Bike & Hotel Tour Reviews page 118
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia and H…
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- England
- Estonia
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Holland
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Mexico
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Scotland
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United States
- Vietnam
- ★★★★★ James Hutcherson
Could have been better
Loire a Velo: Orleans to the Atlantic
This tour was our 12th bicycle tour, but the first in France. Distances were good, weather cooperated, Hotels were excellent. Route was very well sign posted. We found the route much more difficult than we expected. Many hills. The previous reviews and description did not even mention that aspect. These would have not caused much of a problem if we had opted for ebikes, and the vast majority of riders that we encountered did have ebikes. I would disagree that this tour would be labeled as family friendly, unless the family has no kids. One difficulty we had was that there were no intermediate stops for coffee, snacks, lunch, water, etc. I would recommend packing those items from the departure town each day. While the route does generally follow the river, most of the route is not next to the river and it is not visable most of the time. I hope this review does not deter anyone from this tour, since the castles, hotels, food should be enjoyed. Just a little heads-up advice.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 12
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
- ★★★★★ The dozer
Challenging to peddle to fairy tale cities.
Prague to Vienna via Cesky Krumlov
The route was challenging, navigation difficults, but beautiful UNESCO sites each night. We were just dropped off with the wrong bikes, a Garmin we could not use, and one sheet of paper with directions and overview of route. If it had not been for 5 Irish ladies on the same route we would have really struggled. They had a Garmin that worked and with intense map study did not get lost as often as we did. VERY few people spoke English. Our pick up person was very rude to the Irish ladies.
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2015
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Czech Republic
- ★★★★★ Cycle2017
Our Venice to Porec Challenge
Venice to Trieste and Istria
This tour proved to be more challenging than anticipated, partly due to torrential rains on 2 days and windy conditions most of the week. Concerns included long riding distances with limited facilities between some of the planned stops -e.g. -few restaurants or stores to purchase snacks and more water. The signage didn't always match the tour directions, creating confusion and likely longer rides than planned. The final day -70 km, with 50% uphill is a challenge for casual riders. Casual recreational riders will find some of the days long and some of the terrain challenging. The local provider provided excellent support when we were flooded out of a hotel and unable to ride due to area flooding, and also assisted with transportation for the final transfer when a member of the group was ill, and weather conditions were miserable. Despite this, our group, 3 recreational riders and 1 experienced rider, enjoyed visiting the beautiful cities along the route -when the weather cooperated.
- ★★★★★ Jonathan M
Great trails, not well organized
Cycling the Altmühl Valley - Round trip from Regensburg
This trip follows well marked German bike trails which are very easy to navigate and quite scenic. The hotels are fabulous. However, we did not have a good experience with the German bike company (Radweg Reisen) that operates the trip on the ground. We were self-guided, and our information package was not available the day we arrived, so we didn't have maps and guiding information in advance. When the packet arrived the next morning, we discovered that it contained very little about sights near the tour route. We were able to Google plenty of side trips but wondered: isn't that the job of the tour company? Also, our bikes were delivered late on the day we were supposed to start, so we lost a morning of biking (and actually the bikes were eventually delivered not by the tour company but by an English family to whom the bikes had been misdelivered). We called Radweg Reisen but their corporate office was located hundreds of km away. We have been on lots of trips with biketours.com and find that the smaller shops are much more attentive and give better service. Radweg Reisen is too big to care about 2 self-guided bikers.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 8/25-8/30
- How many tours have you completed?
- 10
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
- ★★★★★ John Matthew Schley
Both really great and just OK
Algarve Coastal Route
The weather in February was perfection. We saw many beautiful sights. Each days biking was varied. We stayed in very large hotels/spas. They were objectively good hotels. We hated them. Really felt separated from environment. Felt I could have been anywhere. Restaurants we visited along the way were all excellent. My wife had a problem with her bike. The team handled it wonderfully. Every person who we interacted with on their team were gracious and helpful. While there are many examples of natural beauty in the Algarve , the amount of development, both miles of very expensive holiday homes, and strips of pizza joints and t-shirt stores made the trip not completely what we hoped for.
- What was the date of your tour?
