Family Friendly Bike Tour Reviews
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★★★★★ Richard Severson
Very dissatisfied
Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
Our trip was shortened due to previous rains which had damaged the trail and sections were closed. We were not informed of this issue until we had been biking for two days. We were unable to ride the final two days as the trail was closed.
We should have been notified of this situation prior to our leaving home. We would have cancelled the trip (we had trip insurance) and rebooked for next year. VERY disappointed in the way this information was withheld from us. It is a clear case of the bike touring company looking out for themselves and totally disregarding us, the customer.
Also, one member of our party had to cancel due to medical reasons. This information must not have reached the provider as 4 bikes were delivered and all hotels were expecting 4 people.-
BikeTours.com staff reply from jan
The unprecedented storm that hit the region of your trip completely overwhelmed everyone in the region so many balls were unfortunately dropped. Though this is no excuse, there simply were not enough resources to update and help all of our travelers. This was a problem for everyone in the industry. Our apologies the weather - and the massive fallout is caused - did not cooperate. We hope you'll give us a chance on another trip.
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★★★★★ Mama
Danube family bike tour???
Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
This trip did not turn out to be anything like we expected. Although the hotels and the scenery were beautiful the support from The Bike Company was useless. When a child with a temp of 104 needed a hospital they had no suggestions on where to go or how to get there. The maps they provided were useless and the directions given to us on the first night we're completed in about 20 minutes. The bikes were inconsistent some had water bottle holders some not. The day at the spa although nice contain total nudity. American children aren't used to that. The Farm Hotel turned out to be 3 goats. The bike ride into Venice was four miles of City biking. bike trails in Vienna are gorgeous but not particularly child friendly. The Danube bike paths all though lovely contained many areas where the speed limit was 70 kilometers an hour. We had seven and 10 year old children riding.The bike support was not given by the tour company but by another tour company. Support really meant they just transported our luggage. This would have been a beautiful ride for adults and teenagers. Not young children. the maps need to be completely redone.
- How many tours have you completed?
- 8
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Lindsay
Hi Sharon, thanks very much for your feedback. We're requesting a response and feedback from the local tour operator and will be following back up with another comment very shortly. - Lindsay
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Hi Sharon,
We're very sorry to hear that this tour did not meet your expectations. We try our best to educate travelers on what to expect, especially with self-guided tours. Please accept our apologies if you did not find the information sufficient on this tour page and in the materials provided during correspondence with our staff and with the tour company during your tour.
We chatted with the local tour operator regarding your comments about their service. While they regret that you were dissatisfied with the overall experience, they did provide the level of support detailed in the ""Included Services"" for this tour package. They also noted that they organized a taxi to transport your bikes on the rainy day for no additional charge (which is typically not included on self-guided tours). It sounds as though you may most enjoy a private guided tour for your next trip, which would include your own private support vehicle and guide.
The Danube Bike Path is consistently rated one of the best bike paths in Europe for its safety, ease, and family-friendliness, and we've confidently recommended it to families for more than ten years based on the great comments and stories we've always heard from past clients, as well as our own experiences. We're sorry this was not your experience, and we hope to have the opportunity to help you organize another trip in the future that's a better fit for your family.
A note to travelers considering this tour in the future: please be sure to review this page with general information on self-guided tours (https://www.biketours.com/self-guided-bike-tours/) and this page on what to expect on a typical day on a self-guided tour (https://www.biketours.com/typical-day). Also carefully review the ""Included Services"" section on this tour page to familiarize yourself with the level of service you should expect when booking this tour.
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★★★★★ Sam Fleischacker
Denmark is great; BikeTours is not
Royal Zealand and Copenhagen
Are you looking for a tour company that will send you bike directions to the wrong hotels, follow that up with a condescending note when you complain rather than apologizing and correcting their mistake, book you in charmless corporate hotels way outside of the towns you're headed for, and delete your GPS tracks before your trip is finished? If so, this is the trip for you! If not, look elsewhere. My wife and I had some wonderful biking on this trip - but that's because of Denmark, which has beautiful and very well-marked bike trails everywhere (running through forests often), not because of BikeTours: indeed, we sometimes needed to correct the GPS tracks we were sent by the Danish markers, or by asking locals for help. Our previous experience on a self-guided bike tour, in France, was magical: with lovely, varied hotels in beautiful places at the end of each day, a well-crafted route accurately represented on the GPS tracks, and good help available by phone if we needed it (to be fair the Copenhagen representative of this local bike company, Sofia, was very friendly and helpful). This was a great disappointment after that. If you're looking for a tour that is geared towards your enjoyment, rather than the bottom line of the tour operator, I'd avoid BikeTours.com.
