Bike Tour Reviews page 85
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★★★★★ Peter Dworkin 1 month agoBeautiful scenery; great bikes
· Rhine Bike Path: Mainz to Cologne
Relaxing and fun trip. Great bikes. Attractive hotels. Good itinerary. Negatives: Navigation app. Need to provide turn by turn instructions that integrate with Google maps. Would have preferred all hotels to be in cute small towns. Some were in modern less charming bigger towns.
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1 other
- 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?
- Germany
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★★★★★ Gennie August 10, 2017Southern France in the Summer
· Provence’s History, Landscapes, and Luberon National Park
The tour of Provence was absolutely beautiful! I suggest anyone considering a trip to France to do this tour, however, not in late summer. Temps exceeded 100 degrees most every afternoon. Tour cue sheets need some tweeking. We had to backtrack on several occasions. The written packet should also include a description of what to expect on that day of tour. Relying on what is written on this website is not always accurate and needs more information. We would have missed some very interesting places if not directed by locals and hotel concierges.
- What was the date of your tour?
- late July/early August 2017
- How many tours have you completed?
- several
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
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★★★★★ Ladislav Votruba 12 months agoItalian hospitality is exceptional
· Apulia and Basilicata: Alberobello to Lecce
Disappointed that the route of the trip was changed ( took the same trip 8 years ago )
Bikes - loved the e bike , the company has to have better maintenance program I almost ran into traffic going down the hill the first day of the trip
Emergency number - called to get assistance x 3, only got one call back
Navigation- the GPS is great when it works, starting from hotel or finding hotel at the end of day is challenging- we used google map to help us- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Waterdog September 24, 2019Wonderful tour
· Lake Constance Classic (11-nights)
The bike, accommodations, and breakfast where all very good. I rented an eBike and am so glad I did. Some parts of the route were
harder than I had anticipated. The eBike made those times considerably easier to endure. My only negative about this trip was that the maps and directions were extremely poor at times...numerous times. The worst was when we were trying to find the hotels in the afternoon or leaving town in the mornings. The good news is we were usually able to find pedestrians or other cyclists to ask, but we could ask three people and get the different directions. That being said, it was still a wonderful adventure. I'll definitely book another trip through biketours.com.- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 6-15
- 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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★★★★★ Carla Myers 4 months agoWindmills & Tulips
· · Holland’s Super Tulip Tour
The perfect way to experience the Netherlands. The guide was great, but if you wanted to go off on your own the roads/paths are marked, and you just follow what the book says.
- What was the date of your tour?
- May 6, 2023
- 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?
- Holland
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★★★★★ Micheline July 25, 2016
A very enjoyable trip for our family
Bike and Boat with Bob and Jeanette along the Danube from Passau to Budapest to Passau
Flat, scenic routes. Well maintained, scenic bike paths. Moderate mileage. Plenty of time to sightsee (Dessau, Wittenberg, Meisen and Dresden) and swim on warm days. Definitely doable for active seniors and younger. Two of us were 65 and four were 28-33 years old. Bikes were great. Breakfasts were buffet and filling. Dinners were adequate but uninspiring - we ate at the hotels where we were staying. One complaint about the hotel in Meissen...located right next to major church in town...heard bells all night...no air-conditioning! Ugh! Also, hotel in Torgau was subpar...and we paid for the A category of hotel. Lots of fascinating history and culture. Aside from the two hotels, a wonderful experience!
- What was the date of your tour?
- 6/21/16
- How many tours have you completed?
- 5
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- First-time bike tourists, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
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★★★★★ TimHam September 23, 2019Fantastic scenery
· Salzburg Lakes Tour: Around the Lakes within the Foothills of the Alps
This was our 4th bike tour and without a doubt was the most beautiful scenery of them all. EuroBike, the local operator did a great job with an excellent briefing, with good bikes, a great itinerary on well marked Austrian bike paths and quiet country roads. This was our first tour with e-bikes, which I'd recommend given the hills. Their GPS app was problematic for us, but with their printed instructions and Google maps for bikes, we did just fine. I'd have given a 5 star rating except for the hotels... maybe because we booked late but we were assigned more 3 stars than 4, and in some cases the rooms were quite tiny. I know European hotels are not as we expect in Western hotels, but one on the hotels (Bad Goisen) was difficult to even move around with 2 (not large) suitcases. Hotel Kendler in St. Gilgen was fantastic (even at 3 stars).
