Dolomites To Trieste Via Lake Bled At The Foot Of The Julian Alps Bike Tour Reviews
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Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
7 nights from €984
Italy Your cycling journey to the Julian Alps begins in the northeastern Dolomites, where you follow the River Drau through the scenic Drau Valley on well-marked Austrian cycle paths. The route…
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★★★★★ Heather Batchelor
Hail, lightning and rain
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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★★★★★ Melissa Barney
Biking in Italy in June
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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★★★★★ GregR
Too much highway biking
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
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★★★★★ Susan Radtke
First time with a company organized bike trip
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.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 8
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
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★★★★★ Richard Sany
Nice Scenery
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 :-) ).
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Tom Jones
Memorable bike tour
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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★★★★★ Wade C.
Great tour of 3 different countries!
This was our second tour with biketours.com. While we did enjoy this itinerary, we preferred our first one, Switzerland Geneva to Lucerne. That being said, I was certainly happy with this trip, the Dolomites region was great, I particularly liked Dobbiaco, Travisio, and Cividale. We had an extra day in Dobbiaco at the start of our trip, which was a good decision. We opted for only one day in Bled, which we also think was a good decision - the lake and town, while beautiful, are a little too touristy for our taste. The optional climbs, leaving Oberdrauberg and entering Bled, were not as difficult as we had imagined and we were glad to have done them. We also chose the hinterland route into Trieste, which was good. Some of the hotels where we stayed in were in cities that were quite small with not much to do, or in the case of Gradisca, was on busy roads and we had to get back on our bikes to get to a walk-able area of the city, which was not great. Especially once in the flat, wine regions of Italy, it felt like we were on more roads and gravel than bike paths than we would have liked. Regarding navigation, the app was excellent, we had no issues whatsoever. Do pack an extra battery bank to charge your phone. We also brought shoe covers for when it rained which we were grateful to have brought. Despite some caveats, overall a great trip!
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2025
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- 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
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★★★★★ Kathy D
MIghty Dolomity
Truly enjoyed the trip. Great bike paths for most of the route. Beautiful scenery and great overnight stays. A few hotels didn't have air conditioning but that is not unusual in this part of the world. Unfortunately, Europe is experiencing a very hot summer in 2022. We greatly enjoyed the route and all there was to see and do along the way. The bikes were not what we had expected. Very heavy, more like a beach bike w 21 gears. If you take this trip and are used to a better bike, as we are, upgrade the bike you use. Very difficult riding these very heavy bikes up some of the hills. We took a train on Day 3 for a break - mostly because of the bikes. Saving grace - the train system is fantastic and they all have capacity for bikes at a minimal cost. The app was very good once we figured out how to use it. Would have been helpful if FunActive Tour Company had given us some instruction on how to use it prior to us departing.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Boot
Weather restricted tour
Unfortunately we ran into a patch of bad weather...snow, rain etc so we were not able to enjoy the gorgeous scenery so much....we know we missed a lot of countryside and we don't have many pictures to show from our trip...these are the chances you take when signing up!
- What was the date of your tour?
- September. 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
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★★★★★ Doyle
Italian Bike Tour
Loved our bike tour. Great way to see the Italian countryside
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 12-19
- 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, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ ShopTherapy
Beautiful Scenery, 249 Miles Total
Cividale del Friiuli, Bled, Udine, Trieste, beautiful cities. Special moments, the manager at the Aguntum Museum (near Lienz) gave an unforgettable welcome to our soggy group (it poured buckets the first day out) and Hannes Grimmer Holzdesign (near Reisach) - amazing wood carvings. Nice hotels overall. Only issues were an A/C outage at the Bled hotel, and "the outbuilding" at the Cividale del Friuli hotel - tiny rooms that were nicely appointed but it was a walk from the main hotel that posed a challenge for older bikers in our group with walking issues. Tour operator customer service was excellent - second tour with them, would definitely use them again. Ebikes were new with strong motors and the techs on site took care of changing the displays to English/miles for us. Recommend completing this tour by mid-June due to summer temps in Italy.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2025
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ San2C
Wonderful Experience
The greatest surprise was that every day was a different experience. Hotels were comfortable, and the change in landscape was delightful. A few of the days would have been extremely challenging for us without E-Bikes and a GPS for guidance.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 28
- How many tours have you completed?
