E-bikes Available Tour Reviews page 111
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★★★★★ Tony VanGarderen September 23, 2022Beautiful area of France!
· Burgundy Wine Trails: Beaune to Macon on the “Voie Verte”
A great way to experience the beauty of Burgundy. Loved cycling through the vineyards as well as along the Voire Verte. The hotels had a lot of character. The bikes were great, one ebike and one regular.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- 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
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
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★★★★★ Ladislav Votruba September 28, 2022Italian hospitality is exceptional
· Apulia and Basilicata: Alberobello to Lecce
Disappointed that the route of the trip was changed ( took the same trip 8 years ago )
Bikes - loved the e bike , the company has to have better maintenance program I almost ran into traffic going down the hill the first day of the trip
Emergency number - called to get assistance x 3, only got one call back
Navigation- the GPS is great when it works, starting from hotel or finding hotel at the end of day is challenging- we used google map to help us- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Carol McDonald September 29, 2022Beautiful Croatia
· · National Parks of Dalmatia by Bike/E-bike and Boat
This is the perfect way to see this beautiful country! Our bike guides were great - knowledgeable, extremely competent, friendly and helpful. We felt very luck to have them with us.
The food was a combination of very good, and sometimes not quite so good as it arrived luke warm. Salads scrimped on greens and the overly used combination of purple and green cabbage only as our source of greens wasn’t very good, especially since salad greens seemed readily available at our various stops.
Most importantly, we were horrified by the number of plastic bottles used on this trip! My husband and I brought water bottles, as did most of the cyclists, and were happy to refill our bottles from the water cooler. I can’t imagine the tons of plastic waste caused by the number of bottles our ship alone used, and then multiplied by the number of boats over the course of the summer - the numbers of plastic bottles to deal with would be staggering. I am fully aware of the recycle program, but the energy used to do this is also staggering, especially for a small and financially struggling country like Croatia. I strongly urge you to commit to a more earth friendly form of water use.
Lastly, and this is a small criticism, we’ve never been on a bike and boat (this was our fifth one), that charged a premium for tea and coffee. I completely support a charge for premium coffees and teas such as lattes, chai etc, but charging for hot water and a tea bag, or a simple cup of coffee seems very stingy on your part. Especially with a 50E pp charge for water, which again is something we had not encountered in the past.
Overall, we had an incredibly wonderful trip and hope to return to Croatia again in the future!- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- Five
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ Donna Reyes October 2, 2022Overall great trip
· Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
Bikes were phenomenal, hotels were great. Only complaint was all our paperwork was in German. So then we got online English versions which could not be printed to put in the map holder. AND the new printed materials did not match the route maps. It was very confusing!
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★★★★★ Robyn Larkin October 2, 2022More challenging trip than we thought thanks to rainy, windy, cold weather
· Romantic Road and Bavarian Lakes
We knew this would be a challenging cycle, but we weren’t prepared for the terrain + lousy weather for the entire trip. The first few days were a good workout - and very pretty. Not many places to really stop, though, during the day (so plan to bring picnic lunches & snacks!). Definitely check on when places you hope to stop for a meal are open as we found many places closed on random days.
There is an app that you can download to get the route, details, and info for the trip that we didn’t know about until we met the guide on the first day. If you use this on your phone to help ensure you stay on course, be sure to bring extra battery packs for your phone!
Also, we didn’t know we needed to get tickets for the castle in advance and this were not able to visit. As this was the one thing we wanted to see, we were rather disappointed to have to miss it as all morning tours were sold out.
While we enjoyed it and came through the deluge of cold, rain & wind during our week in Bavaria with our marriage intact, you definitely need to be ready for a challenging ride. If you aren’t in excellent shape, consider getting the electric bike as some of the hills are extremely intense.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 7
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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★★★★★ Megan Lunde October 4, 2022Lovely Ride through the Alps
· Innsbruck to Salzburg: Through the Alps Along River Cycle Trails
Overall, this was a very good trip. The itinerary is top-notch along well-marked trails, through a variety of landscapes - farmland, ski towns, narrow gorges, along a lake. I recommend the route with the rest day in Zell am See - we had a great day there!
We did have a few concerns with the local tour company. The quality of the bikes rented from the bike shop was not great - my bike was too small for my body but they had run out of bikes, so I was stuck with it for the week. Some of our group had arranged for bikes to be delivered to the starting hotel. It's a good thing others went to pick up in person, because the bike shop had no record of delivery and half our group would have been stuck without bikes for 2 days.
As others have mentioned, the guidebook is hard to follow. However, the general routes are along bike trails that are well marked. We did pretty well by following the path signs to our destination each day.
