Reviews

It was a great trip on the boat . It was our first time doing a bike tour and we loved it .
The food was delicious – Edith was a great as our guide and the person to explain things every evening . The e-bike was a blessing. The boat was comfortable and the staff friendly .

I would do another bike tour with your company again !

Breakfast great lunches great. Dinners could have been tastier although fresh salads were great.
Time on the boat, places to seat, tour guide was very good.
As someone who never used the knoop system the first day of explanation was very confusing….. after a couple of days of using it was very useful and easy to use. Thank you

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.

Our Boat Bike Tour through the Netherlands and Belgium was fantastic and exceeded my expectations. The crew of the Magnifique II were professional, skilled, and accommodating, as well as being very friendly and fun. Chef Michael’s meals were delicious. Our tour guides, Els and Gabi, provided lots of information on the history and culture of the region, interjecting humorous stories and recommendations for Belgian bars and restaurants. I highly recommend the trip! The ‘floating hotel’ is a great way to visit many locations without the need to check-in and check-out at each stop, and biking is an intimate way to tour the scenic countryside and towns.

Well-organized, lovely accommodations, outstanding food, and excellent guides.

Our bike tour from Bruges to Amsterdam was excellent. The guides and staff on the boat provided top notch service – we couldn’t have asked for more. The food was excellent. My husband is a picky eater and sometimes the meals were too fancy for him. I highly recommend this company.

The biking part was very good but the routes were not updated when biking to Amsterdam. Major route was in repair for weeks. We had to figure a way back on track. Took us many km out of our way. This type of thing should be known and the route updated. The boat was nice but food was not as expected (i.e. frozen mixed veggies, items titles were misleading like “souffle” was a frozen puff pastry, etc.). Food was fine but I expected much nice based on the write up. No free coffee or tea with dinner. You had to pay 3 or 4 euro for a coffee. That was no expected. No service whatsoever on the deck of the boat. Customer service was poor. Attitude of the bartender and the ship manager left a lot to be desired. Our bike guide Ludwig was very good. He was easy to contact when issues on the bike paths arose. He was very knowledgeable.

The trip was great. The food was very good, the ship staff were wonderful and the routes were pretty.
The downside was a bad experience with a guide and after a crash.

One guide did not want to use radios to communicate with the sweep. This caused issues when some people near the end of our group missed a turn in the chaos coming out of Ghent. Fortunately the sweep noticed it and chased them down but had no way to notify the guide and it took some time for everyone to get back together.
One of our traveling group had a bad crash and the sweep had no way to let the guide know who was a ways out front. After several minutes he finally came back and called an ambulance. The person in the crash and her husband left in the ambulance with no support from Boat Bike Tours. I had to work with the ship captain to figure out where they could try to get an Uber and meet up with the ship after the injuries were addressed. They still had trouble getting to the meet point with the ship a couple of hours later and thankfully a Dutch citizen bailed them out and drove them to the meet point the captain had given me. VERY DISAPPOINTING THAT BOAT BIKE TOURS LEFT THEM ON THEIR OWN IN A RURAL AREA IN THE NETHERLANDS.

Be aware that if you have a crash you may be on your own.

UPDATE: Boat Bike Tours responded to my review and indicated they will meet with the guide involved and reinforce their requirements for guides. They indicated the guide may not necessarily go with a party in the ambulance but is supposed to stay in contact with them and help the injured passenger get back to the ship.
Hopefully their follow through and corrections will prevent these situations happening in the future.

I also forgot to mention in the initial review that this was our fourth trip with Boat Bike Tours and the first time we have had any issues. We will be back again.

Day one: Those of us who paid for a guide were terribly disappointed. She was unorganized and appeared to be unfamiliar with the GPS system provided to her by your company. She therefore was lost, along with those she was guiding, for a better part of the day resulting in us having to cycle 90 km over 7.5 hours, with limited rest breaks and stops at points of interest. Of the 10 ebikes, 8 ran out of battery power. I gave up my ebike to another rider because she was exhausted and said she could no longer cycle unassisted. Early in the day a rider fell off her bike and scraped herself pretty good. The guide was so far out in front of our group she had to be found by another rider and told about the incident. She did not appear to have a first aid kit. Kind bystanders provided the disinfectant and cleaning material for the wound. Our guide continued to cycle too far out in front of the group. I was the sweep for the day and assisted and made sure the riders were okay to continue seven times. There was no assistance from the guide crossing major roadways. The second tour guide was no where to be seen throughout our ride.
Day 2: our guided group disembarked the boat and we’re ready to go when it was discovered that one of the ebikes had not been charged overnight. The guide admitted this was an oversight and should not have happened. He went back to the boat for another battery but the boat had left the dock. The client who needed the battery was quite short and because of this she had a bike that a battery could not be swapped out and she could not safely ride any of the other bikes that other riders had ordered her. She agreed to try to cycle manually so the second guide stayed with her for the day. I was the sweep again. Because of the extended delay sorting out this matter, three riders left the group to go on their own. We were delayed by almost an hour which meant shorter stops with only one stop at a point of interest in order to get back to the boat in time.
Day 3: At last night’s briefing we we informed that some of the locks were closed for repairs and that the boat was going to be navigating a different route. This would result in increasing today’s ride to 70 km. High winds and thunderstorms were forecast. Many clients with ebikes were concerned that we would run out of battery power again. Those without ebikes were reluctant to bike that far. It was strongly suggested by our guides that we should stay on the boat for the day. Only 5 clients of 38 biked today.
Day4,5,6 were okay but limited stops at points of interest. The last day the second guide cycled on his own for the day.

Nina and Hester were the greatest tour guides and made the biking a very fun experience. Would highly recommend BoatBikeTours for anyone wanting to see more of the country a d cycling is a fantastic way to do it. All staff were very friendly and helpful from the chef to servers.