Reviews

We had a fun group of people, including the bike guide and the ship crew. We also were able to see a lot of interesting things on this bike tour.

Our itinerary was completely changed without any input from the tour members. This lead to cycling to areas vastly different from what we were expecting.

Ron was an excellent guide. We learned so much about the history and culture. Biking through the country was incredible. We loved the bread and cheese.

The “Green Heart of Holland” itinerary gave us a nice introduction to northwestern Netherlands, full of interesting sites and gorgeous landscapes. Our Dutch guide, Patrick, was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and patient with our large group of Germans, Americans, and Canadians. He had to be flexible and creative due to weather and other changing conditions. The crew was friendly and helpful, and Hans’s dinners were wonderful. The boat is basically furnished and cozy; it all made for a wonderful trip.

I really enjoyed our tour guide and crew. Frans was great at adjusting our bike route for parades, traffic, weather or seeing something interesting. The suggestions of what to bring for the tour were very good but I would suggest adding roughly how much time would be spent biking. We spent about 4-5 hours biking per day with about 3 or 4 stops.

An amazing tour combining so many different things. The captain and crew on board Sarah were charming and went out of their way to help. The tour guide, Frans, was very knowledgeable and patient and set a steady pace. He guided us through busy cities such as The Hague and Amsterdam and showed us the beautiful smaller towns such as Delft and Gouda, pointing out all the points of interest. We visited interesting museums, such as the windmills, the Delft pottery and an old typical Dutch village. Another major highlight was a tour of the largest flower auction in the world. Even my apprehensive non gardening husband enjoyed the experience!

The whole combination of living on a barge and cycling thru the Heart of Holland was fun. Food was OK and bikes were high quality. Scenery most days was green and interesting as was learning about Dutch history.

We were greeted with a very warm welcome by the crew when we first boarded. The whole crew on the Gandalf were very professional, helpful, polite, and friendly. The kitchen staff bent over backwards to cook to our special needs. We so much appreciate their willingness to do this. We had a very good experience on this trip and enjoyed all of the biking, coffee stops, and city tours. One suggestion I have is to perhaps include more special stops like at a cheese factory, or an artist’s display, or a farm. I would have enjoyed more stops like this than lots of coffee house stops. Yes, there was the Delft pottery, which was great. It would have been special to have seen an actual cheese factory in Gouda. Another suggestion is to make sure all of the porthole windows have screens or meshes covering them. This is my only complaint. In the middle of the week when it was warmer than usual, we had both the bathroom window and the bedroom windows open. There were 2 nights in a row where I woke up in the middle of the night violently scratching myself. I had about 50 bites on my legs, ankles, feet, arms, and shoulders. At first I wondered if there were bed bugs as I did not see any mosquitoes. I pulled the sheets back and did not see any bed bugs. I had to conclude that it had to be mosquitoes and we did start seeing them after that. I was very miserable with all of those bites. I did talk to the captain about this and he said that they had removed the screens/mesh to pass something through the porthole windows and had not replaced the screens. I strongly urge the captain to cover the porthole windows back up with screens for the next vulnerable occupants.

Friendly and helpful staff, excellent wholesome meals and smooth organisation made this tour a great experience and an enjoyable holiday. Bruce & Cheryl (from Australia)

Very nice crew, from captain to guide and kitchen. Lovely food, helpful and easy interaction. Good maps, good roads and nice scenery. The best holiday ever!