E-Bikes Available Tour Reviews page 9
- Albania
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia and H…
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- England
- Estonia
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Holland
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Mexico
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Scotland
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United States
- Vietnam
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★★★★★ Mary Gallagher
Disappointing Accommodations
Provence by Bike and Boat
Recently returned from Provence bike and barge and very disappointed with cabin accommodations. Bathroom sink located in main cabin from which we heard gurgling and draining from other cabins. Also heard loud banging from floor probably due to mechanical issues due to location of cabin - farthest on the bow. Overall not suitable for guests. Crew, guide and food were great- but cabin (#1) was not acceptable.
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
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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.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 10/6-10/10/19
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Hungary, Slovakia
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Chloe
Thanks so much for this review - so many great details and suggestions! We're glad you had a fun trip and enjoyed many of the cities. We appreciate your details regarding the cycling terrain and navigation. This section of the Danube cycle path is less developed and more rustic than other sections, as you have noted. We hope future clients will be well informed by your review and perhaps even utilize the app you have mentioned. Thanks again.
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★★★★★ Michael Krivitsky
Vienna bike day tour
Classic Vienna Bike Tour
The tour covered many great sites in Vienna. The bikes were good. It was easy to get to the shop where the tour started. Unfortunately, the tour guide spoke so softly that I couldn’t hear a word she said unless I was standing right next to her. I have no idea if what she said was useful. If she is going to speak that softly, the tour needs a mic and headset system.
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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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★★★★★ Moira Quigley
Interesting part of Italy
A Taste of Italy: Emilia-Romagna
Well organised, GPS system worked well for us most of the time, person greeting us and setting us up was fantastic, bikes excellent. Loved the parmesan and balsamic vinegar factory tours - wonderful hosts. We did not enjoy the route as much as other tours we have done. There were more main roads and traffic than we were expecting and have experienced on previous bike tours. The agritourismo accommodation was so nice we did not want to leave.
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- Three
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Mild Bill
Great ride but horrible bikes
Majorca: A Loop Tour of the Beautiful Balearic Island
We enjoyed generally the trip locations. Ride instructions were definitely a little fuzzy at times but generally good. The bikes were horrific. They had these heavy, equipment laden bikes that were meant for city riding and not going through the countryside. Not the type of bike meant for doing long hill climbs. Hotels were fine and had good locations, but again instructions to get to them were not great. We had to incur roaming charges to find one because the instructions they gave to find it would have put us the next town over.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 26th
- How many tours have you completed?
- 22
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
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★★★★★ Skipper
Nice trip- some days better than others.
Bolzano to Verona: Orchards, Mountains & Timeless Culture
The trip was nice. The first three days had pretty scenery and nice riding. The fourth day was mostly on roads and some areas not very exciting. The last day retraced some of the fourth day and seemed like it wasn’t really necessary. The signage at certain points was unclear (e.g., the bike path ended and it was unclear what to do next) and there was an actual mistake in directions arriving at the hotel in Verona. The GPS was not particularly helpful. The bike was a good quality, but one of the bikes didn’t have working lights.
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- Two
- 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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★★★★★ Mike G.
Very Difficult!
Camino de Santiago: From Porto to Santiago de Compostela
This is our third bike tour. Italy, Spain and now Portugal. The terrain was extremely difficult...hilly, cobblestone, dirt trails and in some cases stone trails. Many situations we were walking the bikes. E bikes is definitely recommended. Hotels were very good, directions utilizing the Live, Love Ride app was excellent. Never used the provided GPS unit. Trail was clearly marked for the pilgrimage. Hikers in most cases were very friendly and accommodating since you did have to share the trail. We did have the opportunity to stop in small, neighborhood cafes which was so much fun and Santiago was absolutely incredible! One unfortunate comment, money was missing from a compartment in my backpack (pretty well hidden) on the first hotel luggage transfer and also our luggage was delivered to the wrong hotel on another instance. Sergio fixed the luggage delivery quickly and did inquire regarding the missing cash to no avail.
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★★★★★ Morgan Baumann
Excellent Trails on which to explore a lovely part of Europe
Venice to Trieste and Istria
Traveling by bike is a wonderful way to enjoy a new place. Our accommodations were Excellent. Our guide, Tony, (with us for the first days), was first rate!- so helpful. A couple of concerns: I would not rate this as a 2 for regular bikes - even with variants, it was a lot of biking and I was disappointed not to arrive in towns sooner. Everyone in our group was similarly disappointed including those on e-bikes. I would have liked a more leisurely pace and instead the days felt rushed. The directions however were my biggest problem. For the most part they were poor. We lost so much time just trying to figure out where to go! Our last stage, into Porec was by far the easiest and so even though the ride itself was more challenging, we arrived in Porec in good time to enjoy the town. This last stage was easier because the red arrows were frequent and well placed all along the route. You only needed to glance at the map and the written directions and then just keep following the arrows. In contrast, on many of the other stages, the arrows were few and far between and often were Not where we needed to make a turn! We spent far too much time studying the map and having to reverse direction to get back on the route. It would also help if the directions noted if we were generally following a set route that was already mapped out by those small brown signs. Those signs were well placed and easy to follow.
