First Timers Bike Tour Reviews (page 21)
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★★★★★ KEVIN O'CONNELL July 29, 2024Exceeded Expectations
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
The route planned and information provided allowed us to completely immerse ourselves in the Austrian culture.
All accommodations were wonderful with comfortable, well appointed suites and quality food services.
We will repeat this trip again as we enjoyed it so much.
Recommend adding days on the end to enjoy Vienna.
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★★★★★ Jim Gross August 5, 2024
Radreise Freude/ Great Tour Company
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
This was our (3) time riding the “Passau to Vienna “ tour. Such a beautiful experience.
I caught an illness on our flight from the states. Ended up being transported by ambulance to the hospital. Was unable to ride the next day.
Tour operator arranged to have us and our bikes transported by a van to the next hotel.
They were extremely helpful.- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 9
- 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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★★★★★ Alejandro Ballesteros August 16, 2024
Great trip, very good bikes, nice hotels, good service through out the trip by the team
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We had a wonderful experience over all. We traveled three families together, 14 persons in total and everything worked out perfectly. Highly recommended
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★★★★★ Paul Machle August 16, 2024
Great trip for the family
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We took our three late teenagers on the trip and had a great time. The tour was well organized and the equipment was top notch. We would do it again.
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★★★★★ Susan Parker 12 months ago
Loved it!
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We did the self guided trip and had a great time! The Wachau region was the most beautiful with quaint towns and rolling vineyards. The navigation app worked beautifully to the end of each day and then we switched to google maps to find some of the hotels, especially in Linz and Ardagger. Hotels were great along with their restaurants , and especially enjoyed Schloss Dürnstein with its beautiful warm pools. Picture perfect setting! One of our bikes was perfect, the other needed derailleur adjustment since the gears were hard to shift and then kept slipping. Tried to find an open bike as shop but most were closed or too busy for service so we just had to deal with it. Hopefully the bikes will be checked out better in the future in Passau. We had excellent weather the whole trip which made it a wonderful experience. We will definitely look into doing other bike tours.com trips!
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★★★★★ Mitch 3 months ago
Wonderful Trip
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We self guided down the Danube from Passau to Vienna. The experience was great. We stopped where and when we wanted to to stop and enjoyed the locals along the way. Being self guided was no problem at all, my only suggestion is to tie the hotels to the route for the for guidance. We ended up using Google maps to take us from the end of the route to the hotel in Linz and Vienna.
The Great hotels were : The Altstadt Hotel Passau, Landgastof Winter Ardagger, Hotel Zur Post Melk, Hotel Richard Lowenherz Dunstein and the Steigenberger Hotel Herrenhof Vienna. All of these hotel were phenominal. Frau Winter and the team in Adagger make feel right at home, great bar, great food and great hosts make for great stay. Elisabeth and her staff at Hotel Zur Post make you fell right at home, with a great wine tasting from the Wachau Valley, along with a great kitchen and ice cream shop out front makes this a great place to stay and enjoy their wonderful hospitality. Their uniforms are wonderful and ad to the experience! The Richard Loweherz in Durnstein is built around an abbey built in the 1400's, service was great and rooms comfortable. The restaurant was great also. The Steigenberger Hotel in Vienna puts the S in service. All of the staff went above and beyond to make sure you had what you needed for a wonderful stay. Great hotel in a large city with a small hotel feel. The real downer was the Radisson in Linz, indifferent front desk staff, dirty carpet in the first room and attached to a casino tells all about who they cater to. We were not impressed. The hotel in Tullin, The Best Western was brand new spotless and had a great manager. For business type of hotel this was a five star experience compared to Linz. The hotel is spotlessly clean and in a great part of town central to everything, it is not a traditional European old style hotel. The hotel in Schlogen we were indifferent to it is a summer resort hotel with a weird layout. It was okay but to call it upscale was stretching things a little in our opinion. It is located on the great bend and has wonderful views for the Danube and a great back deck to eat and drink on.