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Denmark
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★★★★★ John Zimmerman
Washout
Danube Bike Path 7 Nights (Classic)
So I picked the worst possible week to do this, the trip was canceled by the tour company after 2 days because of flooding. I'm still waiting to hear from them. The bike was very nice, it had fenders, which came in handy in the steady rain I biked in the 2 days I was on the tour. The path was well marked, almost all that I was on was paved. One downside was because of the rain, the restaurants along the trail were closed, so when I most needed a hot drink, none were to be found. I couldn't use the turn by turn app because of the rain, but the trail guide book was very nice, and the directions were easy to follow. Conclusion, September is not a good month to do this, it was around 50 degrees the entire time I was on the cycle path. I want to attempt this again, there is a 99 percent chance that the weather will be better.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- this was the first one
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much 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?
- Austria, Germany
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BikeTours.com staff reply from jan
Your weather event was a highly unusual situation, John. September is our busiest travel month and normally the weather on this trip is glorious during this time. I'm sorry it did not work out that way for you.
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★★★★★ Michael Beiley
Mediocre bike trip
Nature, Villages & Castles of the Loire River Valley
This is our 6th bike trip in Europe as an older couple and our least favorite. The chateaux (chateaus) were the highlights with beautiful gardens and art work. The beginning town of Blois and last town of Ambroise were charming and the best part of the trip. The biking along the Loire the very first day and last day were the prettiest. Most of the biking was along dedicated bikepaths or very quiet roads. Otherwise, the bicycling though flat farmland, small towns with zero to very limited restaurants, and vineyards without opportunity to for tastings was very uninspiring. The tour operator booked us in a hotel for two nights when the restaurant was closed and the nearest town was 4km through a forest at night if we wanted to eat dinner. They also booked a canoe trip for 2:30 when we passed through it was 11:00 a.m and closed (we asked for a refund but they never replied.) The hotels other than the first and last day were very average. Overall, the 4 chateaux and the two 1/2 days biking along Loire river were the highlights, the rest was mediocre.
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept-Oct 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
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★★★★★ Leslie Wilson
Very disappointing
Lake Garda (Based in One Hotel)
The bikes,local tour provider & maps where not an acceptable standard or adequately explained to our bike group. We all goind this to be very disappointing.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- 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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★★★★★ Christopher Blair
Strasbourg - Mainz
Strasbourg to Mainz: Imperial Cities and Charming Landscapes Along the Rhine
It was okay.
First day, bags were not picked up. Had to call. Delivered after dinner time. Expected some explanation or perhaps an apology. Nothing. -
★★★★★ diane g
Salzburg to Salzburg has fantastic scenery but directions provided are unbelievably poorly developed
Tauern Bike Path (Salzburg-Salzburg)
Salzburg to Salzburg over 6 days is higher than a level 2. The terrain is hilly. I do not recommend this self guided tour because the german-speaking outfits they contract with provide totally inadequate self-guiding instructions. They do not know what a cue sheet is. They do not provide any directions as to north, south, east, west; they do not provide any street names. AND, the directions in English are very obviously translated very poorly from the German. In addition, there is no way to find your hotel once off the bike path. You have to depend upon good route finding skills for this hotel finding as well as the entire trip. We had this same experience with bike tours.com 7 years ago and thought they might have gotten better at directions. We gave bike tours feedback at that time, and our friends gave feedback on their german-speaking directions on their self-guided tour, and nothing changed. Hence I am writing this review without making a customer complaint becaue I do not believe bike tours will fix this problem. AND, THIS TOUR REQUIRES ONE TO CONSULT 3 SETS OF INSTRUCTIONS THROUGHOUT THE TRIP. 2 sets of friends had exactly the same experience. 2 stars are for getting our luggage to each hotel before we arrived; and the hotels were gracious and accommodating.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2016
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria
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★★★★★ Jim Brewer
Mainz to Cologne
Rhine Bike Path: Mainz to Cologne
The Rhine Valley was beautiful. The hybird bikes were very good. Maps and directions for the tour were very poor at best. Extremely difficult to find Hotels and the key sights mentioned by the tour. We experienced extremely high temperatures but had A/C most nights. The night without A/C resulted in very little sleep and NO biking the next day. The night that they shut off the A/C in the middle of the night resulted into a lot of lost sleep. Bottom line even with average high temperatures you need A/C every night and all night long.
