Bike Tour Reviews
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★★★★★ Joaney September 9, 2018Really sorry we took this trip
· Alsace Wine Country
While we knew we signed up for a self-guided trip, we had no idea just how little this tour company would provide to us. Starting with bikes that have no water bottles moving quickly onto very poorly written directions and a GPS that was outdated years ago, the trip proved a disappointment each day. Most of the hotels had no a/c (in the middle of the summer) and we had paid for the more upgraded choices. While I must admit that we were guided onto mostly non-traffic bike paths whenever possible, we felt that all we did was ride all day long, with no pointers of what we might be passing of interest. We got lost a fair amount of times, and luckily we had a 23 yr.old, engineering graduate, who helped us decipher where we were vs. the directions. The weather could not have been more beautiful, thankfully, since there was no "back-up" should it turn terrible. We had to have our luggage ready by 9am, there went those leisurely mornings we thought we would have, only to notice that they were never picked up before we finished breakfast at 10am. The bikes were of good quality and thankfully also, we had no flat tires or breakdowns. I know I am spoiled from having taken many bike trips with reputable companies like Backroads and Duvine, etc. This trip was suggested by the friends we traveled with and the woman was smart in getting an e-bike. The rest of us had to walk our bikes up to one of the hotels that was perched on the highest point of the town. Only to finally reach the destination and to be told by the desk manager that if we had intended to eat there, he was sorry they were full for the evening...and that "he constantly tells the bike trip organizers that they should warn their bikers to make arrangements in advance." Clearly we were given no such instructions. We were LUCKY the manager was able to find us a taxi to take us to town for dinner. It was rather surreal. The food in this region was boring and repetitive. How many tart flambees does one want to eat?
- What was the date of your tour?
- July 10-15, 2018
- How many tours have you completed?
- 20+
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
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★★★★★ JEAN1999 July 16, 2016Unforgettable Experience
· Baltic Capitals: The Historic Cities of Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn
Tour did not meet my expectations.
The pace was actually 12 to 15 mph and not 8 -9 mph as advertised, we always seemed to be late; and the only time that could be made up was during the riding. I would not describe the pace as casual. Unless you were a strong rider or had an e-bike, we felt we could not stop for pictures for the fear of getting lost. One rider dropped a bottle at the start of the ride and by the time it was put away, she could not see anyone up the road and did not know which way to go, so she decided to get on the sag wagon. On-going bicycle problems which should have been resolved the first day. Riders kept getting 'lost' due to inadequate group management which caused delays. Some riders kept having problems with their bikes, brakes improperly adjusted, loose handlebars (to store the bikes in the trailer, handlebars are loosened), group start riding despite not everyone being ready. Riders brought much more luggage than is recommended and there was inadequate space on the bus for all the luggage which ended up in aisle. Every seat on the bus was occupied; back row of bus has inadequate viewing and cannot hear instructions, sight descriptions over the speakers. One bus driver had unhealthy health habits, such as directly drinking from the 5 liter jugs used to fill up rider water bottles; he was always the first off and last one on despite record temperatures (one time after everyone got on-board, he went for a smoke with bus off); the other two drivers kept bus comfortable at all times and never got lost using their Garmin. Five nights were in hotels without AC, which is generally not a problem except that we had near record temperatures of 32 deg C on those days. Even though riding miles on the beach is considered 'fun', most of us did not consider it safe having to dodge bathers and children (it was record heat and the beach was very crowded). Your suggested tipping is ridiculous; seasoned Europeans riders within our group recommended a maximum of 20 Euros per person for the entire trip (bus driver was tipped separately). We had 15 riders, two guides would have been helpful to avoid losing riders along the way. I had never been on a multi-day bike tour, but others in the group had been on several and they did not think this tour met expectations.
Now the positives. The bus broke down on the worst possible day but we were able to proceed after a 6 hour delay for a new bus to arrive (this was handled well). The tour guide was very knowledgeable and had lots of information to share.
I will post more details on TripAdvisor -
★★★★★ Eric September 3, 2019Lackluster field tour!!
· Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
Hate to be the negative Nelly,but this tour was nowhere near where i'd hoped it to be...It really shouldn't be listed as a Danube River tour,as the only day i saw the river all day,was the last.Several days of riding through corn and sunflower fields on unmarked trails with poor direction. Let me be clear,I chose to follow the map and directions given,as I had no cell phone service in Europe. The last tour I did was Prague to Dresden.Clearly marked trails,with a GPS that wasn't great,but sufficient. Apparently I got my hopes up too high after that one.Spent most of my time checking and double checking Km markers in the guide Vs. Km markers on the bike. Not the relaxing ride I had hoped for.I,along with several other riders,spent some extra time looking for the actual trail. I was watching many people do the same as me...looking for the trail!! Too many unmarked junctions,this trail is really undeveloped in this part of Europe,which was unfortunate-this is what i went for,the ride.A lot of off road time,which would be fine,if I wasn't so busy checking and double checking maps.Really stressful when it should've been relaxing. The positive is the towns were great,the hotels were all very nice,the bike was better than I expected and handled everything-including the off road,and my luggage was always where it was supposed to be.I just so badly wish the ride would've been more relaxing....As i said when i began-the last day of the tour was what I had hoped for the whole length of the tour,relaxing and enjoyable.Unfortunately,it was the only one...
