Primarily Bike Paths Tour Reviews page 32
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- ★★★★★ Thomas Albrecht
Fantastic Trip!
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
The route is wonderfully scenic, riding through endless apple orchards and vineyards, with many picturesque villages along the way. Plenty of opportunities to stop for a nice piece of strudel and coffee/tea. The hotels were very nice, in fact a bit nicer than the BikeTours trip we took last year (Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled), and the bicycles were good quality and in perfect repair. Navigation on this trip is a bit challenging (although we were always able to figure things out using the various resources available — phone ap, map, and route signs. Once you get into Italy, the route signs are less helpful, since there are often multiple routes to the destination, and following signs won’t keep you on the recommend route (which usually really is better than the alternatives). One part of the route that perhaps should be simplified is the section just south of Merano, which seems needlessly complicated (for example, the southern part of Merano, and the diversion to Lana). It would be nice if printed maps showed locations of hotels in each town; we had to find them ourselves using our phone maps.
- ★★★★★ Rhonda Barton
Beautiful views!
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
The trip was beautiful! The views through the Dolomites and Julian Alps are constantly awe provoking. The hotels were also wonderful, our favorite being Alta Post in Feistritz an der Gail!
Bikes: We paid for the upgrade but it didnt feel as though we were upgraded. The bikes we received were not well maintained. We had a bike brake on the first day of our tour and the replacement bike had a loose peddle the rest of our tour. A few of our bikes were not tuned well and gears were either difficult to shift or couldn't be geared all the way up or down. In general, we would have appreciated better maintained bikes for a 230 mile tour, it would make the days much more enjoyable. We also had to swing by the rental place for a bike pump that had the correct valve for pumping up tires. The bikes were equipped with presta valves, but the pumps were schrader valves. We also recommend placing an allen key in the repair kit. We had several items that we had to adjust, angles of the header, tightness of the bells, etc. Having an allen key would have made these adjustments easier to make.
Bike Accessories: we think you should provide or tell the riders to bring a cell phone mount for the trip. The app was nice to have but we had to constantly get the phone out of our pockets to follow along. This can get quite dangerous on certain parts of the tour.
App: the phone app was a great perk to the trip although our main complaint is that every tour participant should have access to the app. It is challenging to have only one person with the app and it doesnt seem to make much sense to limit access. Give everyone who paid for the tour access please. - ★★★★★ Liana Amy
Loved it
Lake Constance Bicycle Path
We lucked out with spectacular weather for this trip. It really is beautiful. At certain points we lost track of the "actual" path we were supposed to be following but eventually we would always find our way back on. The hotels were good. One improvement would be to have all hotels with A/C, as during the summer, the temps can be pretty high and a couple of the hotels were downright hot during the night. Some hotels offered a fan, but only two had A/C. The food at all of the hotels was great for breakfast and the staff at each one were helpful and friendly.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria, Germany, Switzerland
- ★★★★★ Josh Shupack
Great bike paths and views
Lake Constance Bicycle Path
My wife and our boys ages 7 and 11 went on this tour. Most of it is on fabulous bike paths. Occasionally you have to bike through a town on roads or places with a lot of pedestrians. We had to skip a day and a half via trains and boats because it was a little much for our boys, but we still managed 150 km. I would recommend a day off in the middle.
The views are great, lots of places to stop for a swim, museum, or just a walk through a neat town. We found that it took a lot of the day just to bike and we didn't have as much time as we had liked for playing and exploring.
The distances for each day depend on what cities you're staying in.
Overall a really good experience for the whole family.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- 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, Switzerland
- ★★★★★ gerald murphy
Tauren bike path
Tauern Bike Path (Salzburg-Salzburg)
The ride through this part of Austria was great - the snow capped mountains, green countryside and friendly people made for a great cycling adventure - the only disappointing aspect was the poor detailing in the maps that were provided.
- Countries included in this tour?
- Austria
- ★★★★★ Daniel Villegas
Great rides, not so great organization
Bicycle Paths of the Dolomites (based in one hotel)
The rides to beautiful valleys was amazing and very enjoyable. The company FunActive was not well organized in terms of transfers to start or end points. Bicycles required better maintenance and bicycles were misplaced by the company on the first day. In hindsight if I was to do this again, I would book my own hotel, rent the bikes for a week and do the routes independently.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2023
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- 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?
- Italy
- ★★★★★ Jeffrey Smith
Outstanding trip enjoyed it a lot
Mosel Bike Path: Dreamy Mosel Valley from Trier to Koblenz
The hotels were wonderful and the directions were easy to follow. The luggage transfers were always on time
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
- ★★★★★ Melissa Barney
Biking in Italy in June
Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
I will not be recommending this trip or your company to anyone. The App was awful: only intermittently in English (otherwise in German) and when I gave 'feedback' I got no response; the App intermittently stopped working and I had to turn my phone off and on to re-boot; the App ATE UP my phone battery (a relativley new iPhone 13 with an otherwise long battery life); any highlights mentioned in the App along a particular day's travel was only a link to something that required internet or phone service (this is ridiculous; this link should have taken me to text within the App just as every other self-guided tour does within their App). The written paper description was poorly done - for some cities the description was how to 'get' into a city and other times the city/town mentioned was only a landmark of progress but this was very confusing. The pedometer on the bike did not work after the first three hours of the 7 day trip. The bikes were way too heavy; surely there is a way to make a durable bike that is at least 2 to 3 kilos lighter. Getting the bike and getting a safety helmet were in different cities!! I would ask for some of my money back if I thought this was possible as I was very disappointed in the trip.
- ★★★★★ Jon H
Movie views gallore
Highlights of San Francisco Bike Tour
If you guide knows his way around this can be a very flat ride, if not and you are not a regular cyclist I suggest an e-bike. This tour has tons of views that most of us have seen in movies or on television for years. if you have never been to San Francisco this is a great way to see a lot of it in not too much time. I suggest spending as little time as possible in Fishermans Wharf (it's very touristy and not really what San Francisco is all about). For a fantastic local post ride beer check out Zeitgeist in the Mission. (It's in the Mission on Duboce and Valencia if memory serves.). Zeigeist is local institution that is unlike any beer garden you've ever been to.
- ★★★★★ Jan V
A glorious park to ride through
San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Bike Tour
Not that a sunny day is a requirement but it really makes this place shine. I suggest avoiding this bike ride June - August unless you really like biking in chilly fog and wind. Putting all of those things aside, Golden Gate park is a magical place for a bike ride with a ton of cool history. Make sure you check out Ocean Beach, the tea garden, top of the DeYoung museum tower, Hippy Hill, and I suggest a post ride beer at the Kezar Pub on the east end of Golden Gate Park.
- ★★★★★ Mark Newell
Wonderful 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
- ★★★★★ Luis Ricardo
As good as expected
Danube Bike Path 5-nights (Active)
Was an incredible experience. Good hotels and the path is easy to follow however a GPS is always recommended cycling the last mile. Next time I will choose an ebike.
- ★★★★★ Gregory Gibb
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!
- ★★★★★ Jeff and Sue Ross
Great Adventure Worth Taking
Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
This Self-Guided relatively flat route took us to some amazing places. The App which was included by the local company proved each days GPS Maps on your phone and work flawlessly. With the app, paper maps were not really needed, but helpful to have just in case. We were pleased with the quality of the hotels the local company had us stay in, all within walking distance to sites to see in each town. We wend in early June, which turned out to perfect, the weather was good and flowers in bloom. The route included a combination of paved and gravel trails and a few miles on roads that were not busy. The few roads turned out to be a non-issue.
Our only suggestion to riders, be familiar with Google Maps, download the area to use offline and maybe even pinpoint your hotels in Google maps ahead of time. With ALL tour companies, the GPS Maps and even paper maps do not always take you to your hotel, since in some cases they have multiple hotels they may use in each town. The end of the map rides may be close, but in some of these towns things can get confusing.
Last Added Note:
Our adventure was a combination of 3 separate rides, Innsbruck to Salzburg, Salzburg to Vienna and then Vienna to Budapest. all offered BikeTours.com. We combined all with few rest days in-between, to take in the sites in Innsbruck,Vienna and Budapest, taking 31 days to complete, if you have the time, well worth doing, we would do each of the rides again in a heartbeat.- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- We combined 3 bike tours into this one adventure (see review section), These were tours 6, 7 and 8, so 8 in total.
- 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, Hungary
- ★★★★★ Carla Myers
Great Trip
Mosel & Saar by Bike & Boat
This bike ride is one of our favorites, between the scenery and the options of some side trips during the ride and the wine tasting excursions. The crew was great. The only complaint was at dinner if you wanted anything to drink (even water, coffee & tea) you had to pay. Luckily the drink package was cheap, it was only good from 4pm to 11pm. Water, tea, juice and coffee were included at breakfast, we were on the road for lunch. They had everything you needed to make your sandwiches for lunch, including water, candy bars and fruit. Bring something to package your food.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 20, 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 5
- 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?
- Germany
- ★★★★★ Karen Regin
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
Convenient 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
- ★★★★★ Dave Carlstrom
On 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
- ★★★★★ Michael Beiley
Top quality bike trip
Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
Excellent,. Dedicated bikepaths or other bikepaths along most of the route, app very easy to follow, beautiful scenery, many places to stop along the way, biking all flat and most days biked between 30-40 miles. Hotels were very nice, near bikepath and near city center and restaurants. Rented hybrid bikes were very nice but needed a few adjustments along the way. Bike company picked up and delivered without any glitches. Highly recommend for beginners to intermediate riders.
- ★★★★★ Mike Brinkley
Spectacular
Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
Spectacular scenery with an excellent local bike company who was very organized and helpful. Maps were good and the bike paths well marked in almost every place. The hotels were good and mostly in locations easy to find. Excellent trip.
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