- February 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Portugal
- ★★★★★ Kseed
Fun, but flawed
Best of Northern Zealand
We did the ‘Best of Northern Zealand’ trip. The locations were fun, and the the hotels decent enough. The bikes need to be upgraded. The most difficult part of the trip was the navigation. The GPS files don't have enough way points, so it rarely told us on what road we should be, instead pointing us across fields in a general direction. We wound up using Google Maps, which served us way better, but used a lot of battery on the phone. So make sure you have a smart phone and a good sized external battery for navigation. We did enjoy the trip quite a lot, but in general, with the exception of moving luggage around, we could have done just as well or better on our own.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 16th
- How many tours have you completed?
- Several
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Denmark
- ★★★★★ joe eberly
Nice Ride
Lake Constance Bicycle Path
This is a very easy ride with mostly flat land around a beautiful lake. We had e-bikes which made it very easy. Hotels all very nice, but no AC for hot weather. June can be risky with the weather. We had two days of five with steady rain. This is our 3rd trip with Bikes.com and was my lest favorite. We never met our local tour operator, even when we picked up our bikes. There was substantial flooding due to heavy rains and some road construction that we didn't know about until we came to it. It was at that time we had to figure an alternate route. A little heads up would have save a lot confusion, especially during our rainy days. On previous trips, the tour operator spent time going over the route with areas we needed to pay attention to. The fact that none of us spoke German didn't help in trying to understand road signs. The route is well marked but makings change from country to country, so pay attention.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Mid-June 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland
- ★★★★★ JPeter
History seen
Venice to Florence: From Rialto Across the Sea to Ponte Vecchio
The accommodations were satisfactory to good (hotel in Choggia was wonderful). The trip was as expected and explained in the brochure. For the most part the directions and markers were decent except in Florence. Little to no markers seen and the directions to the parking garage given were incorrect for Florence, frustrating.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 09/17 to 09/23
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2 including this one
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
- ★★★★★ Julia Bouchard
Beautiful countryside
Balkan Treasures
The countries we visited were awesome. The local tour operator left a lot to be desired. Before leaving the US we tried multiple times to download the gps routes onto our phones. Biketours.com stated they do not support the app we were supposed to use…..when we arrived in Trebinje our first day, none of us were able to see the routes…after phone calls with local operator, he walked us through using an app with his username and password-less than ideal. We eventually had the routes on our phones,but no way to mount phone on handlebars. Eventually we got one phone holder that immediately dropped the phone while spinning around!
Initially I was given a bike that was way too small. Tour operator wanted me to use it for the first day which had the longest climb of the week. Eventually he did supply a proper fitting bike that night. We never had anyone to check the bikes with us….
Many of the hotels were quite nice but when we were transferred to Stari Bar, the hotel owner said we did not have reservations. He gave us awful rooms, over the kitchen noisey, sink that didn’t drain…..husband got food poisoning from the restaurant. Albania was disappointing because the lake was so dirty and riding in the city was dangerous The Balkans are awesome but the local tour operator was not up to the standard I expected and received on previous bike tours.com trips- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia, Albania, Montenegro
- ★★★★★ Karen and Martin Keller
All bike tours are not equal
Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
We are experienced bike tourists and have used several bike tour companies as well as planning our own tours. For this tour in particular: Accommodations were all very nice. The luggage transfers were timely and efficient and Roman, the driver, was great. The GPS worked well. The bikes were average and in good repair. A suggestion would be to have various saddle options. Overall the items and logistics of the bike tour co operator were in control of were very good. Specific to our experience, the actual mileages were different than initial itinerary causing final day plans in Budapest to be foiled. In our opinion, this stretch of the Danube radweg is not as scenic as the Passau to Vienna section. To no one’s fault, our specific tour was plagued by extreme heat and 3 days of solid torrential rain, which made this a less than ideal experience. Tour operator came through to try to assist us with alternative transportation options, which we appreciate.
- ★★★★★ Richard 69
A nice ride
Strasbourg to Mainz: Imperial Cities and Charming Landscapes Along the Rhine
This is our eighth time cycling in Europe so we are experienced cyclers. This is the first and only time we had any problems. When we arrived in Strassbourg in the evening and checked our bikes we noticed right off that one of the bikes had a problem. We called Eurobike the next morning to resolve the issue and we were underwhelmed by their response. After several phone calls and two and a half hours taken out of the day we planned to spend sightseeing in Strassbourg I finally demanded that they bring us another bike which they reluctantly agreed to do. If we had not taken an extra day in Strassbourg there would have been no way for us to complete the first leg of our tour. So there was that.