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★★★★★ Mama May 22, 2016Danube 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.
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★★★★★ John Parsons December 7, 2015Can't recommend it
· Aare Cycle Route: Along the Jura, Aare, and Rhine Rivers
Food organization poor. Rhine River portion very industrial
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Switzerland
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★★★★★ Collette 10 months agoLecce Loop of the Trip is Beautiful
· Apulia and Basilicata: Alberobello to Lecce
The segment of this trip within the Puglia region provided stunning views almost all day long of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. We took frequent advantage of public beaches, stopping for a swim along the way, and the towns were charming, making it easy to linger over an espresso and seaside lunch, or tour on foot once we were settled into our hotel for the night. Our E-bikes made us happy as this Puglia section of the route is quite hilly. The hotels were excellent to good, and the GPS mapping on our phones made it super easy to stay on track or find the route after we had chosen to deviate from it. This portion of the trip was a delight.
The first third of this bike trip includes the the route from Matera to Alberobello and Ostuni. A previous reviewer had mentioned, "an inordinate amount of garbage," on this section. I cannot stress enough how the garbage surpasses the word "inordinate." Hundreds of thousands of water bottles, household trash, appliances, used diapers and debris of all sorts litters the first three days of this trip, like riding through an open landfill.
This section of the Basilicata route has long been abandoned for repair. We had to turn off the "emergency SOS" app on our phones - the one that calls your emergency contact using severe shaking of your phone - due to the broken concrete and tar on these roads as our phones kept sending SOS pings out to family members in the US. Where I live, I often have to ride on gravel roads and those seemed like a dream compared to these first 3 days of road conditions. The Lecce portion of this trip was great but I cannot recommend this trip if it includes the first section. Bike Tours is wonderful, this was our second trip with them and we plan more, but I will heed reviews, which is why I'm offering this one.- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept 26 - Oct 1, 2021
- How many tours have you completed?
- two
- 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 4 months agoSignificant 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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★★★★★ shea214 November 13, 2016too much is too much
· Three Lakes Tour: From Geneva to Annecy
This tour is quite lovely, but not at the level we expected. This is our 8th tour so we feel we get them by now. We like the unguided aspect, but they completely outsourced the work of actual directions to a machine. It is not an adequate substitution. The machine added at least 15 miles on the first day and was most frustrating. Please, give us actual directions AND MAPS. A silly little device is certainly helpful but should not be a substitute. And the distance and hills were definitely not Medium. This was proven out the first night by the guy who biked to the hotel (he likes extreme and he thought it was tough).
- What was the date of your tour?
- Sept2016
- How many tours have you completed?
- 8
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Somewhat harder
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- France, Switzerland
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★★★★★ Sparky September 21, 2017Boring trip
· · Venice to Mantua 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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★★★★★ kirbymom October 19, 2016Great Effort but we were frequently lost
· A Taste of Italy: Emilia Romagna
We had titanium bikes and a very intro. Unfortunately we were lost so often that instead of enjoying time at q location, we were biking around asking locals and using our compass. I think Bike Tour tried too hard to use route with less traffic or a bicycle trail. This made it very hard to get in and out of cities. We had both a bike gps with the routes inputted and the written instructions. Just give us the most direct route out of the cities.
The hotels were nice and mostly well located. Sometimes they weren't well located like the one on the farm. We very much enjoyed the cooking class, the visit to the balsamic vinegar producer, and the gelato machine making -- that ws great. Also the dinners and breakfasts were very good to excellent.
I would recommend this tour IF the routes were adjusted and the visit to the farm was eliminated- What was the date of your tour?
- 10-4-16
- How many tours have you completed?
- thousands of miles w/o guides
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy
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★★★★★ Ron S September 11, 2017
Classic
· Vienna to Budapest (Classic)
Nice hotels. Great company rep. (Joseph ) Lousy route. Too many dirt trails including one which may have been a garbage dump.l Less than twenty five percent of the route was along the Danube. The signage was not good. I have run four trips thru Bike Tours but this one is not a winner. All the others were great. One participant who had a patellar injury rented an electric assist bike but the battery pack did not hold charge very long. We had additional niggling bike problems.
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★★★★★ 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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★★★★★ Christopher Blair 2 months agoStrasbourg - 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. -
★★★★★ Mungo September 25, 2016Nice not to have to pack every day
· · Amsterdam – Bruges by Bike and Boat – Princesse Royal
Flat terrain, mostly bike paths and not having to pack and unpack are great advantages of this trip. The food and accommodations were better than expected. However, it is not recommended as a self-guided tour as the directions are not complete. Also, as a group tour with 35 people in a large pack makes it too cumbersome.
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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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★★★★★ GregR October 6, 2019Too much highway biking
· Dolomites to Trieste via Lake Bled at the Foot of the Julian Alps
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2019
- How many tours have you completed?
- 4
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Italy, Slovenia
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BikeTours.com staff reply from Chloe October 7, 2019
Hi Greg, we're sorry that you felt this tour had too much highway biking. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to provide more details.
