Europe Tour Reviews — 5881 to 5910 of 6184

This was my first biking trip - truly enjoyed it and am looking forward to my next trip.

We found the map directions confusing at times--i.e. Cross bridge and 3 streets and turn right. Sounds easy enough, but actually it meant 2 major streets and a round about. We usually solved this by using Google maps. But it added stressful tens of minutes to resolve. It pretty much meant that we slightly dreaded arriving at even a little village, due to the almost guaranteed confusion. Having the route available as a google map path would have been much much much better.
It's the service we pay for, not the specific route. It also made it feel like the route had not been retested for a while. Getting a bit lost wasn't all that bad, and we found some nice paths near Arles. The bikes were state of the art and high quality. None of our group liked the automatic transmission on the Bosch drive. It would frequently incorrectly shift in the middle of a climb and caused a bit of needless suffering. All in all it was a fun time. We couldn't have achieved the ride without the e-bikes.

I brought my own bike, but my friends rented. I was not impressed with the fitting of the bikes. The measurements requested by the site were insufficient to get an accurate fit and we had to request a new bike (inseam should be required). If I hadn't been there to fit the bikes nobody from the tour company would have been. Also, I had to replace a bolt on one of the bike's chain guard half way through the tour. At least check that everything is torqued down before renting them.

1) In the boat is possible to rent helmet for EU$ 5/week. This renting is good for travelers that spend more time in Europe. I'm not sure if this information is available in the Tripsite's site.

2) I ordered a E-bike for my wife. In the boat I saw that 2 kinds of E-bike are offered to the customers. My wife would love bike in a more comfortable E-bike.

3) According to the staff of the boat, I should speak German. I don't know the source of this information. This information is used to organize the passengers in the restaurant.

It's not that I don't recommend this trip, it's that I would recommend it with caveats. The guides were great, the cycling adequate. By this I mean, I found that on some days we started out and then, 25 minutes later, stopped in a city center for maybe 20 minutes. Why? To experience what, in 20 minutes? It would have been better to simply keep cycling. The first day of cycling I found, in particular, to be needlessly short. The barge in general was OK. The seats on the lounge chairs became uncomfortable after a while. Too thin.

The least satisfactory part of this trip was the food - I thought there would be more fish options, considering we were on the sea. The 2 fish dishes that were served were not good - one was very dry, and the other was smothered in a too-salty sauce. The desserts were memorable - for their lack of taste. The breakfasts were fine. The salads that preceded each main course were also fine. Someone mentioned that it might be worth your charging a bit more and offering better quality food. I was not the only one disappointed in the food offerings. More opportunities to swim would also have been appreciated, at least by me.
Actually, upon thinking about this, I probably wouldn't recommend this program, and would encourage others to look for better options.

The Rhine from Mainz to Basel, for the most part, is industrial and not as picturesque as other European bike and barge routes we've enjoyed. There were a few cities (Heidelberg, Germany and Strausbourg, France) which were beautiful and offered much to do, but we were expecting the scenic bike routes with quaint towns for cake and coffee, or beer stops along the way and were sorely disappointed. But the most disappointing aspect of this trip was the inability of the on-board guide to give proper instructions nor enlighten us of things to see or visit. We found out about popular sites from all channels except the guides. In Strausbourg, while chatting with tourists, we heard of an amazing evening light show projected onto an enormous cathedral - huge crowds gathered to enjoy this historic presentation, yet nothing was mentioned of it by our guide. We have needed so little guidance to enjoy our bike and barge trips, but this one missed the mark. Based on previous trips that we've done, we'd convinced 2 other couples to join us and they were underwhelmed and disappointed as well. The barge and accommodations were adequate, though rooms were random sizes no matter which deck you choose. One couple paid extra for the upper deck, but their room was much smaller than another couple's on the lower level. The staff and meals on this barge were top notch and we can't say enough about the gourmet chef and tireless staff.

The food could be a lot better, and we would even pay more. Other than that the trip was lovely.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are already planning another bike and barge trip. It would have been nice if there were a better split in English speaking guests as most of the guests spoke German and we didn't get a chance to mingle much. Tripsite was very good to work with and we would use this company again. "

We had a fantastic trip we loved everything about it. I would recommend this trip to anyone. The people we met were so nice and helpful and friendly. Our Polish chef on the boat was fantastic.