We have always chosen the B level hotels and have always been more than satisfied. This tour the hotels were hit and miss. The Hotel Ibis in Heidelberg gave us a room that was literally the size of a closet nd it was more than a mile walk to get to the historic old town. The hotel Asgard in Worms was also a long way from the city center. I will say that all the hotels served a good breakfast.
The bikes were the typical rental bikes that we always get so they are a little heavy and slow so no surprises there. But we found the road surfaces to be very rough in many places which made for very slow travel and we found ourselves reaching our destinations much later than we planned.
We cycled through forests and lots of farmland which was fine but we really did not cycle along the Rhine as much as we would have liked. The scenery was pleasant enough but not nearly as spectacular as other tours we’ve taken.
The printed directions are always confusing and at times our route was not as well marked as we would have liked so there was a lot of stopping to check our phones. We found the app that we downloaded to be very helpful.
It’s always fun and exciting to be cycling in Europe and we did enjoy ourselves and had many fine meals along the way. Unfortunately this ride did not compare favorably with the other seven tours we’ve taken.
- ★★★★★ Canada
A bit of a disappointment
Lake Constance Bicycle Path
We booked the high end tour and in general were very pleased. Most of the hotels were lovely and located conveniently to the bike path. One exception was the Marina hotel we were sent to. We passed by beautiful villages but instead of staying in these lovely locations, we were sent to a marina where there no amenities nearby. We explored through the nearby campsite and located a restaurant much more reasonably priced than the marina hotel restaurant. When we had asked at the hotel about nearby restaurants, the hotel said there were no others nearby. It was also very noisy as they were working on the boats. Also we were disappointed with how little you actually got to bike along the lake. Being as this is a huge vacation area most of the lakefront had homes on them. So we were sharing the road much more than expected with often little or no views of the lake.
The bike tour company was great and the bikes were of a good quality (though with the bumpy terrain shocks would have been appreciated).A lovely touch was the beautiful room at the Hotel Halm in Constance where there was a bottle of wine waiting and a lovely corner room.
- How many tours have you completed?
- Three
- 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?
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland
- ★★★★★ Kitty Brodie
Not quite what we expected
Vienna to Budapest 5-nights (Active)
We booked a self-guided 5-day tour from Vienna to Budapest.
There were a few things that did not sit well with us on the organizational front.
The tour itself was great once we got started and the cities/hotels en route were great.
The bike service was great... we had a mechanical issue on Day 1 of riding, and the bike was replaced the next morning.Organizationally:
Confirmation of tour was delayed until the 1 day before the original day of departure.
When I tried to cancel because we wanted to book something that was confirmed, I was told this was not possible.
That seemed unfair, when the tour operator has the right to cancel, but not the client.The initial orientation meeting on "Day 1" in Vienna did not happen until "Day 2".
Nothing at all was arranged for "Day 1" other than the hotel in Vienna.The 5 day tour turned out to be 5 nights, with the 1st night in Vienna, where we already were staying.
So not 5 nights on the road, but 5 nights in hotels. Starting on the morning of "Day 2" makes the tour really only a 4 day tour in my opinion.The bikes that were brought to us on the morning of "Day 2" were not the right bikes that we had ordered.
Pick up time for our bags from the hotel was not mentioned in the orientation meeting.
Consequently, we missed the pickup time on the first hotel and had to pay for a taxi to bring the bags to the next hotel.
This again seemed unfair.- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens, Families with young kids
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Hungary, Slovakia
- ★★★★★ Kevin Rudd
Could have been better
Sweden’s West Coast: Helsingborg to Gothenburg
The ride was generally good. The route was relatively remote with few points to stop and places along the route to interact with the citizen of the areas visited. Poor preparation of the e-bikes two of the 6 bikes were not at the pick up location and not properly charged. The first day was difficult riding heavy bikes without power. Very disappointing start to our trip.
Hotel accommodations were fair. The opening property was excellent, while the balance were two and three star quality properties. That said, all the people at the hotels and the bike rental location were friendly and helpful. I would have welcomed better hotel locations and would be willing to pay more. Self-guided does not need to be budget.
In general, of the other guided and self-guided rides in Europe this ride was 4th of 4.