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 8, 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- 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
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★★★★★ Jackie1234 September 23, 2019Danube trip
· Danube Bike Path 7 Nights (Classic)
Very scenic, well thought out tour of what has been described as the most popular cycle route in Europe. I picked this tour among other choices because the last day was short, allowing extra time in Vienna and the cations overnights stays.
The (upgraded) hotels were fantastic, breakfasts wonderful. The accompanying maps & books were complete, though directions to popular city attractions would have been helpful (Goggle Maps with cycle directions will be your friend if you want to make side trips) Bikes were in excellent condition, though i found the seat initially uncomfortable (and I ride 40+ miles/week).
I would recommend this tour to those friends wanting to cycle along the Danube, noting that European fitness levels are higher than than American and there are opportunities for elevation for those whose who want it by taking side trips to hotels or other sites/detours.
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★★★★★ Bamboo March 30, 2019Great trip along the Algarve
· Algarve Coastal Route
We loved visiting the Algarve towns and beaches by bike and it was exciting to discover our next guesthouse with our luggage at the door.
Next time, we would have used mountain bikes instead of crossovers, which were heavy and not as smooth on the trails and cobblestones.
The maps were clear and we were able to self-guide without any problem.
Loved the feeling of biking from the spanish border to the westerly tip.- What was the date of your tour?
- March 16th
- How many tours have you completed?
- First tour
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat easier
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Portugal
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★★★★★ Carol McDonald 12 months ago
Beautiful Croatia
· · National Parks of Dalmatia by Bike/E-bike and Boat
This is the perfect way to see this beautiful country! Our bike guides were great - knowledgeable, extremely competent, friendly and helpful. We felt very luck to have them with us.
The food was a combination of very good, and sometimes not quite so good as it arrived luke warm. Salads scrimped on greens and the overly used combination of purple and green cabbage only as our source of greens wasn’t very good, especially since salad greens seemed readily available at our various stops.
Most importantly, we were horrified by the number of plastic bottles used on this trip! My husband and I brought water bottles, as did most of the cyclists, and were happy to refill our bottles from the water cooler. I can’t imagine the tons of plastic waste caused by the number of bottles our ship alone used, and then multiplied by the number of boats over the course of the summer - the numbers of plastic bottles to deal with would be staggering. I am fully aware of the recycle program, but the energy used to do this is also staggering, especially for a small and financially struggling country like Croatia. I strongly urge you to commit to a more earth friendly form of water use.
Lastly, and this is a small criticism, we’ve never been on a bike and boat (this was our fifth one), that charged a premium for tea and coffee. I completely support a charge for premium coffees and teas such as lattes, chai etc, but charging for hot water and a tea bag, or a simple cup of coffee seems very stingy on your part. Especially with a 50E pp charge for water, which again is something we had not encountered in the past.
Overall, we had an incredibly wonderful trip and hope to return to Croatia again in the future!- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- Five
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Croatia
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★★★★★ KenK September 22, 2019Awesome Bike Trip
· Greece: The Peloponnese Peninsula
This was a great way to experience the beauty of The Peloponnese Peninsula and meet so many friendly locals and fellow bikers along the way.
Our accommodations were all very nice and our baggage was transferred without any problems.
Our only criticism is with the quality of the bikes which caused us quite a few problems along the way. Luckily we were able to improvise repairs and continue on.
Four British bikers we spoke to that were with the same local bike tour company had the same criticism. The local company was helpful and friendly but their bikes needed tune ups and refurbishing.
Also....the thorns on the side of the roads on the Peloponnese Peninsula are notorious for causing flat tires...and we had lots of flat tires. Why doesn’t the local operator use the more puncture resistant bike tire technology? I was unable to get an answer to that question when I asked.
I don’t want to dwell on the negative.
We had a wonderful time and I would do it again but hopefully with a more reliable bike.- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 7-14
- 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?