The Wachau valley is the heart of this tour for sheer beauty as was the ride from Schlogen to Linz and Linz to Ardagger. Those were our most enjoyable legs.
The bikes were brand new for the season for us and our two friend who had electric bikes they both had about 4000km on them. The bikes were in great repair and required no maintenance along the ride. The disk brakes were a welcome addition in the rain.
If you want to take a great bike ride down through Germany and Austria this ride is for you. Virtually flat with just a few climbs in and out of towns makes for an easy ride, we ended up gaining weight from all of the great food! Don't be put off by self guided, it's a great way to see everything you want to see. -
★★★★★ Pat and Cindy Ford 3 months ago
It was a wonderful trip
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
I thought Bike Tours did an excellent job for us. The rental bikes were like brand new. My wife and I rented e-bikes and our son rented a regular bike. After the first day our son wanted to upgrade to a performance bike. Bike tours met us at our first destination and swapped it out for an up charge which was agreed upon earlier that day.
We opted for the upscale lodging and I feel it was well worth it. All rooms except for one were larger than I expected by European standards. All lodging included a gourmet breakfast that you do not find in America. The fresh breads were amazing.
The bike paths through Germany and especially Austria our beautiful and well maintained. It's hard to explain your feelings as you ride through mid-evil villages, explore Castles, Monasteries, and Cathedrals that go back to the Roman empire.
The Capstone of our trip was to watch the Lipizzan Stallions perform at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.
The planning, communication, self guided app provided by Bike Tours was excellent. It would notify you if you left the route and reroute you if you needed it.
We had a wonderful trip.
Thank You,
Pat and Cindy Ford
We were part of the Mitchell Kadow group -
★★★★★ Tonya 1 month ago
Favorite bike tour!
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
This is our 3rd this type tour and for sure our favorite. The Danube cycle path is perfect… gorgeous scenery, flat, paved. We loved the small towns and the accommodations. Would highly recommend. Oh… the bikes were great too.
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2025
- 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?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Jim Grosd 6 days ago
Romantic Danube
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
This was our fourth time riding this trip. One can never tire riding this beautiful cycle path, the beautiful countryside, small town’s and villages, farms, orchards, city centers and buildings that are hundreds of years old, castles, etc. We prefer to go with the “Upscale Version “, perhaps a reflection of our age. The hotels and locations were excellent.
We select the upgraded bikes and they were in perfect condition. We combined the “Tauren Krimml to Passau “ cycle route on this trip and enjoyed the ride immensely.
I have worked with “Bike Tours.com” for many years now and really appreciate the excellent customer service and support!- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2025
- 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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★★★★★ Pam P May 24, 2016Amazing experience
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
We traveled on this self guided tour with our 10 and 12 year old daughters. We were very impressed with the organization of this trip. The maps were excellent. The trails were scenic, well marked and flat. I highly recommend this trip.
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★★★★★ TannisR May 24, 2016
Fabulous Family Experience!
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
If you are looking for a family adventure that you will remember for the rest of your life, this tour is for you! Our family had a truly enjoyable experience on the Danube family bike tour. It was a unique family holiday where we all worked together as a team - cycling along the Austrian countryside - to reach our destination. The scenery was breathtaking! The hotels were good to very good (what we expected). The pre tour arrangements, communication and maps provided were excellent. The bike service was excellent and assistance was provided promptly for the few challenges we had.
We are a family of 5 with kids aged 13, 11, and 8. The cycling, coupled with the heat (up to 28-30C most days) was a big challenge for our 8 year old but she did it and is very proud of herself. We had planned to get her a trail bike - to go behind my husband's bike - but it did not work out. The trail bike provided for her was tipping over when she was on it - attached to the adult bike. Maybe it was because the equipment was not good, maybe she was too big for it? That hiccup set us back 2 hours on our first morning which was frustrating. By 10:30 a.m. we were on our way, each of us on our own bike. The tour company linked us up with a bike shop that gladly swapped our trail bike for a 'real bike' for my daughter. Overall, the equipment provided was of excellent quality. The bikes were simple, but that's all we needed with the non-hilly paved terrain. We did not 'train' for our tour. Bring cycling shorts (padded) and gloves to help prevent chaffing. We used ours every day.