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4, 2 guided and 2 self-guided
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Sweden
- ★★★★★ Karen Metsos
Not the Best
Andalusia: Southern Spain
This was our third bike tour and to be honest we were disappointed in general. While the hotel accomodations and the towns that you slept in were great and places I would visit again, but the overall biking experience was a different story. The bike journey each day was mostly about trying to get to the next town. The experience along the way in terms of where you cycled and the towns you went through was a let down. For example having done the Passau to Vienna cycle a few years back the lunch stops and places to take breaks were amazing, charming, convenient and scenic. This trip didn't offer any of that. The lunch locations were simply a place to rest and keep going. The tour operator in the self guided books didn't offer any recommendations of where to stop for lunch or breaks compared to the previous 2 tours we did (Passau to Vienna and Puglia). On the previous two tours these types of tips and recommendations added extreme value to our trip.
A couple of tips... if you do decide to do this cycle definitely spend the extra 30 euros for the GPS as it will vastly improve the navigation experience as bikes aren't set up to display the guide book and if the tour operator is reading this, having an upgraded room option would be a good idea as the hotels were great as well as the towns. On a couple of the locations we paid extra for an upgraded room upon checkin and it made a difference!- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
- ★★★★★ Karen5
Hungary countryside
Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
Fortunately I always have fun. If the group had not taken lunch from breakfast buffet we would have been without food until lunch. Route directions could have bern clearer.
- ★★★★★ Linda Farnworth
Not impressed with Ave
Prague to Vienna via Cesky Krumlov
The bikes were not good. One day the range of ebike battery barely made it, my chain came off twice, seat kept slipping down, other equipment not great, and worst of all the seats were TERRIBLE.
The ride was nice though with good scenery and a challenging ride.- What was the date of your tour?
- May 18, 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Czech Republic
- ★★★★★ Pedals
Great and not so great
Tauern Bike Path (Krimml-Passau)
Having just come off 2 weeks biking in France we had something to compare this trip with.
The first 3 days or so were magic - lovely views, fantastic track surface and finally cool weather. The accommodation was great,especially after we were upgraded twice, and can be recommended.The bike gear was top class but my bike however was not. Euro Velo bike hires have to realise that the standard puffy commuter seat they supply are not comfortable for guys used to proper bike seats - enough said. Also on the second day when I went to use the smallest front chain ring it turned out that 2 of the mounting bolts were missing and it got wrecked so one third of my gears were gone. Managed to get this repaired after a couple of days but wasn't really satisfactory. This should not happen!
The directions and maps hardly ever match up completely on these type of trips but we were certainly not happy to discover at the end of a long hot day that the instructions for the approach to Salzberg were in fact for someone coming from completely the opposite direction - a victim of cut and past to be sure, as was the odd paragraph still in Austrian, but this should have been edited properly. A shame as the general standard of the material presentation was of a high quality.
Be aware if you want to do this trip that the last few days are along the stop bank beside the river and are boring - very little in the way of scenery and culture. Next time we will detour inland.
Sorry but overall a 3 star effort.
Warning - in case you may be considering a taxi ride from Innsbruck to Krimml to start your trip make sure that the driver is legitimate. Ours was a temporary fill in, had not driven out of town for 4 years and was a thoroughly unsafe driver. Much too fast and I suspect maybe on something. He almost ran off the road a number of times and clipped the inside kerb a couple of times . Haven't been so scared in our lives as passengers apart from jeep trips in Nepal and Pakistan. This should not happen in a first world country and if it had been practical solution we would have got out and walked!!
- ★★★★★ Marge Anderson
Lots of friendly people
Highlights of the Highlands: Donegal by E-bike
We had beautiful weather. This helped make the trip really nice. We had very nice hosts at our accommodations. Some of the places were much nicer than others. The Brennan B&B was excellent. Other places had some problems like plumbing, but in general the accommodations were fine. We did arrive in one town (Glencolmcille) to find there weren't any restaurants open. We thought this wasn't very good planning on the part of the bike company.
The roads were ok. Some of the roads were a bit busy. Some were very nice country roads. There was a section that was gravel that was a bit tricky. The scenery was lovely.
There were some errors in directions that should be fixed.
I've been on a few other biking trips. This was my least favorite.- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 5
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Ireland
- ★★★★★ 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!