Family Friendly Bike Tour Reviews (page 17)
- Albania
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Cambodia
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- England
- Estonia
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Holland
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Montenegro
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Scotland
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
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- Turkey
- United States
- Vietnam
- Wales
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★★★★★ Mark Newell June 19, 2023Wonderful cycling, great lodging and excellent scenery
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
The ride was relatively easy as hills were limited and the trail was in very good shape. Only a small portion of the ride was on roads with low traffic. The scenery was interesting and varied. The lodging was very nice. The mileage each day was just right
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★★★★★ Gregory Gibb June 17, 2023
Great trip
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
The staff was incredibly helpful with making arrangement for one of our party to ride with the luggage bus after he had a medical incident. I can't how much we appreciated it!
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★★★★★ Terry Edeli June 14, 2023Amazing
· Amsterdam to Bruges: Cycling through South Holland and Zeeland
Lovely trip. The itinerary was expertly planned for the scenic and carefree routes. Hotels were great. Bikes excellent. Super service.
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★★★★★ Karen Regin June 11, 2023
Beautiful Austria
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
The upscale lodging is absolutely wonderful. There was only one property that did not exceed expectations. The contact in Europe was less satisfying. Directions were sometimes hard to interpret, we ended up with directions to one town when our lodging was in another town, and there was not any help with GPS directions. But the bikes were nice and the lodging choices excellent overall.
The bike paths are wonderful and the country is beautiful. We really enjoyed riding through the small towns and eating at local cafes. There is not much English anywhere so be prepared for that. Overall, we loved the trip! -
★★★★★ Catherine Cram June 11, 2023Convenient Way to Explore!
· Bicycle Paths of the Dolomites (based in one hotel)
We enjoyed our self-guided bike trip in the Dolomites, with great support from BikeTours.com. We appreciated the detailed route information and app support. My only complaint is that I would liked to have had a better bike to ride instead of the heavy, upright positioned bike provided. The bike didn't make the hills easy and it would have been more enjoyable to be on a lighter, more responsive bike.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 31st-June 6th, 2023.
- How many tours have you completed?
- One
- 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?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Dave Carlstrom June 10, 2023On the road again... our third Biketours.com adventure
· Lake Constance Classic (11-nights)
Thankfully I’m not unduly worse for wear after almost three weeks and hundreds of kilometers of European cycling… though I did take four tumbles. The most serious (and ignominious) was in an Austrian grocery store parking lot when my pants cuff caught on the pedal and over I went – hard, attracting the immediate attention of several shoppers (“Carnage on lane one”) who with some difficulty got me back on my feet. At first I was pretty sure I’d broken something important, but all limbs are yet attached and seemingly intact… albeit a bit looser.
I pedaled the balance of the day’s distance but at my compatriots’ urging skipped the following day’s segment in favor of bus/train passage to St. Gallen, Switzerland. The next day was a scheduled no biking day so I had two days to recover, sorta. The next day – our last of actual cycling – with some anxiety I got back on my trusty velocipede and, sure enough, one click later fell again… though this time comparatively softly albeit in front of a bus. I made it the remaining 45K to destination without further incident.
Our merry band included Seattleites Curt and Brenda Burnett, Gerry Champagne, and friends until recently from Fairbanks Ron and Jeanine Woolf. Fine folks all, we really did have a good time together.
Our odyssey began with six days at a rental house in Eguisheim, France, followed by an eleven day clockwise circumnavigation of Lake Constance that touched Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Here are a few day-by-day snippets of my adventure:
Sunday, April 30th. Aloft en route to Paris Delta served the worst dinner I’ve ever ingested on an international flight: the “beef” entre was the consistency of spam, reminiscent of the mystery meat of junior high cafeteria days, and dished out in a biodegradable cardboard clamshell.
Monday, May 1st. Having hobbled off the plane I was semi-involuntarily consigned to a wheelchair for the lengthy transfer to the airport train station. Manly hombre that I am, I dared not disclose to the friendly pusher that I had come to Europe for three weeks of cycling. Arrived Colmar, in Alsace, just before midnight via a 180 MPH TGV with a transfer in Strasbourg and, coincidentally, six minutes prior to the Woolfs’ arrival. Settled into our very nice rental house.
Tuesday, May 2nd - Thursday, May 4th. Daily e-bike excursions to nearby picture-perfect towns with eat-in dinners crafted by chefs Burnett and Woolf. Imbibed copious amouints of wine, certainly did our part for the local viticulture industry.
I developed a serious case of ABC – Asymmetrical Butt Chafing – which was ameliorated by liberal bi-daily nether regions applications of Bag Balm – my personal favorite posterior palliative, see https://bagbalm.com/. SHOW MORE
Friday, May 5th. Hung out at the house, pas mal.
