Bike Tour Reviews page 175
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★★★★★ GregR October 6, 2019Too much highway biking
· Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
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★★★★★ Christopher Blair September 17, 2022Strasbourg - 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. -
★★★★★ bonnie100 October 9, 2018So So Vacation
· · Bruges to Paris by Bike and Boat (and reverse)
Good bike trip if you like a slow pace. Lots of time wasted at not very interesting sites. Had to "kill" time in order not to get to the barges anchoring site before the barge got there which was usually between 4-6 PM. The barge itself was fair. But some of the scenery in Belgium and France was beautiful making the trip tolerable. Food was average. Bikes were very good.
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★★★★★ Astrid 3 months agoGood ride, good guide but mixed feelings…
· Washington DC Monuments at Night Bike Tour
The lady at the reception wasn’t motivated and not very friendly.
Joe was a good guide. The tour at dusk was very nice. But it was really annoying that the bikes are in a very poor condition. Dirty, poorly maintained and worn. My chain fell out twice my husband‘s once. Joe could fix them everytime, but anyway…. Very annoying.
I would have expected better quality for this price. -
★★★★★ Aileen Gray September 18, 2024Tour 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 July 15, 2023First 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 2 months agoNot 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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★★★★★ John (Jay) Bonitt August 12, 2022Significant elevation!
· Tuscany and Umbria: Cycling in the Heart of Italy
This was our fourth self-guided Biketours.com trip, the firs three were five-star successes. This one was the most disappointing, not because of the region or places to stay…all were good! But, this trip had over 16,400 ft. Of elevation..even on E-bikes (for the first time) it was VERY difficult. We saw only one or two road bikers the entire trip, whereas on the previous trips we saw lots of road bikes. As experienced bike tours.com travelers we’re pretty attuned to following direction…this particular trip had poor written and app directions. If you are interested in this particular trip you had better be in the best shape of your life. It is not a moderate level trip…even on an e-bike.
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Leslie Wilson September 26, 2024Very 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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★★★★★ Sparky September 21, 2017Boring trip
· · Venice to Mantova by Bike and Boat (and reverse)
Although the barge itself was nice and the food delicious, the trip itself is very boring once you leave Venice. Hours and hours of passing soybean fields. Lots of riding in hot weather on unshaded roads....some quite busy. Very few days were on actual bike paths. When we did get to a town, most things were closed as it was between 1 - 4....siesta time in Italy. The cheese tour was nice. That's about it!
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 26, 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- 0
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, First-time bike tourists
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Michael Beiley October 8, 2023Mediocre 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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★★★★★ Andrew Lindsay May 6, 2024Disappointing Tour - Did Not Meet Expectations
· Cycling the West Balkan Triangle
Positives:
1) The e-bikes were very good and well maintained; the routes were generally excellent if a little short for e-bikes (rides often finished early afternoon whereas on most other organised cycle trips I've been on they were spread out over most of the day).
The rides from Herceg Novi to Kotor; Ravno to Ston and Ston to Kun were particularly enjoyable - brilliant scenery and quiet roads.2) Accomodation - Hotels were all very good apart from Marija 2. This hotel was a good 20 minute walk from Kotor; room was clean but rather dark and miserable (no view; no balcony but lots of signs instructing occupants what not to do). Fried eggs at breakfast were cold). By contrast the Hotel Stancia in Ravno was a delight.
3) Food - This was an enjoyable part of the tour. The 'included' lunches and evening meals were very good. The lunches at Ravno, Ston and Kun were especially enjoyable - offering liquor tasting; olive grove visit and locally produced food respectively. The local restaurants we chose for our evening meals were also excellent.Areas To Improve: As a guided introduction to the West Balkans this trip has nothing to recommend it. The guide, while perfectly charming and an excellent cycle tour leader, had next to nothing to say about the countries we visited (their history; their customs and culture; their flora and fauna). I suspect his Company has never provided any training on how to be a tour guide.
This tour makes it very easy to miss exploring the old town of Herceg Novi; the walls of Kotor and Cavtat Old Town (indeed most of the group did) because they were never recommended or even mentioned; nor did we cycle to them). Dubrovnik is the jewel (albeit a very busy jewel) of the West Balkans and it would be very easy to book this tour and never see it (the old town is a 40 minute walk from the Hotel Adria).
I've cycled many times with Explore and Exodus on group guided tours and their delivered experience is vastly superior to that of BikeTours.com.
- What was the date of your tour?
- April 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- I've been on well over 20 bike tours. The West Balkan tour is bottom quartile. Your guides need training. Happy to provide more feedback.