Others on the same tour with the same maps etc also had difficulties finding the Hotels each evening.- What was the date of your tour?
- 22 Jul 18--28 Jul 18
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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★★★★★ Shirley Santucci
Disappointed
Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
Total lack of communication in not informing us that our biking would end 2 days early, which meant missing out biking through the Wachau valley . When I contacted Bike Tours that my husband was ill and could not make the trip. I should have been informed then that there were changes to the scheduled tour. The welcome meeting & bike fitting was a joke. There was absolutely no value in that 15 minute meeting. I had to adjust the handle bars myself and struggle through removing the battery for charging at the 1st two hotels that did not offer charging in the bike storage area. The electric bike itself was very good quality and comfortable to ride. The printed trip itinerary was easy to follow but did not offer much in the way of "do not miss" highlights along the way. In my opinion, only three of the hotels were worth the upscale category. I would not recommend this bike tour for anyone that has experienced quality bike tours previously.
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★★★★★ pmcmanamon
Tour instructions were outdated, and hard to follow
Strasbourg to Mainz: Imperial Cities and Charming Landscapes Along the Rhine
The cities we visited were great, and so were the hotels. I was warm, so air conditions would have been nice, but not a big deal. The tour instructions consisted of a generic book with instructions, and a generic set of maps. The maps were not that detailed. When the maps disagreed with the instructions the maps were right. The signage along the routes changed since they made the instructions . We were told to look for a large E along European bike paths, but it appears to have been replaced by a circle with 15 inside it, i guess for the # of countries in the EU. The bikes were great. The luggage was always delivered on time. I downloaded a Eurobike app to help with the directions, but it did not work well. In order to update my positions I had to quit the app, and restart it. The Biketours people did suggest a new app, RidewithGPS, that worked much better. Because they did not have cues the pass could not tell me ahead of a turn, but it did tell me if we go off course.
I think the local tour company, Eurobike, needs to update their instructions. I also would appreciate if they made unique instructions for each tour. The instructions start and end at a city center. When we got close I would use google maps to find the hotel directly, rather than going to the city center and then to the hotel. My ideal would be a unique set of instructions for a tour, with small maps above or below each instruction. We have had that with other tours, but different providers. On this tour I could not mount my instructions and maps so I could see both while riding, I picked the instructions. In some cases they recommend stopping at a certain place for lunch, but you cannot see if from the tour route, and there is no map to locate it.
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★★★★★ Carol Bly
Not what hoped for. Poor directions. Unsafe routes and not well marked.
Tauern Bike Path (Krimml-Passau)
Loved quiet rides in country and thru villages but dangerous conditions were not marked due to recent storms. We should have been notified and got onto dangerous routes.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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BikeTours.com staff reply from jan
Thank you for your feedback, and we sincerely apologize for the disruptions you experienced during your trip. The recent 100-year storm was an unprecedented event that affected thousands of travelers across the region, and we regret that it impacted your adventure.
We always strive to provide the best experience possible, and it is disheartening when factors beyond our control prevent us from doing so. Please know that our team worked tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of all our guests during this unexpected situation.
Thanks for your business and we hope you'll travel with us again.
Jan
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★★★★★ Aileen Gray
Tour was not 5 hour tour as stated
Bilbao Gold Coast E-Bike Tour
Excellent guide. We left bilboa at 10 am. Arrived in Getxo at 1220. Had option to return with guide or pay 7 each to return on our own. Return was 45 mins. Not worth 55 euro we paid.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 17
- How many tours have you completed?
- 20 plus
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
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★★★★★ May
First family cycling trip completed!
Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
Overall a satisfactory trip! The GPS is very useful for navigation. The hotels are great! Just on first day, we find that 2 of the 4 bikes are not fit. We have enter our age and height and has not been told specifically what kinds of bikes will be assigned. I found that they just give standard bikes for adult female and male disregard our height and age (Asians in average are shorter than Westerners.) The person, Robert, arrived for “bike fitting” was not helpful at all. He suggested my daughter to cycle 30km to their bike shop to change bike. When we asked him to call customer service, he said he didn’t have Wi-Fi. So, Eurobike send a staff without communication methods to help customers’ solve problems? Finally, Robert had to use my phone to call the CS number. And in the phone, he said we are “bla, bla, bla.” Is it the customers cannot voice their requests, even the bikes are not fit and customers have to take the risk of getting hurt or accident? and seems to Robert, customers’ requests are “bla, bla, bla..” And customers need to take the riding risk to go 30km to change bike? Later he mentioned it may need to charge EUR 50 per bike change if need to switch bikes in Passau. I have emailed biketour and I am grateful that next day the 2 bikes were changed without additional charges. In second day, Simon is much more helpful. Simon helps us do the testing & it works. Simon is v polite and helpful. Passau is the starting point of Danube cycle path. I feel strange that the outsource company does not have a bike rental centre there. This is our first family cycling trip and it did create stresses at the beginning. The outsource company probably need to have better communication with biketour.
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★★★★★ Elizabeth Anderson
Not ideal
Bolzano to Verona: Orchards, Mountains & Timeless Culture
Sorry, this tour was not great. We have used biketours.com for five different trips and this was our least favorite. The hotels were way out of the city centers making it difficult to get dinner or see sights after biking. The routes were not well planned.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2025
- How many tours have you completed?
- Lots and lots
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Debra Miller
A Bit Disappointing
Danube Bike Path 7 Nights (Classic)
Cycling along a paved path along the Danube was relaxing for our group of four. Day three was truly beautiful with cobblestone roads and colorful houses in the villages. Wish we had gone earlier in the year as many restaurants and shops were closed for the season.
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★★★★★ Janna R Poll
Needs a bit more sophistication
Prague to Dresden Along the Vltava & Elbe Rivers
1. There was no GPS. They insisted it was easy and we had maps, but they were in Czech and hard to read and the street were rarely marked.
2. I had two flats within the first mile ( two more to come). They need to put liners in their tires. Our pump was also so bad that after a lot of work it was still too low to ride. Usually other riders would stop and let us borrow their more superior pumps.
They delivered a new bike in Prague because my brakes were also broken. To get to their delivery car I had to go down a wet slope and across a divided highway. I fell on a wet grid and hurt my knee bad and ripped the entire butt out of my only pair of bike shorts for the whole trip ( remember the missing luggage). This. Detour meant we couldn’t ever seem to find the bike bath again and since we had a late start of 3:30, we rode hard for six straight hours. It was extremely dangerous after dark and we had no food out in the farmland. I was using my phone to try to find the towns with path.
I complained about the promise of a GPS and not having one. So they forwarded maps to use on a a special app on my phone, but that took a day to understand where we were on the map. I got a GPS the third day, but it didn’t have a charge and the charging unit didn’t go with the unit I had.
4. Not only did we have flats, but my kickstand didn’t work and more importantly, the fender supports in the front was missing some rubber tips. That meant when I put down my foot when stopping and the wheel was turned at all, the snipped off metal of the support would slash my inside knees badly. This happened a lot and was very painful and bloody.
5. Several of the hotels had some real problems with super warm rooms, (no A/C anywhere over there), loud streets, and no ice. Two at least had fans. the nice hotel in Bad Shandeau put us alone up on the 4th floor and said we were to leave the windows closed because of smoke from the fires, which was blowing the opposite direction. Our attic room was well over 90F w no ventilation. We opened the narrow attic windows anyhow
The best hotel was a little pensioner on the first night. That frog even gave us ice for our water bottles. It was a very hot week.6. The path ran right by a forest fire before Bad Schandau. Breathing was bad and stinky.
They guys were generally responsive, though the main guy was on vacation. We are fairly unde manding most of time, changed our own FOUR flat tires, tried to find our way, dealt w the bike faults, but feel they were tired of us the first day. In fact he said if we were ‘one of their clienta it would be different. If they took the money from you, we WERE their client!
Overall, it was a bit disappointing on the bike side, though the river is lovely and biking is still the best way to see a country! SHOW MORE
Janna Poll Olender
Pic of what the fender was doing. The bruise was from trying to get to their van w new bike in Prague.
