Bike & Hotel Tour Reviews page 129
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★★★★★ Jules B
Nice Scenery and Trails but Terrible Bikes
Berlin – Copenhagen
I have mixed feelings about this ride. I was very psyched about the ride route but in retrospect, I think the ride is much more suited to recreational riders, than experienced ones.
The scenery and trails were very nice. When my derailleur hanger broke off, the company was responsive and I got a new one within a couple of hours. People on the road and at hotels were very friendly and helpful. And if you like pastry, you’ll be in heaven!
If you’re an experienced rider, you aren’t likely to be happy with the bikes. They’re very heavy and clumsy. Also, only some men’s bikes had a water bottle cage. The company provided a front bike bag which a water bottle fit into, but cages are the international standard. Most people I know travel with 2 water bottles, so the bike bag was only a partial solution. I wanted to avoid this by bringing my own bike but the company was very difficult to deal with on this issue and by the time they agreed to transport our bike boxes, it was too late.
At the ride start every room received a big packet containing paper guides and maps which I thought were a waste of paper. Everyone in my group of about 15 used Ride With GPS (RWGPS) files exclusively. But some riders may want paper guides so they should just be available on request. Further, the written directions were confusing as they combined different lodging towns so not all info was relevant to all riders. Finally, the RWGPS files routed us to the town, not actual lodging. I didn’t care for having to pull up lodging directions when we arrived in a town.
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★★★★★ 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?
- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro
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★★★★★ Hutch
Not what was expected.
Aare Cycle Route: Along the Jura, Aare, and Rhine Rivers
This was our 9th bike trip in Europe, previous ratings and reviews of trips had been pretty acurate. But this trip was not what we expected. We might have a different view if we were in our 20s or 30s so any review submitted should be evaluated with that in mind. The trip was very intensive even with ebikes (our first use of ebikes) and only serious cyclists should forego those. There were many large hills and rough surfaces (30-40% gravel). Sporadic beautiful scenery, but not even close to what we have experienced before. Hotels were all clean and about half were really nice, but several were positioned away from main points of interest and the bike route and since the stopover sites were larger cities they were hard to find (maps to hotels were not detailed, thankfully we had google maps). On the positive side, the bike route is signed very well and we had no trouble finding our way between cities. Finding good stops along the route for lunch/coffee/etc was not as easy as we had experienced on previous trips. In short, we would not classify this route as recreational or recommend it as a family trip.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Aug 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 11
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Switzerland
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★★★★★ 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
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★★★★★ 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
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Lindsay Nash
Hi! Thanks so much for sharing your experience. We're glad to hear you had a good trip overall. Aren't the UNESCO sites just fascinating?
We're sorry to hear of your trouble with the bikes and Garmin along the route. We'll share this feedback with the local operator and work to improve this service!
Thank you again for sharing your experience and helping us to spread the joy of bicycle tourism.
Kind regards,
Lindsay
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★★★★★ 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.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 10-16
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia, Italy, Slovenia
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Jim Johnson, founder and president
Janet, thank you for your valuable feedback, which we will pass along to the local tour company. We'll also take your comments into consideration when advising future clients.
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★★★★★ Jay Bonitt
Easy But Hard
Danube Bike Path 7 Nights (Classic)
The App for the bike path route was VERY GOOD. However, at the end of each day the app and map took us to the city for that day's destination, NOT to our hotel. The hotel in Aschach was not near where the app ended the day; and the hotel in Enns, while on the bike path, was several miles (and across major highways). If the hotel was on he bike path, why didn't the app take us directly to it? Finally, when entering Vienna the end of the app was no where near the hotel (a 20 minute taxi ride in heavy traffic). This glitch could easily be fixed by the tour operator by guiding riders directly to their hotel each night. As it was, after a good day of cycling, the day often ended in confusion and nowhere near the destination hotel. The bikes (one a road bike the other an e-bike) were excellent. If the app took us directly to our hotel each day instead of guiding us to the center city, I would rate the trip excellent. Unfortunately the hotel destinations were left to us to figure out, and Google maps did not always work.