- this was first
- 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
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★★★★★ Ray Friedman
Excellent routes. Beautiful. Some issues with service.
The trip, overall, was wonderful. Beautiful views and great trails. We had a few problems communicating with the staff, which I’ll come back to.
The first day was gorgeous. Going through the Dolomites, on dedicated bike trails that were full of everything from serious riders to families with kids on bikes. Nice graduate downhill. Our ebikes used only 2 out of 5 bars on the battery indicator. Ended at a very small town, Oberdrauburg, which had a grocery, a few restaurants, and one of the best cake shops I have ever been to! But now much else to do.The second day to Feistritz was a bit less exciting, we were on (mostly empty) roads about half the time, and again you end in a very small town. If it is warm, bring your swimsuit with you! You pass a lake with nice beaches and hundreds of people out sunning themselves. Closer to the Feinstritz, there was wonderful local outdoor swim club. After getting our swimsuits, we backtracked about 15 minutes to that swim club. A nice way to spend the late afternoon.
The third day was spectacular! The scenery was amazing, and the dedicated bike trails were also amazing. There is some uphill on this day, and a bit of easy road riding, but it ends a Bled which is stunning. We got to swim again.
The fourth day took a bit more concentration, with some time on bigger roads. Not too much traffic, but there were a few trucks. Ended at Cividale, which is a UNESCO World Heritage town that I had never heard of. Seeing Cividale was the big payoff for this day.
The fifth day was a lot on gravel roads through flat fields. Think Nebraska corn fields, but with grape vines. The biking was good exercise, but not so beautiful. However, Udine was another big surprise. A small town that was very much worth the time. Don’t take the shortcut that misses Udine! We ended at The Franz hotel, which has a pool that was very much appreciated after a hot day of biking.
The last ride was to Trieste. We decided to play it safe and do the inland route. It was actually quite beautiful, and we were happy to avoid the stress of cars on the coastal route. Once in Trieste, it was very hard to follow the route and to navigate the city. We loved the city, but just not on bikes. We stayed an extra day in Trieste and really enjoyed it. A beautiful city, that was not nearly as crowded as more well-known tourist spots in Italy.
Overall, the hotels were OK. The first three did not have A/C, and two of those had no elevator. We managed to carry our luggage to the third floor, but we were tired and hot. This is an issue only in the summer months. The heat while biking was not so bad, but some of the hotel rooms were around 80 degrees.
The app worked well for guidance except I had to learn that when it said “In 90 meters…” it really meant about 20 or 30 meters. And it occasionally got left and right backwards (I just followed the map on my phone). Still, it worked well. Do beware that it needs to be running constantly, so burns through power on your cell phone. I learned to be careful to stop it when we took breaks, and we switched to my wife’s phone mid-day. SHOW MORE
My only big annoyance was communication with the staff. There was no one to meet you and show you how to control the ebike when you arrive (there was a video introduction in German). We found our way to the bike shop, but they were clearly unhappy to be dealing with us. We had arranged to rent helmets, but these were not with the bikes, and there was no explanation of what to do. We called the contact number, they told us the bike shop would have them. But the bike shop initially said that they don’t do that (it got cleared up with a call to the office). I had problems with the seat, and the shop said they couldn’t swap seats. Fair enough, but then I had to push them to adjust the seat (slide it back on the rail a bit) to make it better, and they were clearly unhappy doing that simple adjustment. They warned us that we were responsible for the bikes, so I was surprised they only provide one lock for two bikes. The office told us to pick up a second one at the shop, but the shop refused. I found out that at the first hotel, the plugs are spread apart, so you couldn’t plug them in and lock them together. It was not clear if that would be the case at the other hotels, so I asked if we can leave one unlocked in the hotel, if needed. They said it “should” be OK. I was hoping for a clear answer, since they emphasized that we are responsible for the bikes.