Another challenge was map reading. We were given detailed map books of roads and cycle trails. They were excellent maps. But in this digital age, we are used to using Google Maps to tell us how to get to our destination. It was sometimes a frustrating challenge to read the maps correctly.
The bike route we took was mostly along either dedicated bike paths along the Danube, or on country roads with little traffic. There were just a few areas where we needed to bike along a major road. In studying the map carefully, we chose to take the routes with less busy roads. One side of the river tended to have busy traffic roads and the other did not. The map was colour coded accordingly as to the type of path/road/country road. There were not many hills at all.
The hotels were all good. Some were more simple than others. We were not on this vacation for a luxury experience. We were worried that, being a family of 5, the hotels would squish us into one small room. On the contrary, we usually had two rooms or a suite, which was fabulous. The 'spa hotel' where we stayed for 2 nights mid-tour was nice. The pool was welcome, since the weather was quite warm. It was a true European experience when we saw two naked senior citizens enter the pool. At first, my family was shocked (being from modest Canada), but then, two of our kids jumped in naked as well (after the seniors left). When in Rome... SHOW MORE
The bike days were quite long. It took us about 6 hours of biking each day to reach our destination. Our speed was limited by my 8 year old daughter. She went as fast as her little legs could take her. I would recommend 8 as the youngest age for this tour. Ideally, kids would be age 10 and up - in order to ride a bigger faster bike.
Due to our 'slow' biking, we were not able to stop at many of the sights along the way. A few highlights were Pöstlingbergbahn and Grottenbahn in Linz, the Melk Abbey, town of Dürnstein (where we spent two nights), the Burgruine castle ruin in Dürnstein, and a lake between Dürnstein and Tulln where we enjoyed a picnic lunch and jumped in for a swim.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable and unique family experience for us. We would highly recommend it to family with kids age 10 and up (age 8 and up if your child is tall + athletic). A moderate fitness level is recommended.
SHOW LESS- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Families with teens, First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Egeny May 26, 2016
It was unforgettable tour!
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
It was unforgettable tour!
It is the perfect way for a first family tour by bikes. We are family (parents and 12 years old son). We have had tour the last summer. Everything was great: accommodation, meals, information materials, supporting.... Thank you very much to the Bike Tour.com. This summer we are going to book new tour via Bike Tour.com! -
★★★★★ Gramps May 31, 2016
A great way for a grandfather to take grandchildren captive
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
I had done the Danube ride with my son in 1991. We brought our own bikes to Europe that year and did the trip using only a map and the excellent signposts for guidance and finding overnight accommodations on the fly. I turned 78 last summer; and after waiting years for his children (there are 4 of them whose ages last summer ranged from 15 - 21) to get to an age where I could feel safe with them in my charge, they agreed to come on this ride with me. To be sure, the bikes that were provided were not road bikes or even high quality hybrids; but they were reliable and comfortable to the point that my non-biking grandchildren had no problem with saddle sores or other discomfort. While the overnight hotel facilities for which Biketours had arranged were not of 5 star quality, without exception they were very, very good (comparable, I would say, with Embassy Suites and similar) The hotel keepers were especially hospitable; and the food offerings were varied and of very good quality. Biketours delivered on every single thing that was promised. In fact, they exceeded expectations. Most important, it was a memorable experience that I'll look back upon for the rest of the years that have been allotted to me; and the kids had a grand experience and a fun time. Assuming that travel to Europe is still worthwhile when they have teen aged children of their own, I know my grandchildren will want to take them on a Danube Family Adventure.