Saturday, May 6th. Day trip with Burnetts to the tourist mecca of Colmar where, alas and alack, Curt was pickpocketed! Charge and debit card cancellations ensued, not good.
Sunday, May 7th. Auto trip to a German mountain hiking lodge, an intermediate stop on our way to Konstantz, the starting and ending point of our main event circumnavigation of the eponymous lake.
Monday, May 8th. Had to beat feet to get Burnetts’ rental car back by a 10:30 am deadline… made it with a full five minutes to spare. Checked in at the stunning four star Hotel Halm where the breakfast buffet includes champagne and cheesecake. Woolfs arrived by train, Gerry direct from Seattle via Zurich. Got our e-bikes.
Tuesday, May 9th. Pedaled forty some K to Gailingen, a bit of a shakedown cruise. Great scenery and picture postcard-worthy medieval villages. Adequate lodging, but not a Hotel Halm.
Wednesday, May 10th. Roundtrip to Rhine Falls, Europe’s largest. Second night in Gailingen, first of nearly nightly self-catered hotel room team happy hours.
On previous European bike tours we’ve grumbled about route instructions encrypted by by non-native English speakers. This time the tour operator-provided guidebook was completely devoid of route guidance… we were on our own, taking turns as Google Maps-assisted trail breaking pathfinders with plenty of navigational errors. But we always (eventually) got to where we were going.
Thursday, May 11th. Return to Konstanz for a Hotel Halm reprise. Got soaked during the last couple clicks of the day’s ride.
Friday, May 12th. To Radolfzell via Mainau Island, the latter a facsimile of sorts of Butchart Gardens.
Saturday, May 13th. A mere sixteen K to Ludwigshafen.
Sunday, May 14th. Forty K to Friedrichshafen, home of the Zeppelin Museum to which I made a solo afternoon excursion via city buses. Turns out the Hindenberg was 245 meters from stem to stern, almost three football fields.
Monday, May 15th. Day of my aforementioned parking lot tumble. Overnight in Bregnz, Austria. I was very sore, somewhat bruised, had marginal repose.
Tuesday, May 16th. Having shipped my bike with the luggage I patronized buses and trains to our next destination, St. Gallen, Switzerland. As it happened today was Jeanine’s turn to tumble, hard, while passing a path-blocking truck.
Wednesday, May 17th. Today was a scheduled non-cycling day so while others toured about (monastery, waterfalls chocolate factory, shopping) I rested my bruised corpus in the hope that I might be sufficiently healed for the morrow’s last lap back to Konstanz.
Thursday, May 18th. 14K of almost continuous downhill on the 46 K journey back to our starting point. Celebratory dinner, a bit melancholy to be soon parting ways.
Friday, May 19th. Train to Zurich for a twelve hour Swissair flight to San Francisco and a connection home to Seattle.
Great trip, a good time had by all (despite bumps and bruises).
D. Carlstrom. May, 2023
SHOW LESS- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland
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★★★★★ Karen Goodkin June 9, 2023
Water, windmills and tall skinny houses
· Amsterdam to Bruges: Cycling through South Holland and Zeeland
Loved everything about this trip. The route took us through beautiful areas, all avoiding cars and large roads. Accommodations were excellent and the choice of towns and small cities for overnight stays were charming and worth our while. Distinctive too. Bikes were incredible! All in all, an excellent bike trip.
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★★★★★ John Whitworth June 6, 2023
Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We had a fantastic week biking and exploring the towns and cities along the Danube in Austria. All of the accommodation and dinners that were booked for us by BikeTours.com were fantastic and certainly lived up to the "upscale lodging" description. They also did a fantastic job moving our luggage between our hotel making that process seamless. Would more than recommend this trip to anyone, also early June turned out to be a fantastic time to do this trip as we had perfect weather and beautiful spring flowers everywhere.
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★★★★★ Geraldine Donato June 5, 2023
Couldn’t have been better!
· Amsterdam to Bruges: Cycling through South Holland and Zeeland
We did a self-guided tour with a 2-hour “tutorial” from Peter of Tulip Tours before we started out. He made sure we were fit properly to our bikes and understood everything about the navigation system so our ride was seamless! We planned an extra night in a couple of cities so we could enjoy more of the local activities and food (!) and decided to do more of that on our next tour. All the hotels were located convenient to town centers except the water hotel in Dordrecht, which was uniquely wonderful. Thank you to Tulip Tours for a wonderful biking experience in Holland and Belgium!!
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 10
- 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?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Belgium, Holland
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★★★★★ Christine May 31, 2023
Fabulous trip!
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We upgraded to e-bikes at the last minute and we’re glad we did since we had a 20 mph headwind the first three days. The bikes were a blast! Lovely scenery, good written directions and the app was useful too. The hotels were all very good, from rustic to lavish in Durnstein. We did our trip in late May, weather was great and the trail was not crowded. We found great outdoor restaurants for lunch every day. Some of these were recommended in the informational materials which was very helpful!
