Reviews

Great biking routes through beautiful German villages and vineyards!

Really good

My husband and I were on a Croatia trip with two friends. We booked the tour through Giro Libero but the tour was operated by Boat Bike Tours. We were pleased with the ship—large cabins all things considered, nice common space, clean. The crew was excellent.

But… the tour leaders failed miserably on safety. We arrived after the introductory session because it took us a long time to find the boat in the very large harbor. We had not been provided with the exact location. When we did make it on board we were told we didn’t need to bother with the on board safety info because we wouldn’t need it! I think that’s actually not legal. On the bike rides, the cyclists were asked to serve as route guides when we were making a turn, because the lead guide was in front and the other guide was in back. That system failed twice, resulting in half of the group going the wrong way. As a result, the sweep guide, the one in the back, deserted their sweeping post and rushed off without informing the cyclists in the back about what they were doing. If something had happened to the cyclists in back during this time, they would have been out of luck as there was nobody behind them to help.

After the trip I was on the phone with Boat Bike Tours for a total of over 2 hours. They agreed that the situation we had been in was untenable, thanked me for spending the time to educate them about the situation and said they would arrange a partial reimbursement. Instead, they got back in touch saying that we needed to ask Giro Libero for the refund, even though Giro Libero had absolutely nothing to do with the operation of the tour. Needless to say, Giro Libero was not forthcoming with a reimbursement offer.

Given promises made and broken, poor communication and poor guiding, I would absolutely not recommend a bike tour with Boat Bike Tour. Initially, I thought that they took my concerns seriously, but obviously that wasn’t the case.

I would give them a better rating for the ship, meals and city tours, but figure that people read the best ratings and the worst when looking at future travel and want to make sure that future customers are aware of the safety concerns.

Getting out each day on bike, rain or shine, was a terrific way to see Scotland! In the evenings on the boat, spending time with new friends, was awesome! 😎 The food was definitely something to write home about!

All staff did a wonderful job & understand how to deliver superb customer service. Meals ranged from great to just okay. Our room was much too small for two normal sized humans, which made it uncomfortable for anything other than sleeping – a flaw that cost BBT one-star. Touring guides were terrific & did a fabulous job, even in challenging circumstances! Miscommunications between BBT & a last-minute replacement guide caused an unnecessarily and uncomfortable long Day 1 bike ride – 35 miles (56 km) was planned; reality was 52 miles (84 km), which was truly dangerous for a mostly senior crowd. Thus, fatigue caused numerous, easily avoidable scraps & bruises for a few less fit travelers. That helped us understand, clearly, that we were on an “Adventure”, disguised as a biking tour. The physical pain of the day eventually subsided (no joke, it was rough) and each subsequent day was better & better. Truly enjoyed it all, even Day 1, and being with a diverse worldwide mix of other “bike-minded” travelers was a pleasure. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still a wonderful trip and fairly priced. Highly recommended. We had a unique and terrific “adventure” & look forward to experiencing more of the same.

Staff tried very hard to meet our restricted dietary requirements.

Overall, the tour was good. I was disappointed that we didn’t ride through any vineyards, especially with the fact that we were initially supposed to ride to Champagne. I understand that a tunnel collapsing creates problems, but my disappointment is real. I didn’t enjoy one of the guides, as he seemed to not know where he was going several times, and not be able to hear or listen to feedback regarding the route. Yes, things happen, but when you don’t pay attention to the fact that you’ve been on the same road, and you’re going the same way twice, it doesn’t engender trust in you. I also did not appreciate being yelled at, and being told that I didn’t know what I was doing, when I fully knew what I was doing (I waited at the edge of the road when Joan went ahead and out of sight of our entire group when they got stuck at a light). I have been on-ride support for rides of 3,000, and know how to ride in and with traffic.
Both my husband and I wish we’d ridden on our own, but it wasn’t until Marcel and I chatted that we were able to share the routes, to be able to know that I could navigate alone.
I am up for doing another cruise like this, but we would definitely ride alone. The guides did not add as much value as I believed they would, in particular Joan.
Regarding the bikes: The seats were very uncomfortable and the inflexibility of not being able to add our own seats or pedals was frustrating.
The food and service on the boat was delightful and I enjoyed the crew and service. The rooms were very small, supplied with the right amount of electricity and the adapter was a nice touch.

The Trip seemed to have communication problems between the Captain and guides. Also communication to us, the passengers. We were not told ahead of time that we would need to pay for a wine tasting tour ahead of time. It was the second one in Luxembourg. Cabins were clean and tidy. All staff were friendly with the passengers.

The crew were fabulous! An all-round great experience. A genuinely unique and memorable holiday. The passengers were a diverse group of nationalities and all really lovely and friendly. The dinner was a high quality restaurant experience every day. One member of our party is gluten free and the Chef catered for this excellently, thoughtfully and with no drama. The cycling was genteel with plenty of opportunities to visit museums and have cafe stops. We even found time to have a swim in the sea. The Netherlands is a very different cycling experience from the UK and we really enjoyed this. We were able to cycle to the boat via the Newcastle-Amsterdam ferry and would recommend this for UK tourists who would like to take their own bikes.

I loved the food, the cleaning staff and the people unloading the bikes. The rooms were great as were the bikes and the scenery.
What I didn’t like was the lack of information in English of the places we visited and what to expect the next day.