- Greece
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★★★★★ MateoR June 20, 2018Scenic tour of northern Germany and southern Denmark on designated bike paths
· Berlin – Copenhagen
The Berlin to Copenhagen bicycle path is an excellent way to tour some beautiful portions of Germany and Denmark
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★★★★★ Donna Reyes 12 months agoOverall great trip
· Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
Bikes were phenomenal, hotels were great. Only complaint was all our paperwork was in German. So then we got online English versions which could not be printed to put in the map holder. AND the new printed materials did not match the route maps. It was very confusing!
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★★★★★ psteckler September 15, 2019Excellent tour with lots of climbing
· UNESCO Sites of Albania
This was my second tour booked with biketours.com. My first one was a self-guided tour in Slovenia, which was great, so I thought I'd try this one, which reviews raved about.
The route and scenery were just great. We had superb meals with Mediterranean-style cuisine, either in restaurants or in our hotels. Each day featured a coffee stop, where we snacked on peanuts, bananas, and chocolate.
The tour guide was very knowledgeable about his home country, super well-organized and thoughtfully attended to the needs of the participants. The support van was there when we needed assistance.
There were a couple of thrilling long descents with stunning vistas. The price of those descents was lots of climbing, some of them long, some a bit steep.
A few of the days were extremely hot, around 100F. I had heat stroke symptoms one day, and had to get a lift in the van for the last part of the ride. We had only a few minutes of light rain on our side trip to North Macedonia to see the monastery on Lake Ohrid. Not much the tour operator can do to control the weather, of course.
The bikes had front suspension and a rear rack with an Ortlieb pannier. We did have some gravel and cobble sections where a road bike would not have worked. These bikes were on the heavy side, making the climbing more difficult than it could have been. My one suggestion to improve the tour would be to use lighter bikes. I think the current generation of "gravel bikes" with fat tires, without suspension, would work well, and save a few pounds. Instead of the rack and pannier, a frame bag or seatpost bag would have enough capacity and also save some weight.
The participants on e-bikes seemed to be having a good time of it, though, as they passed me up the climbs!
- What was the date of your tour?
- August 26, 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 20+
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Who is this tour suitable for?
- Solo travelers, Families with teens
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Albania
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★★★★★ Robyn Larkin 12 months agoMore challenging trip than we thought thanks to rainy, windy, cold weather
· Romantic Road and Bavarian Lakes
We knew this would be a challenging cycle, but we weren’t prepared for the terrain + lousy weather for the entire trip. The first few days were a good workout - and very pretty. Not many places to really stop, though, during the day (so plan to bring picnic lunches & snacks!). Definitely check on when places you hope to stop for a meal are open as we found many places closed on random days.
There is an app that you can download to get the route, details, and info for the trip that we didn’t know about until we met the guide on the first day. If you use this on your phone to help ensure you stay on course, be sure to bring extra battery packs for your phone!
Also, we didn’t know we needed to get tickets for the castle in advance and this were not able to visit. As this was the one thing we wanted to see, we were rather disappointed to have to miss it as all morning tours were sold out.
While we enjoyed it and came through the deluge of cold, rain & wind during our week in Bavaria with our marriage intact, you definitely need to be ready for a challenging ride. If you aren’t in excellent shape, consider getting the electric bike as some of the hills are extremely intense.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 7
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- Germany
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★★★★★ Creaky September 15, 2019Swiss sojourn
· Ascona and Lake Maggiore (based in one hotel)
Good organisation and splendid accommodation with some ok rides. Maps too small and blurry to be useful.
- What was the date of your tour?
- 1/9 to 6/9
- How many tours have you completed?
- 13
- 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?
- Switzerland
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★★★★★ suze July 15, 2016Danube River Bike tour
· Danube Bike Path 8 Nights (Upscale Lodging)
We loved this bike tour. Even though Tom and I couldnt cycle due to a recent bike accident, we followed our group by car. The villages were stunning, the hotels great, except maybe the one in Tulln. All the meals were great, except maybe the one in Linz, but I think that is because there was a wedding in the hotel. Fabulous hotel in Linz. The rest of our group loved the biking part. Highlight was definetly the boatride from the hotel in Durnstein along the Danube!!!
- What was the date of your tour?
- June 30-July 7
- How many tours have you completed?
