Dolomites Italian Alps Bike Tour Reviews page 10
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★★★★★ Richard Sany
Nice Scenery
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
We have been on a previous biketours.com offered ride in Austria and had certain expectations. The scenery was great but the navigation maps (especially digital) were lacking. The app for navigation and it was not responsive enough for making correct turns. I downloaded the digital files and tried to load them onto a ride app, Ride With GPS, but the files were so disorganized I had to completely re-trace the route for the 3 of the days we rode. Unlike a previous reviewer, I think the last day route from Gradisca d'Isonzo to Treiste was not that treacherous, probably because we took the more hilly alternate route through the countryside. Not very many cars and the rest were respectful of bikes on the road. I was very glad I had a triple front chain ring though because I was in the lowest gear on many hills (my wife had an ebike and met me at the top of every hill :-) ).
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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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★★★★★ Sharon Aikens
Spectacular scenery, great trails, mediocre hotels
Dolomites to Venice Along the Old Dolomites Railway Track
The route from Toblach to Venice was fantastic. We were surprised at how much of the route was on beautiful paved trails, along rivers, mountain ridges and through lovely small villages. The bikes provided were excellent. The FunActive app is very good but, the the bikes do not come equipped with a cell phone mount so every time you want to figure out directions, you have to stop and hassle with your phone. This added a lot of time to completing the route each day. We had rented a mounted GPS for this purpose, but were told when we got there that they no longer offer this because they have the app. The ride itself is at an intermediate level of difficulty because there were a few challenging spots, mostly when the trail was steep gravel, but also a couple quite long climbs. The big disappointment were some of the hotels or hotel rooms. Many hotels were nice but they seem to reserve the worst rooms for FunActive. When we realized this, we started asking for nicer rooms. One night when we were supposed to stay in the lovely town of Belluno, we were housed in a horrible hotel far from town after after riding 75 kilometers (Hotel Villa Capenada). It was like out the the movie "The Shining." Old and tired, deserted and creepy. We were too tired to go back into town and the food at the hotel was inedible and very expensive. We never got to see Belluno. A few other hotels were barely acceptable with dusty bedspread, curtains and dirty carpet. The hotel in Mestre put us in a room that smelled like cigarettes and sewer and the floor was linoleum. On our return stay there, we insisted on a nicer room and got a lovely room on a higher floor. The moral of the story: Don't accept an unacceptable room! But BikeTours.com and FunActive need to know that this is going on. We have been on many bike tours and never require fancy accommodations but some of these were pretty disappointing. All that said, the BikeTours.com and the FunActive staffs provided excellent service in setting up the tour for us.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ GregR
Too much highway biking
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
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★★★★★ Chris MacMillan
Spectacular scenery, poor bike maintenance
Dolomites to Venice Along the Old Dolomites Railway Track
The scenery was spectacular and memorable. The hotels were good. However in the middle of the trip my bike handlebars came loose and the bike was very difficult to steer towards the hotel. Also I found the Funtastic navigation app to be unreliable.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Melissa Barney
Biking in Italy in June
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
I will not be recommending this trip or your company to anyone. The App was awful: only intermittently in English (otherwise in German) and when I gave 'feedback' I got no response; the App intermittently stopped working and I had to turn my phone off and on to re-boot; the App ATE UP my phone battery (a relativley new iPhone 13 with an otherwise long battery life); any highlights mentioned in the App along a particular day's travel was only a link to something that required internet or phone service (this is ridiculous; this link should have taken me to text within the App just as every other self-guided tour does within their App). The written paper description was poorly done - for some cities the description was how to 'get' into a city and other times the city/town mentioned was only a landmark of progress but this was very confusing. The pedometer on the bike did not work after the first three hours of the 7 day trip. The bikes were way too heavy; surely there is a way to make a durable bike that is at least 2 to 3 kilos lighter. Getting the bike and getting a safety helmet were in different cities!! I would ask for some of my money back if I thought this was possible as I was very disappointed in the trip.
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★★★★★ Heather Batchelor
Hail, lightning and rain
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
Didn’t get to do the trip because of terrible weather and the idea of sitting in a hotel room until 6pm without any luggage.
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