Reviews

good but could be better

We had an absolute blast! The 3 bike guides were very knowledgeable about the routes (you’d be surprised how many there are in the Netherlands and Belgium) and all the sites in the towns, plus comfortably friendly. It was beautiful, biking thru farmland with dairy cows, sheep and lots and lots of potatoes growing. Also thru neighborhoods that were a mix of the very old architecture (17th century) with the very contemporary. Also, these two countries are FLAT, which is important when you’re biking 20-30 miles each day. The barge was great–rooms nautically efficient and bathrooms clean and contemporary. We had a very good mix of people from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Germany. Note: bring raingear, with opening vents for biking. It only rained the first day, but it was a doozie. Would totally do it again!

Pros and Cons: Pros: Great crew–friendly, attentive, helpful; Ship in good condition and clean; bikes in good condition & my wife loved her E-bike. Cons: wine available for purchase on board was at best mediocre & fairly expensive. You can buy much better wine at chateaus or wine stores during trip for considerably less & at least partially offsetting the $12 corkage fee. also, the company could do a much better job at coordinating chateau visits with daily rides. I thought countryside was pretty, but not enchanting as are other vineyard bike tours (Sonoma for example)

I expected much better wine for $30 dollars a bottle. Outrageous, and no lower priced option was available. Buying wine off of the boat was not much better given the $12 corkage fee charged. One of the nightly featured wines was so dry as to almost catch fire. Undrinkable. We traveled with two other couples and all of us share the same opinion. The token system, in a way, disguised somewhat the REAL wine expense. On a positive note, all of the staff were wonderful and the biking tour information and equipment were top rate.

Knowledgeable staff provide a great product in a great format. Bike was great.Boat had some issues that detracted from experience. Boat staffIing / experience appeared a little thin especially at beginning and caused stress on them which carried over to some guests.

Staff and ship were very nice. Dinner portions were a bit small and lunch on board not very good.

Wonderful experience. Would do it again and would definitely recommend to friends.

We had a wonderful trip aboard the Gandalf barge and a fantastic Hanseatic bike tour. The captain, Hans was amazing as was his crew. Terrific food and service. Our bike guide Meindert was the best- engaging, knowledgeable and did a great job leading the tour group.

Everything was wonderful! The crew, the guides, the accommodations and food all exceeded our expectations. We loved it!

The de Holland is lovely and freshly renovated. The staff are friendly and go out of their way to please. The food was wonderful, exceeding our expectations. The cycling was also beyond our expectations, with great routes and maps. Margerite was a very good guide, but the unexpected bonus was having Fred along as a guest. He was very kind to accompany the English speaking group on his own holiday, and is an outstanding guide.