Overall, a great trip. We loved the route. The bikes and app worked fine. The hotels were good except for the heat in a few of them. Communication with the company was the main issue. (By the way, the bike shop staff in Trieste were wonderful.)
I’m glad we did the trip. Wish they could have made it easier on the first day.
SHOW LESS- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2026
- 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, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ naamaza
well planned trip
we were a group of 6, the planning was great. a guide came to our hotel on the first night with maps,and attractions to see on the road (though except restaurants, there are not that many attractions to see).
the roads were very convenient and well signed.
the weather was perfect and the whole experience left us with a taste of more :-)
I advise to review the hotels that are booked as default since they are very basic. you may want to upgrade.highly recommended route and company.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 29
- How many tours have you completed?
- none
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Richie
Diverse cycling through three countries
Diversity is the theme of this tour. From the Dolomites, to the Julian Alps, to the dreamy Lake Bled, to the Friuli Italian wine country, to the Adriatic Coast, this tour has it all. Riding in three countries in one day is an awesome experience as well.
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ William Gibson
Dolomites to the sea in Trieste
This was a fun trip overall. The route begins with beautiful scenery thru mountain valleys with it's conclusion into the wine country north of Trieste. Numerous historical sites along the way with castles, churches and town centers to see. The lake in Bled is stunning.
Accommodations were mostly fantastic with excellent food for dinner and breakfast.
We had a few problems at the start with missing bike accessories for the e-bikes. Luckily this was easy to sort out at the bike shop in Dobbacio the evening before our ride.- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- Some self guided gravel biking in Colorado
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Rhonda Barton
Beautiful views!
The trip was beautiful! The views through the Dolomites and Julian Alps are constantly awe provoking. The hotels were also wonderful, our favorite being Alta Post in Feistritz an der Gail!
Bikes: We paid for the upgrade but it didnt feel as though we were upgraded. The bikes we received were not well maintained. We had a bike brake on the first day of our tour and the replacement bike had a loose peddle the rest of our tour. A few of our bikes were not tuned well and gears were either difficult to shift or couldn't be geared all the way up or down. In general, we would have appreciated better maintained bikes for a 230 mile tour, it would make the days much more enjoyable. We also had to swing by the rental place for a bike pump that had the correct valve for pumping up tires. The bikes were equipped with presta valves, but the pumps were schrader valves. We also recommend placing an allen key in the repair kit. We had several items that we had to adjust, angles of the header, tightness of the bells, etc. Having an allen key would have made these adjustments easier to make.
Bike Accessories: we think you should provide or tell the riders to bring a cell phone mount for the trip. The app was nice to have but we had to constantly get the phone out of our pockets to follow along. This can get quite dangerous on certain parts of the tour.
App: the phone app was a great perk to the trip although our main complaint is that every tour participant should have access to the app. It is challenging to have only one person with the app and it doesnt seem to make much sense to limit access. Give everyone who paid for the tour access please.- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2023
- 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
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Emily Magnavita
Great trip
Trip was great, however, there was lack of communication with the company as far as planning logistics. Directions were unclear and sometimes incorrect, got lost on the route multiple times due to lack of information and description in the directions.
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★★★★★ Diane Witters
Great first trip with BikeTours.com
Overall, we really enjoyed the experience and were impressed with the scenery, lodging, quality of the bikes (one of us had an e-bike and the other a “top bike “), and the multiple layers of navigation provided by Fun Active Tours, the local outfitter. We also appreciated the detailed instructions for the luggage and train transfers. We especially enjoyed the first 3 legs of the journey through the Dolomites of northern Italy, into Austria, and then the entry into Slovenia with views of the Julian Alps and into Lake Bled. Trieste may have its merits but the city was quite chaotic and difficult to navigate and find our hotel by bike.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- this was our first tour
- 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?
- Yes
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★★★★★ Shayne palfreyman
Beautiful scenery - well organised
Cycling is an awesome way to see some beautiful scenery and experience the area. The tour itinerary is great - very achievable daily rides and the app showing the routes worked well though a couple of recent changes to the path need updating.
The luggage transfers and accommodations all were very well organised- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 0
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
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