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★★★★★ quin101 July 18, 2016
Beautiful area but hectic pace
· Baltic Capitals: The Historic Cities of Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn
We did experience the Baltic Countries and we went to places we never would have seen. But, there are issues about the tour, that others should be aware of, the cycling was much faster then we thought, often cycling on roads, busy roads,it was not a relaxed pace, one guide for 15 riders, people often got lost/left behind. We never arrived to the hotel until at least 8pm No free time, no time to shop, take pictures. We feel the guide was unorganized, no care for the slower riders. When we booked this tour it was rated as a 1 in difficulty. This is too low for the terrain and pace that we encountered.
That said we are still glad we did the tour as we did see beautiful and interesting places. I hope the company makes some changes to the tour to make it more enjoyable to all. -
★★★★★ David Anderson 2 months agoPretty location, ok organization
· Highlights of the Highlands: Donegal by E-bike
In general, it was a great experience. I'd never been on a bike tour, and this was a load of fun. My wife and I plan to do more bike tours. However, if I had to choose between bike tours, I wouldn't recommend this specific one.
Going over this bike tour's organization.
GPS / Directions.
A few things here to complain about.
1. The printed directions were inconsistent between people on the tour. Some printed directions said left at an intersection, others said right. They were simply out of date, and the tour didn't re-print everything. Old printouts = old directions.
2. The printed directions were inconsistent with the web directions. We were sent PDFs of directions. Those didn't match up with the printouts. Again, likely because they were older or newer (we couldn't figure out which). Different roads sometimes, different turns.
3. The printed and web directions were inconsistent with the GPS tracks. This was super annoying, because we were biking along listening to the GPS directions (on the unit provided), and the GPS would say "turn here!" and the printed directions indicated we should go another few blocks.
4. The printed / web / GPS directions were out of date for actual road conditions. In two different locations, the road was literally closed, and we had to detour around an area using Google maps. In one place, the GPS road literally had grass growing on it, and had obviously moved at least 5+ years before. These directions are *very* out of date at times.
These direction inconsistencies didn't mean we got lost, but it did mean *daily* stops to consult our map, Google maps, GPS directions, and try to figure out where the tour intended us to go, regardless of all the inconsistencies. I'd highly suggest having offline Google maps if you're going to take the tour.
Lodging.
Some places were outstanding and high quality. Other places were lower quality. One place in particular stank heavily of peat smoke, with smoke literally billowing in through our windows. I don't know how often the tour company inspects the places they're sending people.
Food.
The tour included breakfast. It was sometimes great, mostly fine, but sometimes a bit low quality. Again, perhaps a lack of inspection on exactly what they're paying for.
While the tour didn't provide dinner, we sometimes had trouble finding any place which was open. In one town, we got *lucky* that there was a food truck open, because otherwise every single restaurant in town was closed down. The locals all said that it made no sense that we hadn't planned on dinner, because their town didn't have restaurants open in this season. Many locations only had a single restaurant option. I think if you're going to operate a tour this late in the season, you need to scout out restaurants which will actually be open.
Bikes.
The bikes on average worked fine. Few specific issues.
1. The batteries were inconsistent power. Both in size (different models) and in age we suspect (as the power ran down more quickly). We absolutely used full power rarely, and most often had it at 1 or 2 out of 4 power. Still, on the longer days, we ran quite low on power. We had a battery die once, which was annoying. Thankfully we had young people on our tour who were able to power their way the last distance without a battery. For the distances available, I think the bike batteries are inadequate for anyone who isn't in good shape. When the tour operator was asked about this before the tour started, he insisted that the batteries "never" run out. Can't be true, we heard from other people on the tour that they also ran out of batteries.
2. We had a bike which repeatedly had the chain fall off. Looking at the chain, it was *covered* in grease. Looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years / forever. Thankfully we could put the chain back on ourselves, but if we were older / less competent with a bike, this would have been an issue.
General interactions.
In general, the tour operator was nice, but didn't seem overly concerned with the feedback we provided him.
1. "The GPS tracks are out of date." - "Well yeah that happens."
2. "There were no restaurants available." - "Yeah, it's late in the season"
3. "The bike kept losing the chain." - "Yup, bikes do that sometimes."
In general, we didn't feel like our concerns were being heard.
Again, overall it was a fun place to go, and we liked bike touring in general. The operator just could have done better.
- What was the date of your tour?
- September 2022
- How many tours have you completed?
- 1
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- As expected
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- Ireland
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★★★★★ 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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★★★★★ Bluenose October 1, 2018
Alsace in September
· Alsace Wine Country
Great time of year to do this trip as the vineyards are being harvested. The weather is perfect for cycling! Much of the trip is on dedicated cycle paths which reduces the amount of riding in traffic.
We took the dinner package which saved us the hassle of trying to find dinner each night. A couple of the meals were terrific but most were average.- What was the date of your tour?
- September 9, 2018
- How many tours have you completed?
- 6
- Difficulty (actual vs. expected)?
- Much easier
- Do you recommend this tour?
- No
- Countries included in this tour?
- France
