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Every spring, the Dutch countryside transforms into a landscape of color: endless tulip fields stretching across the horizon in vibrant shades of red, yellow, pink, and purple. It’s one of Europe’s most iconic seasonal experiences, drawing travelers from around the world.  In fact, our most popular Boat and Bike Tour routes are the springtime ones that center around seeing the tulips. But where should you go to experience the tulips at their very best? From world-famous gardens to quiet coastal routes, here are some of the most beautiful places to…

In our latest Boat Bike Tours podcast episode, host Ennie sits down with tour leader Mieke van der Werk to talk about something you can’t put in a brochure: atmosphere. Not the route, not the ship and not even the food. But that feeling when a group of strangers slowly becomes something like a little floating community. And when you listen to Mieke, you understand exactly why that happens. Mieke didn’t plan to become a tour leader. She was working as a chef on board a ship, preparing meals while…

It rarely takes long for the atmosphere to shift on a boutique ship. The first evening still carries that quiet anticipation that belongs to the start of any journey: luggage being unpacked, glasses clinking softly in the lounge, conversations beginning with the usual “Where are you from?” But with no more than 20–24 guests on board, introductions do not remain surface-level for long. By the next morning, faces are familiar. By the second breakfast, you call each other by name. “I make it a sport to know everyone’s name by…

Guests on Boat Bike Tours can be solo travelers, couples, groups of friends, or family groups. Our colleague Coen took our Northern Holland tour, bringing along his mother and his son: a multi-generational group spending some quality time together. Read on to find out how it went! My mother Reina, my son Abel and I – three generations together – made a very special journey in April: the Northern Holland Tour with Boat Bike Tours. We boarded the Willemstad for a week filled with cycling, sailing, and discovering the beauty…

This travel story was written by Judith from our Marketing team. Over the years, she has taken several Boat Bike Tours together with her husband and their three children, experiencing firsthand how active travel by bike and boat can work for families. This particular trip, however, was different. Offered by Islandhopping, a brand of Boat Bike Tours, it combined cycling with swimming, sailing, and special activities, and turned out to be a rare experience that genuinely made every member of her family happy, each in their own way. Here’s Judith’s…

When you spend fifteen years guiding bike and boat tours through the Netherlands and Belgium, you collect more than route knowledge. You collect people. Stories. Moments that stay with you long after the ship has docked and the bikes are back on board. That’s exactly what this episode of the Boat Bike Tours podcast is about. Host Ennie sat down with Sjak Lagarde, one of our most experienced tour leaders, to talk about life on tour: the joyful, the unexpected, and sometimes the challenging moments that shape a week on…

In October 2024, our colleague Ennie experienced the Central Greek Aegean Tour, together with two fellow Boat Bike Tours colleagues. They traveled from Amsterdam to Bodrum, Turkey, where they met up with Reini from our US office, a Customer Care and Travel Advisor specialist. What followed was a week of sailing and cycling across the Aegean, filled with sun, sea, island landscapes, and shared moments on board. Below is Ennie’s journey, day by day.   Day 1: Arriving in Bodrum Even though it was October, it felt like summer as…

Spring in the Netherlands has a way of unlocking something magical. The gray of winter fades, the countryside awakens, and color returns with a flourish, carried on the scent of hyacinths, fresh grass, and damp earth. There’s no better way to experience that winter-to-spring transformation than in the Netherlands on an 8-day Tulip Tour. Expect flowers, friendships, and cycling through postcard-perfect landscapes, with the ship Flora as your home base. Written by Michael, visual creator at Boat Bike Tours, this travelogue captures the 8-day Tulip Tour from the inside. He…

North of Sicily, in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea, lie the Aeolian Islands. Of volcanic origin, each has its own unique character: from rugged and charred to green and gently rolling. Vlogger Jessica de Korte boarded a converted wooden fishing boat with a Sicilian family as crew, electric bikes on deck, and a week of adventure ahead. Text and images: Jessica de Korte Stromboli: A first encounter with fire “Wow, lava!” a fellow passenger exclaims enthusiastically as the molten rock shoots into the air. The mountain roars, as if…

Many of our Boat Bike Tours include stops at UNESCO World Heritage sites along the way. Rachel, a self-described “UNESCO site geek” who works for us from time to time as a copy editor, wrote this blog post telling about her favorite ones: Did you know there are a total of 1248 UNESCO World Heritage sites? They are either nature reserves, historical sites or “cultural landscapes.” They can be well-known or places you’ve never even heard of. A place makes the UNESCO list not because it’s a good place to…