We loved our trip and highly recommend it!!- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- This is our first bike 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
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Philip Weickhardt May 31, 2023
Highly enjoyable and well organised
· Cycling Spain's Ebro River
We greatly enjoyed the beautiful and ever changing landscapes we rode through. The e-bikes we chose were greatly appreciated as there was quite a bit of climbing at some points each day. The routes chosen were good - mostly the roads we rode on were quiet with few cars. The hotels were mostly small and rural, but the hosts were excellent, the food good and the accommodation comfortable. The quality of the bikes, the orientation briefing and the collection at the end of the trip left nothing to complain about. The route guidance maps provided to preload onto the Ride with GPS App worked really well.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Spain
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★★★★★ Kate Cooke May 31, 2023An excellent tour
· Berlin Wall & Cold War Bike Tour
Our guide oleg was brilliant. He was so knowledgeable and interesting. It was fun going on a bike. It meant we saw lots of different sites. I'd really recommend the tour.
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★★★★★ Christine May 31, 2023
Fabulous trip!
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We upgraded to e-bikes at the last minute and we’re glad we did since we had a 20 mph headwind the first three days. The bikes were a blast! Lovely scenery, good written directions and the app was useful too. The hotels were all very good, from rustic to lavish in Durnstein. We did our trip in late May, weather was great and the trail was not crowded. We found great outdoor restaurants for lunch every day. Some of these were recommended in the informational materials which was very helpful!
We loved our trip and highly recommend it!!- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- This is our first bike 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
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Patricia Rose May 29, 2023
Bucket List to Bruges
· Amsterdam to Bruges: Cycling through South Holland and Zeeland
A beautiful way to truly see the Netherlands! Our self-guided group of eight cyclists pedaled from Amsterdam to Bruges. Pleased how everything flowed so seamlessly. The bicycles, panniers, GPS and route maps provided by Tulip Cycling were top notch. Would recommend this tour for any level of cycling.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- Five
- 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?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Belgium, Holland
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★★★★★ Christopher McAdam May 28, 2023Fantastic Ride
· Tauern Bike Path (Salzburg-Salzburg)
Loved the hotels loved the ride, loved the all day everyday view. We really like seeing and going through the little alpine towns.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6th
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria
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★★★★★ Abdulla Alhebsi May 26, 2023First bike trip
· Danube Bike Path 7 Nights (Classic)
Perfect trip in perfect time, highly recommended.
Started from Passau to vienna. Will be good to book extra night in Passau- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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BikeTours.com staff reply from jan May 26, 2023
Very cool pics! Thanks for your business.
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★★★★★ Todd Pulley May 26, 2023Beautiful countryside
· Tauern Bike Path (Krimml-Passau)
This was a beautiful ride. There were two distinct parts of the trip, each with their own character. The first 3 days we rode through a variety of alpine landscapes... wide valleys, small villages, along crashing rivers, through narrow canyons and past lovely farms. Everything was pristine and with fantastic views. We finished that portion with a ride into Salzburg, where we spent an extra day. Good decision. Lots to see and do. We attended a Mozart concert high in the fortress and felt like it was a highlight of the trip. Recommend the SteiglKeller for lunch or dinner. Great views of the city. The second half from Salzburg to Passau was different ... flatter, less scenic, but had its own charm. Riding along the river was relaxing. The little towns were interesting, and the overnight stops were great. Again, lots to see and do along the way. A word of warning: the route coming into Salzburg is very confusing. Use your GPS on your phone for this section. Only glitch in the trip... our bags did not show up until 10 pm one night and not at all the next night (placed in a storage closet where no one thought to look. Very inconvenient, in that no we could not get anyone on the phone to address the problem. Also, if you are a cyclist, ask lots of questions about the bikes that they are supplying.
Overall, great trip and would highly recommend.- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- this was our 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?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Geri Lincoln May 25, 2023
Wonderful trip
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We had an amazing time, our accomodations were eclectic and diverse which we appreciated. Tour book was well researched and informative. The ground handler that gave us our bikes was not very well informed and did not give any options, tools or advise for fitting the bikes correctly, we had no issues but some others, especially those on ebikes were not well served. GPS routing would be an excellent addition to the books provided. Hotel Donauschlinge seemed to be having a bad day and the restaurant staff was obviously rude to those of us without German language skills. All in all, very well done. Having only two experiences that were less than perfect for an 8 day tour is a job well done!
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- 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?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Barry Greenberg May 24, 2023Prague castle tour
· Bohemian Getaway: Villages, River Valleys & Karlstejn Castle
Very good orientation to the trip and explanation of the routes on this self-guided tour.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 12
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Countries included in this tour?
- Czech Republic