SHOW LESS- What was the date of your tour?
- July2022
- 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?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Czech Republic, Germany
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★★★★★ Ginny50
A Challenging and Rainy Ride
Lake Constance Bicycle Path
This was a good tour and we enjoyed the adventure, but I can honestly say I would not recommend it to a beginner. Many of the reviews said this was a good ride for beginners. My husband and I started riding 2 years ago so we are slow but steady riders. We rode the Danube path (Passau to Vienna) last year with no problems so this one sounded like a good tour for us.
We booked this ride based on the level 2 status and the few reviews we saw. In my opinion it is more of a level 3-4. The gently rolling hills were very steep on the first 2 days. It would have been easier with an e-bike but for beginners it was almost impossible with a regular bike. Most of the time the paths were paved but several sections were packed “gravel.” These paths were well maintained and easy, but often a bumpy ride. The biggest problem was these paths were not much more than 2 feet wide so if you are a slow rider you tend to collect 30 faster bikers behind you with no way to pass.
The Lake Constance cycle route is one of the most popular bicycle routes in Europe.
This just about sums it up - the most popular path in Europe. It was over-crowed almost to the point of being dangerous in many sections. We wondered about the high level of bike traffic during the month of May, until we were enlightened that we were enjoying “Pentecost Holidays” with the throngs of locals.
The bikes provided by the company were wonderful. I highly recommend this tour company/bike shop and crew. My husband was not happy with his first bike and they quickly swapped it out with no question.
When we received our tour documents we noticed one day stated that the ride was 35miles/55km. Most of those miles were on a shared road with cars - Not a dedicated bike path. Cars whizzing past you on a busy road is not fun for us. That day our bikes took a train ride! FYI - When I asked one of the tour guides if many people ditched this ride mid-way he did say that quite a few riders just gave up. I can see why!
Each hotel was fabulous. The rooms were lovely and the food excellent.
We really did enjoy this trip and we pushed ourselves more than we ever thought we could. We had 2 good days of seeing the lake and views, but missed seeing the beautiful scenery because of the incessant rain and many detours. Better rain gear will be on our wish list before we ride again. It was a challenge that we were proud to complete.- What was the date of your tour?
- May, 2016
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland
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★★★★★ Lee Chestnut
Great Scenery, History, and Acomommdations. Not much Support
Rhine Bike Path: Mainz to Cologne
We enjoyed seeing the Rhine Valley and historic villages. Our accommodations were great and the food was great.
Unfortunately, the Rhine was near flood stage and much of the given route was flooded. After contacting the local operator for direction, I was told to find my own route or take a train, at my own expense.
We found our own way using Google maps and talking with other cyclists.
The main reason I use a tour operator is to have local support when difficulties arise. We didn't receive that support.
It seems the operator could come up with secondary routes that are safe and beautiful (which we came up with on our own) and supply them to their guests as needed.- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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★★★★★ CynFul
Mosel Bike Path: Dreamy Mosel Valley from Trier to Koblenz
The scenery along the route was breathtaking and every town on the tour was welcoming.
Most of the riding was on a well maintained bike path (many taking us through wine vineyards) although we were diverted to the road (both in-town and along busy thoroughfares) a time or two but besides the rides through the towns the riding along the roads was along a designated area for bikes and the vehicular traffic was mindful of the cyclists. The accommodations were very comfortable and having prepaid for daily breakfast and dinner we didn't have to make any choices where to eat and all-in-all each of our meals were satisfactory at minimum. Although the pre-tour preparation for our self-guided bike tour was very detailed with BikeTours.com the execution (by the German based company) left something to be desired. The riding instructions/maps we were given were based on the standard route so they didn't take our particular stops into consideration; we therefore spent a good amount of time lost on our bikes. This was also because the general riding directions/instructions provided by the German tour company were not very detailed and again, did not provide specific details relative to our daily stops. The equipment provided by the German tour company was fair; the two women's bikes were like beach cruisers so easy to get on/off, the e-bike was fantastic (appeared to be brand new) and the other men's bike worked fine although it seemed a bit big for the rider and it was the smallest men's frame the local company had available. The handlebar box and panier for each bike was adequate for transporting our personal items.We LOVED the area, just wish we had spent less time being lost and more time exploring the beautiful, friendly towns scattered along the Moselle.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 6-13, 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- This was the first for me
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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