An amazing trip. Incredible scenery, beautiful boat, always warm and helpful staff. I'd love to do this one all over again. This was my fourth time with Tripsite and I really appreciated all their help choosing a great trip. Thanks!

Some issues with our room. We booked a room with two twin beds. We got a room with a double bed and bunk beds. The double bed broke the first night. It actually came apart because a brace had fallen off. Our phone charger was broken while trying to fix the bed. Our door lock malfunctioned locking us out of our room for two hours, and was difficult to use the rest of the trip. We asked for the phone charger to be replaced, but never got an answer.

Wow! Last year we did a bike and barge; Koblenz to Saarburg on the Patria and loved it. This tour on the MV Story was even better. Boat was a bit more upscale, food and service was better; and the biking along the Danube was beautiful. The City visits were very good.
The hotel Manager on the boat, Paval, was tremendous. And under his leadership the rest of the staff was also very, very good.
My wife rented an E Bike which was well worth the money. The 21 speed I got was also very nice for a comfort bike.
The other guests were also great!

What I didn't like was the fact that the ships organisers would have known that the Water levels in the Danube would not be sufficient for the boat to moor in Budapest long before they told us. I feel that we weren't told as it would have put in jeopardy people attending the trip.

Otherwise everything else exceeded my expectations. The only staff member who could have done better was the guy in charge of the bike courses.

Guide stopped to much for cappuccino, kept us bunched up, which was unsafe, had a sick person that should of been hospitalized. Want more milage not museums.

Good job in organizing the trip. The only suggestion I would have is for the route organizers to take construction projects into account when giving the directions . We encountered 2 cases which made us deviate from the stated route. One of which go us quite turned around.

In any case it ultimately added to the adventure.

It was everything we expected and more! Beautiful scenery, made great new friends, attentive staff, fantastic meals and wonderful weather. Our first experience, fantastic! We shall return!

Not my favorite part of France. 6th bike tour there and the least scenic and inviting.

We were overall extremely pleased with our trip! The only downsound was the infestation of bedbugs... The staff had bites and my husband I had bites as well. The staff took this very seriously and called a Pest Control Company ...they had their rooms treated and ended up treating our room as well. We ended up having to treat our luggage and all personal items upon our return home to Canada.. To make sure we didn't bring any into our home.....Which was quite a chore and inconvenience.

Other than this, it was an awesome time.

wonderful tour around the Constance perfect roads visited Switzerland, Austria and Germany perfect organizing and extremely caring team despite that we made the booking at the very last minute.
Hazem Zayed

This is an awesome bike tour, great work.

“Self-Guided Bike Tour Porto to Santiago de Compostela - 6 days cycling”

Sergio and his team did themselves proud - congratulations. This is a bike tour with a difference....from the excellent personal service, to the included walking tour of Porto, to the interesting and varied ride, to the high standard of the hotels especially the absolute gem Torre de Rio at the end of day 5.
The ride for the most part follows the Portuguese Caminho way, so is not always smooth and easy, but this is to be expected by its very nature, and adds to the challenge.
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and unreservedly recommend it to all enthusiastic cyclists.

Visited June 2015

I really enjoyed the bike/boat tour on the Rhine. Accommodations on the boat were very good and the meals were excellent. On our arrival we found that our boat was not at the dock as listed but had changed locations and was on the other side of the river. This created a longer taxi drive thus a much bigger fare (54 euros instead of 21 euros) for the 3 of us in each taxi. We had a briefing each morning by our tour guide and on almost every day, the directions were not detailed enough. One of the people we biked with had a GPS and with that and along with discussions among all of us, we managed to find our way back. I really feel this was a big gap and should be rectified before another tour. However it was a wonderful experience and we met many lovely and
interesting people. I would love to do a different bike/boat tour at some time in the future.