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★★★★★ adortman June 5, 2016
The best tour in 4 years
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
The tour was perfect for the beginners. Beautiful views, good hotels and food, excellent guidance before tour.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 1st September 2015
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ JenniferW June 16, 2016
Wonderful family vacation!
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
The Danube bike path is an amazing ride and great for kids, ours were 9 and 12. The ride has endless beautiful river and hillside views, charming villages, cafes for lunch along the way, and fun parks for the kids to stop and play. The monastery in Melk is awesome. The hotels were lovely and unique, and the rooms were spacious for four. There are paths on both sides of the river, and many opportunities to cross back and forth for different scenery. There were a few short sections along roads shared with cars, which could usually be avoided by crossing to the other side over a bridge. The ride to the hotel in Vienna was easy, it is close to the waterfront path, past the amusement park along a few bike friendly streets. Vienna itself is very bike friendly. A representative from the local tour company met with us at the hotel the night before we started the trip, he was very helpful and explained all the maps and provided local contact information. The bikes were great. Highly recommended!
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2015
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Bernard D August 19, 2016
Danube from Linz to Vienna with some Extra
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
As a family of four (kids aged 10 and 11) we took six days to cover the 230 kilometers needed to pedal from Linz to Vienna. It was a fantastic way to discover beautiful country along one of the most picturesque stretches of European riverfront. 99.9% of the way is paved, and 80% is on dedicated bike paths (the remainder is biking on quiet country roads). With one rest day in the middle, the days represented between 35 and 55 kilometers of biking. Considering our younger one, our daughter, doesn't have the big leg muscles, our average speed was 14 km/h. We would set off between 9 and 10 am, and reach our accommodations in the early afternoon. The 55 kilometer day was a bit hard towards the end, but still very feasible. All hotels were very clean, quiet, with friendly staff and with delicious breakfast spreads included. We would highly recommend this trip, especially if you tag on a few days for culture in Vienna, at the end, as we did. It gave our kids and us the opportunity to have an active family trip in which we all felt a sense of accomplishment. And you don't have to do more than bring your suitcase up to your room and back down! The rest is taken care of. We are extremely happy with this trip. Thanks to BikeTours, and their Austrian associates (Rad Reiss Freunde) for making it all happen at a reasonable price and without a single hiccup! We could not have planned it better ourselves.
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2016
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with young kids, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Traveldeb October 18, 2016
A Family Ride on the Danube
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
I was looking for a relatively easy ride for a group that included two grandchildren. This was perfect. The equipment (trailer and tag along) were just right, the easy paved course let everyone enjoy the scenery, and the accommodations were wonderful.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 21 - 29
- How many tours have you completed?
- 10
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with young kids, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ djmeissner13 June 30, 2017
Perfect Family Trip!
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
Our family had an amazing experience. With 2 boys (13 & 15) the distance was easily manageable, and we could focus on the "travel experience" and not just getting there. My first experience with a bike tour company was a good one. Great hotels, good service, super nice people along the route. BikeTours even switched out a malfunctioning bike for us mid-trip. Tour materials were very easy to follow and super helpful. Great memories for sure.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Families with young kids, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
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★★★★★ Crazy Canuck August 9, 2017
Everything we had dreamed of !!!
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
The trip along the Danube was great for the entire family, ranging in age from 11 to 66. The accomodations with breakfast along the route were great. Great service in getting the correct size of bike for everyone. The supplied maps and signage along the root were well detailed for finding our way. The bikes were great with waterproof front and side bag.
A great experience with awesome views. -
★★★★★ Lola August 9, 2017
First family cycle trip
· Danube Family Tour 7 Nights
This was a fantastic trip; the cycling; the countryside, the food and the weather were all excellent. My 7 year old managed to cycle it all independently without bother. The organisation was very good and the local company answered any queries very quickly. I would recommend this tour for families without hesitation.
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 5
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists, Families with young kids, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany