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro
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★★★★★ Margaret Farran October 23, 2023
Not Really What We Expected
· · Bruges to Paris by Bike and Boat (and reverse)
We are seasoned bicyclists and have taken many bike tours. This tour was disappointing on a few fronts. The course of the tour had to change due to construction on the canal. This would have been fine except the guide, Harm, frequently did not seem to know where he was going. There were a couple of visits to places of interest (mining museum and a short stop at a WWI cemetery) but most times it felt like we were putting in time so as to not arrive hours before the boat arrived at its destination for the night. Our guide never led strolls around a town or provided much history. One evening when I asked if he could show us a pub to have a drink before dinner he said it was not his responsibility. We asked if we could bike on our own (as we have done on many other boat/bike tours in Europe) and were turned down. I pressed on quoting the description for the tour which read: "provide us with maps and all the information you'll need" to do a different distance. At that point Harm back tracked and said he'd provide this info. He never did. I've been biking for over 20 years on tours around the world and I have never had a guide so unhelpful and disengaged.
The food was adequate. Nice dinners but breakfast and lunch were lacking. We needed more sustenance for biking in October. Most tours provide a snack after a day of biking but we could not rely on one each day on this tour. The group bought our own snacks when we could but it was all rather odd. As if this tour had never hosted bikers before.
There was no wi-fi although the description said there would be. We at least had a data package, other people did not. What really gave us all pause was the captain's comments (1) it was too difficult to install wi-fi (I've never found that to be true on a boat) and (2) we really did not need it as we should not be on our phones during a tour. Rather presumptuous I thought. Don't advertise you have wi-fi when you don't.
We had some rain which was to be expected in October. One day it was just too wet to bike. We all stayed on the boat - no wi-fi, cabins too small to lounge in them, and while there was a large library of DVDs the captain announced the monitor did not work, therefore no video watching.
It felt like the boat was tired and the tour and crew either winding down for the season or going out of business. -
★★★★★ Sheedy July 16, 2018Disappointing
· Venice to Florence: From Rialto Across the Sea to Ponte Vecchio
We'd done the Mosel bike tour last year and it was picturesque, beautiful small towns, places to stop. This year we booked this trip to Italy to celebrate a 40th wedding anniversary. On the plus side, Marco from Eurobike was extremely helpful. Good advice and help with bikes. Always on call by phone. The first stop to Chiaggo was beautiful. They left champagne in our room for our anniversary. Really sweet.
But after that the ride was super boring. Long stretch of riding alongside cow pastures or crossing busy roadways. No where to grab a bite to eat. Kind of like riding through the flatlands of Texas. We finally ditched the tour after 4 days and had them pick up our bikes instead of our luggage and went off and did our own thing. Again bike company was great and helpful, it just isn't a good bike trip.- What was the date of your tour?
- June 2018
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Molly Troop May 8, 2024Must be an expert
· San Sebastian E-MTB Tour
1. The guide really didn't provide much information about San sebastian which I thought we would get some history about the area or basque culture
2. The guide brought a friend and neither of them wanted to accommodate my entry experience. I had researched the biking area and knew there were paved roads to go up if I thought the off reading was too much but they continued to push what they wanted to do, not what I was comfortable with
3. The guide did no introduction to our bikes. There was zero instruction given on how to use the electric nor a review on any part of the bike
4. Only take this tour if you are a very experienced mountain biker and only want to mountain bike.- What was the date of your tour?
- April 2024
- How many tours have you completed?
- 2
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
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★★★★★ diane g September 18, 2016Salzburg 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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★★★★★ MM September 27, 2024Flood Trip
· · Danube Delights: Biking through Four Countries
We were bussed from Passau to Vienna to meet the boat, which never left port for the week due to flooding. All week we were told their was a possibility of leaving port, so there were days we had to stay around the boat to wait for details, which hampered our daily plans. It would have been better to just tell us up front we would be there all week, so our plans for the day could be made.
The cruise director did everything he could to make the trip memorable, which is was, with the constraints he had.
Breakfast's were fabulous, lunches provided were good! Dinners were a little lacking, but adequate. Drinks were fine, but more options for daily drink tickets would have been appreciated. The Vivienne was beautiful! -
★★★★★ Gabby 3 months ago
Not as expected.
· Venice to Florence: From Rialto Across the Sea to Ponte Vecchio
The route wasn’t as exciting as expected.
The basic bike offered is AWFUL, not suitable for these kind of trips. You have to pay for the “upgrade” one.
Customer service wasn’t good. They couldn’t accommodate any changes, even when requested 48 hours in advance.
Most hotels were disappointing although well located, with the exception of the first one in Mestre. It was in the middle of nowhere, it doesn’t make sense to start the trip from that place.
Not the best trip we’ve done for sure.- How many tours have you completed?
- 10 +
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Kenneth Moffat September 25, 2023The scenery was great the bike company very poor
· Innsbruck to Lake Garda Across the Southern Slopes of the Alps
The bikes should be delivered to the hotel we are assigned to.
No one reviewed the tour nor did we get a bike fitting.
The group should all stay in the same hotel. We do not want separate hotels.
There was more than one occasion when the hotel did not have all of us booked in the hotel.
The bike tools were not adequate to fix some of the bike issues we had.
None of us would use this company again.
I should mention the liaison person Penelope was very nice. -
★★★★★ John Zimmerman September 24, 2024Washout
· 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