This was our 13th Tripsite Tour and as always, it was exceptional. The bike route was well marked, the bikes were new and well serviced and the Hotels were excellent. It was a very interesting ride. Thanks to Hennie and Carla for recommending the Tour.
Al and Sue

First of all, let me be clear that we were very satisfied with the Tour. All in all, we would rate it a 9 out of 10. These are the reasons we couldn’t give it a perfect 10.
1. Here is the quote from the tour operator after we asked for the directions in advance: “Tell to clients that they don’t worry, the welcome meeting will be on Saturday p.m. and they will have all the time to study the route before they leave, the day after in the morning.” We did have the welcome meeting but it was a bit rushed and we really didn’t have time to ask questions. We were warned not to be late and arrived on time. They indicated that there was not enough time that evening.
2. We did not get our bikes at the welcome meeting. One Ebike had not yet returned on Saturday afternoon. We were told to return in the morning but not before 9:30 AM. When we arrived, we felt rushed and really didn’t have time to test the bikes. Mine (Ed) was a bit wobbly but I was told that there was nothing wrong. I did get used to it as we went along but my complaint was valid, further verified when I returned home to my own steady bike.
3. All of the bikes had problems with how they shifted and how they meshed with the electric function. Maybe it was our lack of familiarity with the Ebike but we really didn’t have time Sunday morning to ask questions.
4. We never got an explanation on how to engage all of the 27 gears, only could use nine. We were told that they shifted automatically and “don’t worry about it”. The automatic shift stopped working on two bikes after the second day.
5. The directions were very confusing and hard to follow. Last year we had the “E’s” to follow but this year nothing but the somewhat confusing directions.

What a delight! A unique itinerary that was wonderfully planned. Cozy hotels, great food, good support and awesome scenery of course - an experience we will never forget. Thanks, Tripsite! We are already dreaming about our next cycling adventure!

Did this trip late August 2015. It is my third bike/boat trip with Tripsite and they are not kidding when they call it spectacular! The views are incredible. The boat was beautiful and the crew took such excellent care of us. I loved all the different Adriatic towns with their history and ancient buildings. The cycling was great and guides were friendly and helpful. I especially loved it when the boat would pull into a cove for a swim break. Thanks for another great experience!

beautiful scenery, great food. great biking mates. captain hilarious.
Osisej needs work. No AC, bathroom has black mold, shower is a low pressure hand held sprayer, guide reluctant to give info re how far/steepness. did give generic overview.
stops indiscriminately, then mid/late PM lunch. From previous trips self guided more enjoyable for us. european group had a detailed summary with kilometers etc. not available in English???
Docking inadequate steps or plank for getting on or off Bikes Okay needed a proper stem to stern maintenance.

Trip was great fun and as promised. I recommend this bike ride. We road in September and it was a little warm so I recommend an early start to enjoy all the sights along the way .

This Paris Tour exceeded our high expectations. Highlights included a madcap ride through Paris stopping at Notre Dame and the Eiffel tower and visiting Auvers with the Van Gogh sights. Professional multilingual staff, experienced tour guide and wonderful accommodating cook made us welcome. We quickly became friends with the other 14 riders who were all fun adventurous travelers. The bikes were sturdy and well designed for the changing terrain of cobblestones, gravel. dirt pack through forests, city streets and local roads. Bring layers of lightweight clothes for changing weather and bike shorts or liners for riding comfort. The ride could be challenging for inexperienced riders so it is helpful to do training of rides to 15-20 miles in preparation.Cabins are small in this canal boat but adequate especially at this price point. We loved it and look forward to our next bike barge tour.

I give this tour the highest possible recommendation! I have never been to Europe, and this was the best way to get introduced. Of course, Paris was fabulous! I enjoyed even more the time cycling in the countryside along the rivers and through the small towns. The crew on the boat was outstanding, professionally competent in their duties as well as friendly and intent on taking care of our every need. The cycling was relatively easy for the people who cycle regularly, but not too hard for novices. We rode on a wide variety of surfaces from pavement to gravel to dirt. The terrain was mostly flat. The bikes we rode were sturdy Dutch hybrids which were perfect for the task. Beautiful scenery, exercise, great food, many new friends! All this for a very low cost. Don't miss this tour!