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★★★★★ Susan Roberts
Disappointing tour
Munich & the Bavarian Lakes
This was my least favorite bike tour of the 6 or 7 I have done. Some of the trails were fine but too many of them were loose gravel. All six of us are experienced bikers but one person fell on the gravel damaging the bike and another person fell twice due to loose gravel. The poor quality of the gravel trails was very disappointing.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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★★★★★ Chris MacMillan
Hot in Italy in August
A Taste of Italy: Emilia-Romagna
Enjoyable cities and food. Bike routes a bit bumpy but easy. Unfortunately very hot ? this year in Italy. Tour operator helpful with flat tires.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Terez Maniatis
First trip in the dolomites
Dolomites to Venice Along the Old Dolomites Railway Track
The scenery was amazing! The local tour company was not.
By the time we got our bikes they had run out of repair kits. We had to but two tire tubes at different times because of this. Would not recommend this company!- How many tours have you completed?
- Many
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Thomas Wall
Enjoyable ride with lots of canal views
Garonne Canal: From Bordeaux to Toulouse
In order to ensure we had dedicated bike paths I think we sacrificed variety. The scenery was beautiful but we saw a lot of the canal. Enjoyed the small towns and our hosts were great! Small hiccup with luggage transfer was a bit aggravating. All-in-all, an enjoyable trip.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- This was the second
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- 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?
- France
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★★★★★ Tom Jones
Memorable bike tour
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
Just wrapped up a memorable bike tour from the Dolomites to Trieste — and wanted to share a few highlights and lessons learned.
First, a big shoutout to Taylor at BikeTours.com, who was a fantastic Tour Advisor. When our bikes didn’t show up at the first hotel as expected, we gave her a call — and she jumped in right away. Thanks to her help, the bikes arrived in time for us to start riding the next morning without delay.
What I learned:
• Expect the unexpected. Our first day brought heavy rain — and we got soaked. If you’re doing a similar trip, pack good rain gear!
• Bring biking tools. While the bikes were in excellent shape, having a small tool kit (for tightening loose seats or making minor adjustments) came in handy.
• Stay connected. I recommend buying an eSIM for mobile data before the trip. Just don’t forget to turn on data roaming!
• Be prepared for little expenses. Public WCs often cost 1€, so keep some coins handy. And at hotels, you’ll need to pay a local tax (around 3€) — some places only accept cash for that.
• Illness can happen. I haven’t been sick in years, but picked up a cough midway through the trip. I ended up skipping the last day of riding — and that meant a taxi ride to the next hotel, which cost about $100 USD.
• Extra hotel nights aren’t cheap. If you decide to extend your stay somewhere, budget about $200 USD per night, especially if you want breakfast included.The ride itself:
The scenery was absolutely beautiful (except for the rainy day), and the routes between hotels didn’t have too many steep climbs. That said, for me, it was still a challenging ride — definitely pushed my limits, but in a good way.
All in all, a wonderful trip with a few good reminders: plan ahead, be flexible, and enjoy the ride
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★★★★★ Dad and sons
Biking the Camino with my sons
Camino de Santiago: A Pilgrim’s Route From Astorga to Santiago
A real biking adventure. The biking camino was much more mountainous than we imagined. It was beautiful scenery, thrilling, strenuous, dangerous, rewarding and memorable. We hiked the first half and stayed in hostels. From Astorga we biked and stayed in hotels. Hiking and hostels were much more conducive to meeting incredible new friends. The price of the biking tour seemed a bit expensive for what you recieve.
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2016
- How many tours have you completed?
- I've done many bike rides
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
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★★★★★ Anne Temple
Beautiful but given bike with defective wheel and inadequate spares/pump
Innsbruck to Salzburg: Through the Alps Along River Cycle Trails
The ride is beautiful, hotels very comfortable with pleasant employees and great breakfast. Our rating would be higher except for our experience with one bike and the repair kit provided by the operator in Innsbruck. Also, if you are not familiar with Garmin, be sure you have a good alternative.
