bit boring. The landscape was not very different from start to beginning and the distances were long in between the little cities we visited.
Minimum information were given to us and it would have been nice to have suggestions for restaurants and more details, etc, etc. We received that info with the other companies we used for the other trips.
A water bottle or a shirt from your company would have been also a nice surprise.
The trip was OK, but can be improved in many ways for the price we paid.
We were happy for the quick response when we had the issue with the hotel at 130km instead of 100
The NH Danube or NH Budapest (We had to change room at 11h00 pm because there was a heating problem that made the room like a sauna and the window handle was broken, so we could not open it….) are more 3 stars hotels. The loft in Bratislava was VERY VERY Nice and the Barok in Gyor was great also. We expected more at the to pass on Esztergom, because we could not come back the next day to visit. I heard that the 30km we missed were worth the views and cycling.
I would recommend the trip to people that did not cycle in Portugal, Croatia and want a flat route.
4 days were a lot concerning the distances, but 6 days would have make it long for the lack of change of scenery. This is my opinion! -
★★★★★ Cathy
Puglia bike tour
Cycling in the Heart of Puglia
We enjoyed this tour but some of the roads were very rough and we were in traffic more than expected. The last two days were very rough roads with a lot of trash on both sides of the roads. Loved Ostuni and Lecce!
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
-
★★★★★ Larry Cady
Great route but TERRIBLE directions
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
The good things about the Euro Cycle tour were:
1. Very nice route through the Italian Tyrol
2. Generally very nice hotels.
3. Bike were adequate but so-so quality. On other tours I have had better quality bikes.The BAD thing - Directions were very poor. The main problem was there were no turn by turn directions to the hotels. This is standard on other tours. The printed directions routed you into the center of a town and then stopped. You were given the address of the hotel, but not directions on how to get there. Sometimes we were given a map of the town, but not always. We ended up using Google Maps on our phones to get the hotels. In one town (Maran), the hotel was well away from the town center and difficult to find. We spent a lot of time tracking it down.
I would not take a Euro Cycle tour again. Other tour companies you represent are fine and I intend to take more tours - but not with Euro Cycle.
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★★★★★ Rudy Paulich
Italian coast Adventure
Venice to Trieste and Istria
Study maps and cue sheet as early on as possible for a smooth tour.
I was unable to down load gps files as it said my device was to new.
Files and info should be updated so all can download files and pertinent info on trip.
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★★★★★ Larry Mark Robbins
Hotels with Charm?
Rhine Bike Path: Mainz to Cologne
As expected, the tour was beautiful, flat, and easy to follow. This is said to be the most scenic segment of the Rhine and I have no reason to doubt that. The bikes were excellent. We selected e-bikes, a first for me, that were useful since we encountered several cool days with a headwind. We chose the Charme category and travelled between seasons 2 and 3. Unfortunately, we were informed that four of the six hotels advertised were unavailable. Quote "Some of the hotels that were booked (due to availability) only offer Category A, however the highest room category was booked at all the Category A hotels. For Rüdesheim and Cologne we can offer a discount of 20,00 € per person/night." Ok, reasonable we thought and agreed. Here are how the switches worked out:
Mainz: H2 hotel: Brand new hotel, residential neighborhood but walkable to Old Town, overall nice. Room was good (clean & modern) tho not exceptional. More basic hotel than luxury hotel as Favorite Parkhotel appeared in pictures. Differential between the two hotels on Expedia for two nights is €80. No compensation offered.
Rudesheim: Central Hotel: As the name implies, central to tourist area. Room was Ok but not great. Certainly not "the highest room category was booked at all the Category A hotels" as promised. Breuer's Rüdesheim Castle, the brochure hotel, is €60 more expensive per night and pictures appear significantly more upscale. Compensated €40.
St Goar: Schlosshotel Rheinfels: This is the brochure hotel. Relais & Chateaux level hotel. Outstanding. Don't miss dinner in hotel dining room as sun sets.
Koblenz: Diehls Hotel: Located on the other side of the river from Koblenz but this was not a problem for us. Very fine hotel, received an upgraded room. Had an excellent dinner at hotel. Left the next morning from this side of the river. This was not either of the brochure hotels, but was excellent.
Bad Godesburg: Boutique Hotel Dreesen: This was the brochure hotel. Upscale as expected in a beautiful neighborhood. Restaurant Rheinzeit nearby should not be excluded.
Cologne: Hotel Eden am Dom: Top notch location next to cathedral and other tourist sites but just OK hotel. No upgraded room. At least €40 per night cheaper than the advertised Steigenberger per their own individual websites x 2 nights = €80. Given €40 compensation. Again, nothing wrong with this hotel, but not the experience advertised and not adequately compensated. Life isn't perfect but given this was mid-September, there were shortcomings.
NB: The ICE train returning from Koln to the Frankfurt airport is not the Hauptbahnhof next to the cathedral. That train leaves from the Messe/Deutz Bahnhof across the river. SHOW MORE
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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