First Timers  Bike Tour Reviews (page 26)

  • Holland Bike & Boat Northern Tour
    (3/5) TIMOTHY BOUWKAMP 3 days ago

    Awesome

    · · Holland by Bike and Boat, Northern Tour

    Weather was cold, rainy, and windy. Service on the boat was great.
    The wifi on the boat was terrible.

    Countries included in this tour?
    Holland
  • Wine & Bike Hungary’s Balaton Uplands
    (3/5) Icebiker1 August 22, 2017
    · Wine & Bike in Hungary’s Balaton Uplands

    What was the date of your tour?
    1. week of July
    How many tours have you completed?
    3
    Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
    As expected
    Do you recommend this tour?
    Yes
    Countries included in this tour?
    Hungary
    • 4/5 Value
    • 1/5 Included meals
    • 1/5 Bikes + equipment
    • 2/5 Hotels or boat
    • 4/5 Scenery
    • 4/5 Ease of navigation
    • 3/5 Tour documents
    • 2/5 Local tour company services
    • 3/5 Route selection
  • Danube Bike Path
    (2/5) Debra Miller 7 months ago

    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.

    What was the date of your tour?
    September 2023
    How many tours have you completed?
    4
    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?
    Austria, Germany
    •  (photo by Debra Miller)
    •  (photo by Debra Miller)
    •  (photo by Debra Miller)
    •  (photo by Debra Miller)
    •  (photo by Debra Miller)
    •  (photo by Debra Miller)
    • 2/5 Value
    • 4/5 Included meals
    • 2/5 Bikes + equipment
    • 3/5 Hotels or boat
    • 2/5 Scenery
    • 4/5 Ease of navigation
    • 3/5 Tour documents
    • 1/5 Local tour company services
    • 3/5 Route selection
  • Danube Bike Path
    (2/5) May 10 months ago

    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.

    What was the date of your tour?
    July 2023
    How many tours have you completed?
    First bike tour
    Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
    Somewhat harder
    Who is this tour suitable for?
    First-time bike tourists
    Do you recommend this tour?
    Yes
    Countries included in this tour?
    Austria, Germany
    • 3/5 Value
    • 3/5 Included meals
    • 2/5 Bikes + equipment
    • 5/5 Hotels or boat
    • 4/5 Scenery
    • 4/5 Ease of navigation
    • 4/5 Tour documents
    • 2/5 Local tour company services
    • 4/5 Route selection
  • Tauern Bike Path
    (2/5) diane g September 18, 2016

    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
    • 3/5 Value
    • 4/5 Included meals
    • 3/5 Bikes + equipment
    • 4/5 Hotels or boat
    • 5/5 Scenery
    • 1/5 Ease of navigation
    • 1/5 Tour documents
    • 1/5 Local tour company services
    • 3/5 Route selection
  • Amsterdam to Bruges
    (2/5) ontherun August 10, 2019

    Great country to visit but maybe not with BikeBoatTours

    · · Amsterdam – Bruges by Bike and Boat – Fluvius (and reverse)

    We certainly enjoyed the country and the flat bike trails (lol!) but the company that provided our tour was mediocre at best. They had no concern for safety - did not require helmets, nor did the guides wear them. The bikes had no water bottle holder and the lights on the bikes did not work. Also, after strongly encouraging us to download Ride with GPS, they sent us the daily route but then: did NOT have holders on the bikes to put our phone on and it's illegal there to ride with a phone in your hand! Also, they did not follow the routes as stated in the Ride with GPS so the app was constantly beeping that we were off track and was, essentially useless. The guides seemed to be suffering from burnout. They were nice but did not offer any information unless asked and were extremely disorganized throughout the trip. The food on the boat was adequate but repetitive - same breakfast every day and we had to make our own lunch from the same food every day....unless it ran out and then we were stuck with prosciutto and bread that day. The boat itself was nice and the cabins were nice. Cleaning was not done during the trip unless asked.

    What was the date of your tour?
    July 24th
    How many tours have you completed?
    7
    Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
    Much easier
    Do you recommend this tour?
    No
    Countries included in this tour?
    Belgium, Holland
    • 2/5 Value
    • 2/5 Included meals
    • 3/5 Bikes + equipment
    • 4/5 Hotels or boat
    • 4/5 Scenery
    • 1/5 Ease of navigation
    • 2/5 Tour documents
    • 1/5 Local tour company services
    • 4/5 Route selection
    • 3/5 Guides (if applicable)
  • Provence by Bike and Boat
    (2/5) Richard Rogers 7 months ago

    Not as I had expected

    · · Provence by Bike and Boat

    Not expecting to ride as a group. The riding involved more road riding and realize that a leader was necessary. The riding in Southern France is not as developed as Central Europe.

    Countries included in this tour?
    France
  • Rhine Bike Path
    (2/5) Jim Brewer September 25, 2018

    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
    • 1/5 Value
    • 4/5 Included meals
    • 5/5 Bikes + equipment
    • 2/5 Hotels or boat
    • 5/5 Scenery
    • 1/5 Ease of navigation
    • 1/5 Tour documents
    • 2/5 Local tour company services
    • 3/5 Route selection
  • Danube Family Tour
    (1/5) Mama May 22, 2016

    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
    • 1/5 Value
    • 3/5 Included meals
    • 2/5 Bikes + equipment
    • 4/5 Hotels or boat
    • 5/5 Scenery
    • 1/5 Ease of navigation
    • 3/5 Tour documents
    • 1/5 Local tour company services
    • 2/5 Route selection