Our biggest mishaps were with the hotel and luggage transfer. We were a group of 4. About half the time, we had two adjacent rooms in the same hotel - no problem. Other nights, we were split across two different hotels. One night, we had a really strange configuration - 3 of us had a triple in one hotel, while 1 person was assigned to a different hotel across town. Every time we got split up, some luggage went to the wrong hotel. It didn't help that the tour company only provided 1 luggage tag per room. Seems like an easy fix to include an adequate number of luggage tags per traveler. Our final night in Salzburg, our hotel had no record of our reservation. It took awhile to figure out the issue - our reservations had been made against the wrong name.
On the whole, this is a lovely trip. Unbeatable scenery and value for the price.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- 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
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria
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★★★★★ Johanna H.(Anita) Wood October 6, 2022
Excellent introduction to E-bikes & Croatia; intrigued me to return
· · National Parks of Dalmatia by Bike/E-bike and Boat
Our guides were very professional and conscientious; knowledgeable about cycling, their country and it’s terrain. As a beginner cyclist I would have wished for a more clear explanation of the settings, gears and cadence I was meant to aim for. An individual look at how each cyclist was doing might have taught me how I might improve my posture, position as needed. I was able to have my seat adjusted for my short arms and small stature, and I was comfortable except for the last day’s length of downhill travel. I must have been tense because the following 3-4 days were painful for me in my thighs, in taking stairs especially. I had been forewarned...I should have been more experienced from the outset...I do feel so much more confident now.
It was great to get a sense of the history of Croatia. It helped to understand what we were seeing in the country side, the architecture, the menus. It was important to appreciate what the land and it’s people had been through.
While on-board and cycling, we were kept safe, fed and hydrated. It was regimented...I guess it had to be to insure that the whole group saw as much as we did, and to get where we needed to be, and to afford staff the opportunity for time off/siesta.- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ Melissa Dubois October 7, 2022Beautiful trip
· Portugal's Atlantic Coast
Traveling down the coast was beautiful. The hotels were all great quality. We were all glad that we had e-bikes due to the high mileage and the steep hills on this trip.
Some downsides- several of the roads were quite busy with cars and tour buses and the gps app really drained my phone battery which made it hard to also take photos. Having the option to have an actual gps rather than the app would have been helpful.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept/Oct 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 5
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Portugal
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★★★★★ George Ouimet October 7, 2022
3 out of 5 legs were good, one was exceptional.
· Apulia and Basilicata: Alberobello to Lecce
It was very interesting and educational to be in this party of Italy. Our last guided tour was in Tuscany. Alberobello was an amazing town and the Trullia were a wonder to see, even more fun to stay in. The restaurants in the area that we tried were all good. It was also fun to walk around town and see the old churches, museums and parks. Our guide Marco was excellent and spent good time explaining the route and the attractions to us. All the bikes worked fine, and I liked having the panier to store things in. Based on the type of riding we ended up doing the hybrid bikes were very appropriate and comfortable.
The first day of riding from Alberobello to Ostuni was interesting - lots of small roads, not much traffic, lots and lots of olive trees (which the area is noted for). One thing we noticed right away unfortunately was the garbage. Lots and lots lots of garbage, all over the sides of the roads. Single use plastics mostly, but also household trash, construction debris, old appliances, tires, and millions of glass bottles and metal cans. Combined with the large number of abandoned and dilapidated properties in the area (abandoned olive farms) it felt like the next 2 days of riding in many parts was through the apocalypse. The old abandoned buildings were interesting, especially the small farm huts, and we did see lots and lots of the Trullia, and nicer properties that were fixed up closer to towns though. We later learned that this area was very very poor in many parts, and that it wasn't until the EU formed that money started to flow into the area to improve things for people. Depending on who you talked to the trash was from "trash collection being a low priority for the local infrastructure" - to people just being ignorant and not caring about the environment. The towns and cites were a bit better, but for the most part the rural areas felt like a 3ed world country on these part of the ride. It looks like this from Alerobello to Ostuni, Ostuni to Manduria, Manduria to Gallipoli to Santa Maria di Leuca (our favorite town next to Alberobella, the hotel was beautiful and we wished we had two days there). Manduria was pretty much abandoned, as was the hotel. The hotel restaurant was closed, and the only place we could find to eat was a pizza express and the grocery store next door. The saving grace was the wine tour at a local fermenting/processing plant, and the wines themselves from the Primitivo grapes were spectacular as was the tour and museum in the winery. We shipped cases of it home :). The ride to Gallipoli was an adventure. 20-30 mph headwinds and blowing garbage the whole way , however the landscape was interesting - it felt like southern California desert. Fortunately Gallipoli was a great town with lots restaurants open, and shopping. It was raining, but that's OK was was still nice. The ride from Gallipoli to Santa Maria di Leuca was short and uneventful. Threatening rain so we made a bee line to town at a fast pace. We found a great little restaurant by the water/harbor where we had a great meal and lots of the Primitivo wines :).
The ride from Santa Maria di Leuca had to be our favorite of the whole trip. Fantastic scenery along the Adriatic coast, lots of places to stop, the wind at our backs and it seemed cleaner. Swimming in the little beaches and Grottos were so nice. Again, we wished we could spend more time here. Maybe make 2 loops from Santa Maria di Leuca or add another town on this coast. We loved the riding off pavement and along the beaches as well, and that goes for the first part of the ride from Otranto to Lecce. Sadly the latter part of the ride inland to Lecce was more abandoned properties and lots and lots of garbage. Again the feeling like we were riding through the apocalypse. Lecce was great though - what a nice town! Lots to see in the "Florence of the South" in the old town. The surrounding 'modern areas' less so as the roads were very busy. I wrote something for my cycling friends about riding bikes in Italy. I will share it here;
Thoughts on cycling in Italy. Tongue in cheek: If anyone has to take a test to drive (seems not?), these would be the lessons. 1. The person who drives, walks or pedals the fastest has the right of way. 2. No cars in Italy have blinkers/signals. 3. Three point, U turns and parking is allowed anywhere, so is passing. It's especially fun to play chicken when cars are coming from the opposite direction. 4. Traffic signs aren't even suggestions! Traffic lights, sometimes. And signs that say what road you are on. 5. The most common controls pushed are the accelerator and the horn. 6. No problem if you don't have trash collection or an ashtray at home, the car window works fine. 7. If you can squeeze your car in there, you can drive there. 8. Speed bumps are "suspension tests".
With all that being said: People pay attention, they have to! Otherwise the country would be one giant pile up!! No one is on their phone! If you signal a turn on a bike, drivers see and respect you, until it's time to pass. I never felt in danger even though drivers get VERY close to you even at high rates of speed. Cycle confidently, don't wander around in the road... and pay attention! Also being in SMALL groups helps so that cars can pass quickly without hitting the oncoming cars head on.
All in all we had fun and am glad to see another part of Italy. After our riding we went to Greece and on to Munich, Germany. We also had just spent 6 days riding in Catalonia, Spain before this tour in Italy. Germany has by far the best infrastructure for pedestrians and cycling, similar to the Netherlands. Spain was pretty good and has improved since we were there 3 years ago. This part of Italy has a long long way to go, unless thousands of people clean the roads and streets and they develop a different culture. Not something Bike Tours or Giro Libero can affect I am guessing. We would not ride most of these routes again :( SHOW MORE- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 20+
- 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?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Charlotte Dewar October 11, 2022A beautiful journey
· · Provence by Bike and Boat
We loved this trip. It was wonderful you hired a professional guide in Arles to spend 1.5 hours with us talking about the history, the Roman architecture and Van Gough. Provence is so beautiful and we are very blessed with the good weather and a wonderful group of travelers who cared for each other and enjoyed the company of each other on this trip.
As a professional travel planner for 30 years, I wish to share my honest feedback so you may improve your tours for future clients.
1. The chef Irene made the most delicious dinners for us every evening. We were always looking forward to her food at the end of long and exciting journey.
2. Our Captain was excellent and so was the assistant Phillipo. 3 crew members worked together beautifully and treated us like royalty.
3. Our guide Hens is not as professional. He never counted the number of guests. We had people falling off the bike everyday, no major injuries. Hens was out at the front riding quite fast. He rarely looked back and kept an eye on the group. Every time we had an accident, we had to send someone from behind to catch up with him and asked him to stop and wait for the folks falling behind.
4. The internet on the boat is very choppy. I had important business to communicate with my travelers going to Asia. Most of the time I couldn't receive or send emails. My PayPal app, my airb&b app and my VRBO app all stopped working. I had free roaming data on my phone and that had issue working on your boat either. it's very important you have a functional internet on the boat so people like myself could still carry on business while we are on your trip.We love the concept of bike and boat! We will come back for more of your tours. I am considering introducing your product to my high-end Chinese clients.
I am raving about this trip to all my friends in California. Thank you for putting together a fantastic journey for us.
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
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★★★★★ Astrid Kaulitz October 13, 2022Great week on the bike in a beautiful countryside
· Castles and Wines of Portugal
The combination of plan, map and digital tour-advise was great to find our way.
The tour was all in all beautiful and interesting. The planning had been done before covid and was not adjusted now. Some recommondations were wrong this way. day2 : Cafe Pola could not be found, Manizolas Farm could not be passed. There was a huge fence. day 4: there was no leather factory any more, day 7: Tasca do Anotonio dos Potes does not exist any more.
Mario was always to be reached and helped promptly. Very nice!
Hotels were a good choice, every spot was different. only the Solar de Alqueva in Reguengos de Monsaraz was a bit uncomfortable. Breakfast poor.
I had expected more knowlege about the wine. The wine tasting was mostly in the day either in the morning (wine and bike is not that becomming) or in the early afternoon. You never really could plan how long the trip was - so we had to taste the wine at night with the meal, but had no instructions.Anyway we had a great week.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 8
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Portugal
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★★★★★ Paul Clark October 16, 2022Cycling a Disappointment but Good travel Itinerary
· Florence to Rome
My partner had a biking accident and, after completing the first day’s 60 km ride nonetheless, we decided to take the train and just enjoy this lovely part of Italy. There was just too much traffic and too few shoulders on the roads for us to feel safe and relax. The hotels were comfortable and clean and typically in the historic centre of these charming little towns. There were many sites to see and the daily hiking up and down the local hills while site seeing provided more than adequate exercise. Overall, a wonderful experience-despite the biking misadventure-which we will remember forever.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Maureen Zaccardi October 22, 2022Great bike and boat!
· · South Dalmatia Bike/E-bike and Boat
The trip was really a lot of fun. The guides were enthusiastic, knowledgeable and willing to do anything for us. The scenery was fabulous. Croatian islands are fantastic. The biking was less rigorous than I expected. Trip was good for first time cyclists. The boat was good.
The only ISSUE was the food! It Was r terrible. We did NOT want to eat on the boat.- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 60-70
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ Maureen Zaccardi October 23, 2022
Great bike and boat!
· · South Dalmatia Bike/E-bike and Boat
The trip was really a lot of fun. The guides were enthusiastic, knowledgeable and willing to do anything for us. The scenery was fabulous. Croatian islands are fantastic. The biking was less rigorous than I expected. Trip was good for first time cyclists. The boat was good.
The only ISSUE was the food! It Was r terrible. We did NOT want to eat on the boat.- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 60-70
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ Mary Stewart October 23, 2022
Island hopping Croatia
· · South Dalmatia Bike/E-bike and Boat
The best part of this bike tour was the country, islands, guides and weather. The food was not as advertised ( highlighted a gourmet chef ) The best meals were not on the boat. The guides and scenery were outstanding. The boat was ok. I felt that bike tours did not offer the same service as we would have had if we booked directly. I highly recommend doing a bike tour of the Croatia islands but with a premium boat and a better chef
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 50 plus
- 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
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ Tina Vessels October 25, 2022
Excellent guides disappointed food
· · South Dalmatia Bike/E-bike and Boat
There was a great discrepancy between the quality of the guides and the quality of the food on our boat. The guides the tour the islands were magical howeverMost of the dinners were uneditable Somewhere in the description there was a note about quality shifts however that was not the case for us
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 20
- 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?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ PegS October 26, 2022
Wonderful Guides, Lovely Tour
· · National Parks of Dalmatia by Bike/E-bike and Boat
Great way to experience Croatia. Our wonderful local guides, Dora and Mario, were cheerful, infinitely patient, organized, and full of helpful and interesting information. Improvements could be made on the boat with the WiFi, which was spotty, and the food, which was bland with lots of white sauce. We were surprised that the rides were so short, typically finished by noon. This was our first bike tour on an ebike, and that was fun. Some days we rode with it completely off to get a better workout.
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 12
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ Christopher Attwood October 26, 2022The Coast and Medieval Catalonia
· Medieval Villages of Catalonia
What a lovely cycle tour. Mostly on cycle tracks that avoid the hustle and danger of busy roads. We were in an exclusive group of 10 which does add to the flexibility and fun of the ride. Riding with GPS is a game changer. So easy and allows for "self-guided" tours. I do think more variations should be incorporated on the routes to allow one to tailor make the ride for distance and substance. All the suggested restuarants and photo opportunities were spot on. If "Unguided", a better backround pack of stops and their historical significance could be prepared. Great holiday and experience.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
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★★★★★ Frank Vaughan November 4, 2022Very nice trip
· · Holland’s Super Tulip Tour
We had a great time on the trip. Small boat with not a lot of people, and the guide was very good. We got to see some amazing places and he even took us on some side trips. The riding was easy just as described, and after each ride the guide offered an optional walking tour of the area. We feel we really saw Holland! Our only complaint is the boarding instructions had us going to the wrong dock. Give yourselves plenty of extra time to board!
- What was the date of your tour?
- March 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens, Families with young kids
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Holland
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★★★★★ David Coleman November 7, 2022Trip of my dreams
· Provence’s History, Landscapes, and Luberon National Park
Still looking for my refund from Bernard for an overpayment.
Can get anyone to respond to my emails.Hope someone will respond to this inquiry. The trip was very enjoyable, great group of people. Sam was a wonderful guide- Countries included in this tour?
- France