We had two flats in the same place on the inner seam of the back tire. We understand that tire changes were our responsibility and were prepared to handle them. We were provided with only one spare, no co2 cartridge because the operator was out of the attachment needed to use them, and a small inefficient pump. The advice given to us if we were to get a flat was to change the tire, pump it up as best we could with the inefficient pump and then go to a service station where we could then fill the tire up to its required PSI. This is a rural route with few service stations and much time was wasted.
The morning after the first flat we spent a couple of hours locating a bike shop that was open (tried 3) that had the right size spares. In addition we purchased a better pump which we were very glad to have with the second flat. That second flat occurred on the ride to Lofer. A biker who helped us noted that we didn’t have enough tread (profile) on the tires and we were lucky we hadn’t had rain.
Helmut was unable to provide a different bike for the last leg into Salzburg. Rather than spending the time finding a new back tire to buy and thus getting a much later start that we were comfortable with, we elected to take transport to Salzburg.
A special thanks to Helmut for his responsiveness and assistance.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria
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★★★★★ Scott Katzer
Enjoyed the trip but some things can be improved
Cycling the Altmühl Valley - Round trip from Regensburg
The sites and surroundings were great and we lucked out with the weather as it rained almost every other day. Although we completed the tour with no issues, it was a bit complicated at times. The information between Bike Tours and the tour company Ragwed wasnt always fluid and simple questions seemed to take a bit of time to answer which is a problem when trying to book flights. The information given with the tour company package was a bit limited. Although maps were included, they are not provided with any sort of turn by turn direction. This isnt a big deal for most days as the trail is obvious but entering a city has its own challenges. It is recommended for anyone going on this tour to have GPS on their phone which we had to use (and incur roaming charges) several times. The signage in some locations simply dont exist and some roads were even closed during our tour due to construction. It would be wise for this tour company to occasionally ride their own route and note any changes.
The hotels were nice for the most part and breakfasts were good. The only one that I felt could be improved was the Regensburg location (IBIS Hotel). While it was nice and fine for the stay, its location is a decent distance from the Old Town (30 minute walk minimum) when there are tons of other places right in the Old Town area to stay. The other locations had hotels right in the middle of the main area (The one in Belingres was real nice). Mileage was fine and a majority was on bike paths/trails. My only request would have been providing the option to use a GPS on this tour as many of the paths either were not labeled or so close to the country roads that its hard to tell them apart. The bikes could be improved a bit as they are a bit bulky and heavy and really could do without the bright red advertising all over it. I will give kudos to the luggage people as we never had to wait for our luggage to arrive and they were usually there by 3pm at the latest.- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- 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?
- Germany
-
★★★★★ Melany
Balkan bike trip
Cycling the West Balkan Triangle
The first two days were filled with of car, pedestrian and passport control traffic, along with being repetitive. The last few days were more authentic biking and scenery. The hotels were what was expected.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 223-30 May
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina
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★★★★★ JackieDog
Confusing directions
Apulia - Heel of Italy
Wonderful way to see the countryside but frustrating as the directions were often vague or inadequate.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 16-23
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- 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
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★★★★★ Susan Radtke
First time with a company organized bike trip
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
My husband and I have done a fair amount of biking in the U.S. and in Europe and this was the first time we used a company to plan and support the trip. The good: Some of the hotels that were booked were terrific - especially in the more rural places. The navigation app when it worked was really useful and when it didn't work it seemed to be more of an issue with our phones than the app itself. There was confusion over the timing of our bus transfer over a mountain pass and the woman at the help center worked really hard to sort it out. Also, the luggage transfer was always efficient. The not so good: The bikes were pretty beat and heavy. We had to have one replaced. Although the directions said we would have at least one handlebar bag per room, we had none. Also, we understood that we would have a handlebar mount for a phone and would have brought one from home had it been more clear that we would not. The worst thing was our final day biking into Trieste. The route put us on a road that was absolutely harrowing - no shoulder at times, fast moving traffic including busses and trucks. It felt decidedly unsafe and I would never have put cyclists on such a route. So all in all, we had a good time and saw some beautiful country but moving forward we decided we would go back to planning our own trips where we have more control over the quality of the bikes and the route, plus obviously it's cheaper to do the planning yourself.
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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
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