Reviews
ali
I found Boat Bike Tours both professional and very friendly at every stage of our holiday arrangements. This was the first biking holiday we have taken and I contacted a number of companies offering the same Danube cruise before settling on Boat Bike Tours as our holiday provider. On each occasion I rang and spoke to an agent of Boat Bike Tours I found their service very friendly and informative. They carried out the actions they said they would take on my behalf without fail and when I realised I had made an error over the date of our holiday (some months after we had paid the deposit) they were extremely helpful and changed our holiday dates without any fuss or surcharge. I cannot find anything negative to say about them and I am really happy that I chose Boat Bike Tours over other companies and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again – in fact I intend to do so for next Summers holiday.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. It makes us happy to read that you are so satisfied about our service and we're looking forward to welcome you on board again.
Mulliez (France)
Romantica boat is ideal for biking vacations in Dalmatian Islands . But the description on the web site and brochures does not precise enough the biking experience requirements. Several members of our team had hard time to climb the 400 to 700m elevation per day. The guides did not know the route well and could not give precise informations the day before. They had not a detailled map to show the climbing % of the road ( 4 to 10%) . The map provided to us did not show the elevation of the summit of road neither the % of slope. Hopefully E’bikes were proposed but it takes some time to get full benefit of the help.
Thanks for your review. On our new website, we will tell more about the biking requirements. We asked our partner forfeedback, (that's why you had to wait 2 weeks before we answered back to you). You can read their comments here below: Our daily tour maps are simple maps that show the island as an overview with our give path. Because we are with two guides, our maps do not go into high detail. IF guests want to cycle on their own then we offer proper GPS and map equipment. We plan to add the meters of elevation to the maps but it is very difficult on the islands to stay to the same tour every week because of wind and weather. IF we suddenly have to change harbours then the printed information dosnt have any value anymore, therefore we have our briefing after the mealtimes to prepare the guests for the planned tour. With meters of elevation and KMs announced. It all takes place a bit differently when you are making plans on the Adriatic.
Hope
My family and I had a great holiday sail/biking on the Ijselmeer. The crew was fantastic, the food was incredible, and the entire experience was simply wonderful. We will definitely be back!
Many thanks for your positive feedback and we're looking forward to welcome you on board again.
Julie L ( the faste family)
Nous avons utiliser les services de Boat Bike Tours pour notre voyage en famille incluant 4 adultes (dont grand-papa de 76ans) et deux adolescents, Amsterdam-Bruges à vélo. Cette formule fut très agréable par son concept tout inclus, guide, cartes, vélo, sac de vélo, 3 repas par jour … Nous avons beaucoup apprécié la gentillesse, la politesse de l’équipage. Le service était excellent et axé sur notre confort. Le fais de ne pas avoir à transporter nos bagages d’un hôtel à l’autres nous permet d’apprécier notre voyage davantage. Le côté qui serait à améliorer, car personne n’est parfait, serait de varier davantage les petits déjeuner et les possibilités de déjeuner car après 5 jours du même menus… Sinon la nourriture est bonne, fraîche et de qualité. Je recommande se voyage à tous ceux qui aime le vélo et voyager d’une autre façon. Encore merci a l’équipage du Magnifique ainsi qu’à notre guide Caroline pour des souvenirs inoubliable!
Merci beaucoup pour votre mots positive.
Michael Lutz and Swanie Schmidt
The title says it all.
Thanks for your review.
Mike and Gill
Thoroughly enjoyable, next trip booked, more intended.
Thanks for your review.
Steve and Nancy Bender
The crew and Leslie were all great. The boat needs either to be retired or completely renovated. The rooms were way too small, there was minimal storage at best, and the fold down bed was very uncomfortable. I don’t expect a small room to have the amenities of a cruise ship, but these were below average in my opinion. The food was ok, but the portions were very small for the main course. My husband and son-in-law on a few occasions were still hungry following dinner. Budapest was a huge disappointment since this city was the main reason I booked the cruise. I realize it’s no one’s fault that the river levels were very low and that we had to be bussed into Budapest, but the time allotted to visit was therefore cut short and I missed out on a lot of the highlights that I was planning on visiting.