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★★★★★ Raff
Wonderful itinerary, average biking
Bolzano – Verona – Venice
Great towns, but not enough time to see them. The biking scenery was ok. Really poor cue sheets in English.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 9-16-17-8-22-17
- 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
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Marion Van Kirk
Beautiful Austria and Germany
Tauern Bike Path (Krimml-Passau)
Biking was more difficult than expected. Luckily the women had e-bikes. Most of the hotels were excellent and food was great. Trip started in Neukirchen am Grossvenediger instead of Krimml due to closed hotels. The hotel in vicinity of Burghausen was too far from the town to be able to enjoy the beautiful city and castle and this was a huge disappointment since there were 3 other hotels within the city.
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★★★★★ EDWH
Fun, but a few qualifications
National Parks of Dalmatia by Bike/E-bike and Boat
We had a great time but the parks were not quite as interesting or attractive as we had hoped. And some of the bike rides (the 3rd day in particular) difficult hills with nothing at all to see. Description said a ride around Vraner Lake and we never even saw it. That was coupled with the hottest week in the summer as temps were near or over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Guides showed little flexibility in schedules or changes to accommodate the heat.
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 29, 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 25 or 30
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
-
★★★★★ US cyclist
Difficult to navigate
Bolzano – Verona – Venice
I chose this tour because I was finishing up a week of hiking in the Dolomites in Balzano, and though that riding a bike back to Venice to catch my plane would be more interesting than taking the train. I saw that there were several reviewers who noted that they had difficulty navigating but thought, "I can just check Google Maps if I have a problem. How bad could it be?"
Well, it was bad. I found the step by step directions to be indecipherable. The maps made it look easy, but there was not enough detail to actually use them to follow the route. Google maps did not pick up the bike paths, so could not provide a cycling route. I spent a significant part of each day lost and frustrated, in addition to inadvertently ending up on roads with heavy traffic and adding extra miles to the trip. Towards the end of the week I discovered that there were several people from Belgium who were riding the same route I was, but had booked directly with the tour company rather than going through a third party. They were emailed the routes in digital format, and were able to download them to their Garmin. This was not offered to me.
The area is beautiful, bike paths nice, and local folks very friendly and helpful.- What was the date of your tour?
- Ended July 28, 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 20+
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Sarah Witter
Pretty good but not great
Holland’s Southern Relax Tulip Tour
The dates of the tour were past the prime time for the tulips. This should have been made clear from the very beginning. Our guide had to turn around a few times because his directions were not clear. My bicycle seat was poorly set up. It needed adjusting every day. The gear levers were crooked and never fixed. The bicycles in general were not as good as I have seen on other tours.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 8
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Holland
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★★★★★ three bees
great variety of scenery
Best of Northern Zealand
Lots to see whilst cycling - forests, seaside, lakes, country farmland, small towns etc. The organisation was somewhat disappointing e.g., miscommunications in regard to where our bikes should be delivered, wrong maps provided, battery charger not working (and some reluctance by the bike operator to replace it!) but overall the bikes were in good working condition, the maps were easy to follow, and accommodation was great.
As for the scenery - once you got out of Copenhagen, it was brilliant.- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- Four
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Denmark
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Jim Johnson
Thank you so much for your feedback. We're very concerned with your comments about the local tour operator's disappointing organization, and we are pursuing those issues with them. We have a very low threshold for poor service, and we want to make sure this doesn't happen to future clients.
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★★★★★ Sallie Williams
Several issues with this bike tour
Best of San Diego E-Bike Tour
This bike tour had a challenge from the beginning with a group that was too large - 14 people, three of whom were kids, teens or younger, led by one tour guide on a route that was constantly either in traffic or in areas heavily trafficked by pedestrians. There was one section of Little Italy that was particularly difficult because there were several blocks given over to an outdoor Art Fair and the streets were closed off. Wouldn't this be something that the organizers should have known about so that the tour could have been rerouted?
Our guide, Cassie, did her best but it was a real challenge to keep everyone together and safe and thus, felt a bit stressful. E-bikes were ok, but the blue ones with the fat tires were clearly a challenge for several of the riders.
That said, San Diego is a beautiful city and seeing it on a bike is a good way to do it, and Cassie did a nice job with her talking points on the stops. Here are my suggestions if you take this tour:
- Bring water, as it's not provided. There is a stop to buy water, but it's two hours into the tour. Also note that many of the bikes do not have a holder for a water bottle.
- The notes say that a basket or bike bag is included. What was included was a very small bag only large enough to accommodate a phone and a small snack, definitely not a water bottle.
- Consider taking a small backpack for water, phone, sunglasses, and snacks and also to stow a clothing layer you might want to peel off.
Lastly, I will say that my husband and I have done a dozen or more bike tours in various parts of the U.S. and abroad over the past several years and I would generously put this one in the bottom 50%.
