Reviews

People! People! People. The crew were fabulous, efficient and effective. The guides, brilliant. They were well informed and made a huge effort to ensure every guest had a wonderful experience. The Zwaantje was a lovely vessel, comfortable and well equipped.

All our needs were met, and beyond. From great meals to a comfortable room, and friendly and helpful staff who truly seem to love what they do, it was an amazing trip. Tour guides very knowledgable about the history of the countries we toured, and encouraged us to embrace the culture.

It was a great mix of culture and biking. Well thought out and executed.

Overall, it was an excellent trip and we’ll be doing another one in the future for sure but adults only! For context, we are in our late 50’s. There were many positives but one major drawback. Accommodations: We booked a standard cabin that was below the main deck. Beds were firm, body wash/shampoo, conditioner and a hairdryer were provided. There is small closet to store clothing in. NOTE: the closet is not big enough to store checked luggage – my husband’s soft sided suitcase fit under the raised bed, but my hard sided one did not. The Boat – Manifique IV: The boat was very nicely appointed – great space outside and inside to enjoy the trip and views and a hot tub on the upper deck. The Bikes: The bikes were standard touring bikes. We found the bikes to be quite heavy (both e-bikes and regular ones) as compared to our road bikes or hybrid bikes at home. All the bikes had a cell phone holder on them and a pannier to store your lunch/jacket/ sunscreen/water bottle. There are no water bottle holders on the bikes. The boat was staffed by the captain, two sailors, a chef, the two tour guides, and two ‘we do it all’ hosts! All of the staff were wonderful! Everyone was warm, welcoming, fun and accommodating. You have a lot of interaction with all of the staff. Our boat was staffed by Captain Michael, hosts Mieke & Shay, Sailors Marchy & Julius, Chef Jules and Chef Michel (Jules left the boat after 3 days and was replaced by Michel) and tour guides Corrine and Esther. Esther and Corrine were the best tour guides you could ever ask for! Each spoke English, Dutch and German and were happy, smiling, engaged tour guides. At each of our stops along the way, they dispensed interesting facts and historical information about the area. They were safe and made you feel comfortable asking for stops as you needed them (water breaks, photo ops). Mieke and Shay were great fun to interact with, very accommodating and worked from sun up to sun down! The food was excellent – great variety and quality. We had halibut, salmon, steak, Asian, and BBQ! The intinerary had wonderful variety each day – countryside, small towns, cities – something for everyone. CAUTION: The only real disappointment on this trip was the volume of children that were on the boat. It NEVER occurred to us that there would be children on a ‘luxury’ boat and bike tour and unfortunately, 12 of the 35 guests were children ranging in age from 11 to 17. Four of the kids were the most polite, well-behaved kids I have ever met. Eight of the kids were the most entitled, ignorant, self-absorbed kids I had ever met as were their absentee parents. We assumed that guests would generally be between the ages of 40 – 80. This dynamic completely changed the tone of the trip. In the first two days, kids were running around the boat (despite being told not to by the staff), slamming doors, etc., well into the evening. If they were the first down for breakfast (you waited upstairs until you were called for breakfast), they ravaged the buffet, put their hands into communal food dishes instead of using the utensils provided, and were disrespectful to the staff. They did the same with the après ride food. They monopolized the hot tub (adults couldn’t get anywhere near it) and never left the hot tub to use a toilet…need I say more? They disregarded the ‘rules of the road’ when on the bikes and were, I suspect a nightmare for the poor guides at times. Though staff repeatedly reminded everyone of some common courtesies, it fell on deaf ears. Several guests took it upon themselves to school the kids in basic manners since the parents were completely out to lunch. This tour company should have ‘adults only’ options available. There were so many good things about this tour, but I wouldn’t book another one with this company unless it was adults only. There are many, many cycling tour options available and there are likely operators who have adults only options.

First time sailing / biking in the Croatia islands. This is our second Boat Bike Tour. We were sailing on the “Kvarner Bay and Islands” tour on the Andela Lora ship. Late July 2024. Technically, apparently this was an “IslandHopping” tour, which Boat Bike Tours recently acquired… The ship is a nicer larger ship — 17 cabins and up to 34 people. In late July, this cruise was only half full — 4 English speaking couples – 3 German speaking couples and a local Croatian couple. Turns out this time of year is pretty warm so not as popular perhaps for boating / biking. If we had had all 17 cabins filled, that would’ve been a bit more crowded on the ship. The rooms on the ship struggled to keep cool during the day and at night with the room A/C units — so some degree of difficulty to fall asleep. Not awful, but definitely notice’able. The ship crew was friendly, albeit most did not speak with the passengers much. The waiter for each day was also friendly and talked with us – but seemed more “alone” on the ship. Interesting interactions. The two bike tour guides were super funny and approach’able. All of the days announcements were done in the two languages – English and German – which of course wasn’t a big deal at all – but there were definitely “two separate groups” on the ship. The meals on the ship were good – served either buffet style or family style. The bar was “ok” — limited space on the ship / bar area so we often would purchase personal drinks on shore (silly things like ice tea or coke zero…). Wine was available on the ship for purchase and was good to have at dinner each night. The Adriatic Sea was amazing — crystal clear and not cold at all. Many days ended with a swim off the back of the boat to cool off and relax. I wish they had told us to bring easy small floatation devices so we could float around longer. The bike tours on the islands were very well selected. Most everyone was using an electric assist bike since many of the islands had some big uphills to navigate. Some of the biking was on roads with cars zooming by, but in general the locals knew how to give the bikers space. The islands themselves were fascinating — with little pockets of towns or beach areas for vacationers. This trip avoided most of the really big cities which was very nice. Sometimes we felt like we were just speeding through the country-side and the islands. There were a number of cool spots along the way which we would have liked to have stopped to learn more about them. Course, the two bike guides did say “stop if you want to stop!”. :- ) All in all, a good tour. We would go back for another different Croatia islands tour in the future.

Segeln, Fahrradfahren, frische Luft, gutes Essen -Alles Bestens Auf dem Schiff würde ich mir noch ein paar Liegestühle oder andere Relaxmöglichkeiten wünschen Das Frühstück auf dem Tisch angerichtet hat uns besonders gut gefallen

Top trip gehad.

(Aug 2024) I just finished the boat-bike trip in Burgundy France. The boat was clean-as-a-whistle. Breakfast was the standard continental fare. Lunch was make-your-own sandwich. But dinners were surprisingly nice. The guides were excellent. The company had to make last minute adjustments to the itinerary and they handled it artfully. Since this was a boat-bike tour (not my first) I assumed we would be traveling on trails next to the river – I was wrong. The bike routes were no where near the river and very hilly. This is the first time I rented an ebike and I’m glad I did.

Fantastic experience. More than just a cycle tour. Amazing staff and a luxury floating hotel.

The boat was very nice with great guides (Ivan and Tony) and a great crew. Istria was gorgeous with many postcard perfect towns along the Adriatic coast. There were many opportunities to swim off the back of the boat. The shuttle that was provided made getting to and from the boat from Zagreb very simple and easy. On the downside, many of the rides were off road and some had serious gravel sections on steep climbs. Several riders fell during the week and many were unhappy with the amount of gravel. Also, other than two walking tours there was little off-boat enrichment that we have experienced on other boat-bike tours.