Thanks for your feedback. Sorry to hear you're disappointed about your trip! Regrettably, you couldn’t spend more time in Budapest. We have send your comments forward to the crew and received their reply, which I sent per E-mail to you and also publish here below: 'I want to apologize on behalf of our office, as it looks we had not managed to make your customers happy and satisfied. We are always disappointed when we hear that customers complain about the portion of the menu. It is at the beginning of every tour - at the Welcome Dinner - specifically noted that there is plenty of food available, and each customer can take a second, or third plate. We also ask the guests if they had enough. Each of our service staff is trained to subsequently serving portions in the same, respectable size. The cabin size is communicated on your homepage, as well as in the travel documents, the customer reserved this cabin size and we assumed that the customer had all the information in advance of the booking. The price-performance ratio is adequately adjusted to the cabin size and calculated lower prices would not make it possible for us to carry out the tour at this level. Unfortunately, it often happens that the vessels which sail along the Danube, are compared with ours. Those vessels are luxury liners with bigger cabins available, but the cabin size is out of proportion for our ships. For us the aspect of "Sports - pleasure - Culture" is the most important one. We understand that the customer booked the tour because of the visit in Budapest - this is still the headline of this tour. We can’t control certain external effects, like the weather. The low water level was not foreseeable before our arrival and we acted responsibly here, as we are not retracted to Budapest. The ship's captain - as ruler of the ship - has years of experience and knows when continue driving would(n’t) be useful and smart. Nevertheless, we have tried to allow customers to stay in Budapest and even organized a further bus ride. The safety of our guests absolutely goes before everything. I think it is safe to carry out that the sightseeing tour in Budapest would have ‘fallen in the water’ without the busses. Please, let the customers know that we have tried to organize the best stay possible in Budapest. It works like a chain. Without all the services and service providers it wouldn’t have been possible to organize the trip to Budapest. I hope you can explain our opinion and our approach to the customers and I hope that the customer will continue to remain loyal to you as "Radler Guest".'
GP
We did Amsterdam-Bruges on the Magnifique in July. Wonderful trip! The crew was great (professional and competent), food was good, bar prices quite reasonable, our cabin pleasant, small bathroom surprisingly nice, our guide Tom was great, rental bikes were very comfortable. Loved being able to unpack on day 1 and settle in for the week. In the morning, all we had to do was get dressed, eat breakfast, pack our lunch, clip the bike bag (provided) onto the bike (with lunch, water, rain gear, snacks), and roll out at a civilized hour, usually about 0900. The daily rides were about right for us and we enjoyed them. Ride for awhile, coffee break at a local establishment, ride for awhile, stop for lunch, ride for awhile, stop for afternoon break, ride to the barge. You can ride with the group following the guide or ride on your own using the maps provided. The first ride seemed rather like a herd of cats and we wondered if we would prefer to ride on our own, but we ultimately decided to benefit from the knowledge of our terrific guide and stayed with the group–everyone sort of settled into where they liked to be in the group and the riding went smoothly after the first part of that first day. Upon our return to the barge there was coffee and cake or a drink from the bar, a hot shower, and a nice dinner. Most evenings provided an opportunity to take a walk as well. The barge sailings were also interesting–Dutch and Belgian countryside, the enormous port of Antwerp, several locks, and more. The itinerary featured well-known locations as well as a lot of small, off-the-beaten path places you’ve never heard of and lots of kilometers through Dutch and Belgian countryside. We also enjoyed our traveling companions, who came from the US, Canada, the UK, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Brazil. Everything was pretty much as advertised. Our only complaint was that our cabin was usually a little warmer than we would have preferred; it did eventually cool down more after an adjustment to our air conditioner. We should have asked sooner than we did. Overall a great trip, good value, we’re looking forward to doing another Boat Bike Tour
Thanks for your review. Just feel free to contact us for more information about a next trip. We would like to inform you about our programm.
Preben Bensen
Bicycle guide Felix and Captain Hans with crew onboard Gandalf gave us a memorable summer vacation! If possible, bring your own bikes, although the rental bikes onboard seemed allrigth, but you know your own better :-) Birte & Preben Bensen, Denmark
Many thanks for your positive feedback and for your kind words regarding the crew.
Jacqueline Richardson
Excellent trip. A great way to see a new country from the back of a bike and of course about the easiest cycling you can get – nice and flat apart from the bridges over the many canals. Great to be based on a boat and not have to keep packing and unpacking. The cabin was comfy and the crew were great fun and friendly. The food was more than adequate – plentiful breakfast from which you made up your own pack-up for lunch. The 3-course evening meal was also good (not cordon bleu of course) – amazing what came out of that tiny galley. Only niggle – a bit of an issue with the gears on the bikes but nothing major but meant I had to walk up the one and only hill (slope really).
Many thanks for your positive feedback and for your kind words regarding the crew. Your comment about the bikes we will check with the ship and the bike supplier.
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