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★★★★★ Spain
An Adventure
Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
We selected a self guided tour which we have done several times in the past. Unfortunately the gps link did not work for us so we used the cue sheets and map. We got lost several times which was an adventure but difficult on the larger mileage days and in bad weather. There were many more miles on roads than we expected. Often the traffic was heavy and fast and the cycle paths in poor condition.We managed as we are experienced riders but it was not what we expected. We were glad to have the suspension of hybrid bikes. However when by the river on a good cycle path the ride was beautiful. We enjoyed the ferry rides. We were 15 riders and all liked the accommodations!
- What was the date of your tour?
- October 1, 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 10
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Hungary
-
BikeTours.com staff reply from Chloe
Thanks very much for your review. If you have been on several tours, this one may feel more rustic than others (less developed paths, more adventurous - as you have noted). We're sorry to hear that the GPS link did not work for you. We know that can be frustrating. However, we appreciate that you were able to use the maps and cue sheets. We'll be on the lookout for further reviews denoting frequent heavy traffic. We've not heard that this was occurring outside when in Budapest and upon entering/leaving cities. We're glad to hear there were some enjoyable aspects and everyone liked the accommodations. Thanks again for your feedback on this tour.
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★★★★★ WSTraveler
An Unusual Experience Not to Be Repeated
UNESCO Sites of Albania
The sag driver was great despite limited English in that he was always available to help in any way possible. The tour guide was good and worked very hard but was not good at listening to understand problems with the bikes and was at times totally dismissive. The difficulty of the ride was enormously underrated and BIkeTours was evasive about providing advanced information. The road conditions were in areas extremely poor and the advertised grades were just lies. BikeTours advertised the trip as a max of 16 riders, although there were 20, considered a small group by the guide. Again, less than honest disclosure.
The experience of the country was worth the trip. It was a fun collection of international participants. The accommodations were varied but appropriate to the locale and part of the fun. Food was good and the guide worked to arrange options for dietary restrictions. The sag support was excellent and eager to support the riders. The guide did a good job of keeping the group together and providing navigation guidance despite lack of any cue sheets or gps routes.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 23 - Oct 2
- How many tours have you completed?
- lots
- 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?
- Albania
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Chloe
Thank you kindly for this review. Overall, we're glad to hear that the experience of the country was worth the trip. We appreciate you sharing with us details regarding the guide and that information provided to you did not match up with your experience. We will follow up with the tour operator regarding the road conditions, grades, and group size to ensure the details provided to future clients are accurate. Thanks again for your feedback.
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★★★★★ Mary Schmidt
Unable to review as the Vivienne never left port in Vienna - Please contact me. I would have loved to have been able to review.
Danube Delights: Biking through Four Countries
Dear Team at BikeTours.com,
I hope you all are doing well. I am writing regarding my recent river cruise, Danube Delights aboard the Vivienne on September 15, which unfortunately was impacted by flooding, causing the cancellation of several key ports of call and remained docked in Vienna for 7 nights. While I understand that weather conditions are beyond anyone’s control, missing out on many destinations left me disappointed, as I had been looking forward to the full experience. My husband and I had been planning this for over a year and celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary.
Our cruise director did his best to keep the passengers entertained and informed but was getting very mixed messages from someone. It started the first day in Passau with the hired transportation did not have a concrete deportation location. It was 2:30pm before we were even contacted to tell us to go to the bus station and we would be transported to Vienna. After boarding the Vivienne we were told that we would be docked in Vienna for a couple of days and for those interested we could take the bus to Budapest and Bratislava on the next two days. It was a very long bus ride but a nice trip to both.
Starting on Wednesday, day 3, we were then told we MAY leave every evening, so we needed to be back on boat at 5 or maybe a different time and were not able to take any extended excursions due to the possibility of debarking. Thursday we were led to believe we may leave later in the night. Then Friday, we were instructed to be back on the boat at 11:00 am because we might leave. It was determined after we came back that we were not going to be able to leave. We would have loved to have taken the train to visit another location Wednesday - Friday. The last day, Saturday, was the worst, we had to sit on the boat because there would be announcements at 9:00 am, then stay on because we might leave at 11:00am, then wait again until after 1:00pm and then there was a decision to let us off. It was obvious the boat wasn’t going anywhere due to the 24 hours it would have taken to cruise back to Passau and there was another cruise scheduled. Also, we were extremely far back in the line of boats that would have moved before us.
Given these unforeseen circumstances, I am inquiring about a future cruise credit (FCC) toward another cruise or a refund. We were so excited to do our first River cruise as a way to travel and have the ability to bicycle and I would love the opportunity to schedule another boat/bike cruise and fully experience the journey.
I appreciate your understanding and consideration of this request, and I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Mary Schmidt- What was the date of your tour?
- September 15, 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- This would have been our first but can't count due to not leaving port.
- 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, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia
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★★★★★ Joann Schmidt
Not what I was expecting
Danube Delights: Biking through Four Countries
Our river/bike cruise turned into a floating hotel in Vienna. Our boat never left the dock all week because of historical flooding on the Danube. The boat and cruise personnel were all fine but just wish we could of actually seen something of the countries we were hoping to see on the river. Not sure if I would ever sign up for one of these again.
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