- 5
- 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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★★★★★ Phyllis Bressler 4 weeks agoBike tour in Denmark
· Royal Zealand and Copenhagen
First, the positives - and there are many. The route took us through some beautiful historic towns and gorgeous countryside. We even took the ferry over to Sweden on the first night so that we could add another country to our list. The bikes were very good. Comfortable and sturdy on the somewhat bumpy gravel roads. The hotels we were booked at were all fantastic and in great locations to enable us to explore each town at night.
We do have some comments about things that might be improved:
- we arrived in Copenhagen on Thursday, 3 days ahead of the start of our bike trip, and were told our bikes would be delivered ~ 7pm on Sunday. They arrived on Thursday afternoon - with no advanced notice. It was fine, it just would have been nice to know to expect them.
- We received absolutely no orientation on the bikes, the route maps, etc. On prior trips we've had people quickly walk through the route, pointing out some recommendations, etc. Only when I asked were we given the opportunity to check the fit of the bikes before the delivery person left them. Fortunately, we've been on 6 or 7 other bike trips with biketours.com, so we were familiar w/ the operation of the bikes, and how to read the directions. We were lucky that we reviewed the daily routes before the start of our trip - otherwise we would not have known that on 3 of the 6 nights we were booked at hotels other than the ones listed in the daily directions.
- There were no 'addenda' to the bike routes to provide directions to the alternate hotels so we had to find them on our own.
- On a similar trip in Portugal we had the opportunity to use a GPS mapping system. Using that, we could immediately tell if we were, or were not on the proscribed route. On multiple occasions this trip the bike routes were overlapping. We went many kilometers without seeing the route number that was listed in the directions - never knowing for certain if we were on the correct path. On the last day, between Roskilde and Copenhagen, we somehow lost the trail just before the start of the C99 superhighway and spent ~ 2 hours trying to find that route again. Fortunately after asking several people we found an individual who knew exactly what we were looking for and put us back on the right track. Using the GPS system that one time enabled us to know in real time whether we were, or were not on track.- What was the date of your tour?
- August 2023
- How many tours have you completed?
- 7 self guided and 1 guided
- 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?
- Denmark
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★★★★★ BikerPT September 14, 2019
Bike ride in the wind
· Provence’s History, Landscapes, and Luberon National Park
There were a number of good things about this trip. The two guides were very attentive and knowledgeable of the region, helping the group to experience some amazing sites. The scenery was fantastic; the vineyards and wineries were a site to see/experience. It was a real sense of accomplishment to ride up a 3K class 2 hill that has been a part of the Tour de France. We did ride with head winds blowing constantly at up to 40 mph for three of the six days on the trip; the one day with a tailwind, we biked at 33 kmh with ease.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 3
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- Yes
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
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★★★★★ Megan Lunde 12 months agoLovely Ride through the Alps
· Innsbruck to Salzburg: Through the Alps Along River Cycle Trails
Overall, this was a very good trip. The itinerary is top-notch along well-marked trails, through a variety of landscapes - farmland, ski towns, narrow gorges, along a lake. I recommend the route with the rest day in Zell am See - we had a great day there!
We did have a few concerns with the local tour company. The quality of the bikes rented from the bike shop was not great - my bike was too small for my body but they had run out of bikes, so I was stuck with it for the week. Some of our group had arranged for bikes to be delivered to the starting hotel. It's a good thing others went to pick up in person, because the bike shop had no record of delivery and half our group would have been stuck without bikes for 2 days.
As others have mentioned, the guidebook is hard to follow. However, the general routes are along bike trails that are well marked. We did pretty well by following the path signs to our destination each day.
Our biggest mishaps were with the hotel and luggage transfer. We were a group of 4. About half the time, we had two adjacent rooms in the same hotel - no problem. Other nights, we were split across two different hotels. One night, we had a really strange configuration - 3 of us had a triple in one hotel, while 1 person was assigned to a different hotel across town. Every time we got split up, some luggage went to the wrong hotel. It didn't help that the tour company only provided 1 luggage tag per room. Seems like an easy fix to include an adequate number of luggage tags per traveler. Our final night in Salzburg, our hotel had no record of our reservation. It took awhile to figure out the issue - our reservations had been made against the wrong name.
On the whole, this is a lovely trip. Unbeatable scenery and value for the price.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- 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
